D&D 4E Why has 4E become the D&D zeitgeist?

Alzrius · Apr 19, 2007

Honestly, why has the concept of D&D Fourth Edition been so thoroughly thrust into the consciousness of the gaming community?

I didn't game during the 1E days, but I highly doubt that they spent their time worrying about 2E before it'd been announced. I was a player in the 2E days, and the playtest groups notwithstanding, 3E wasn't even a thought before it was announced in 1999.

3.5E changed all of that. With the game getting a re-release only three years into its new edition, one that had most of the drawbacks of a new edition of the game but few of the benefits, the gaming community has since seemed to expect Fourth Edition every year since then. People can't seem to talk about the future of the game, or what they think is wrong with it, without saying how they think things will be different in the next edition. Is it that everyone is trying to prepare themselves for the game becoming redundant again, so they aren't caught by the surprise unexpectedly the way 3.5E did?

To be clear, I'm not asking about the pros or cons of 4E; I'm asking why everyone seems to be so obsessed with 4E currently?

S'mon · Apr 19, 2007

I agree, it was 3.5e that did it.

Nifft · Apr 19, 2007

3e was really good (relative to what came before).

3.5e is really good (relative to 3e).

I'm looking forward to 4e. That's why I'm interested.

Cheers, -- N

FreeXenon · Apr 19, 2007

I kind of echo what Nifft said.

If 4E is going to be an equal an improvement and quality as going from 2E to 3E there is a lot to look forward. I am a little bit anxious just thinking about all of new toys and stuff to play with.

blargney the second · Apr 19, 2007

Pervasive low-level anxiety?

*shrug*

jensun · Apr 19, 2007

Alzrius said:
I didn't game during the 1E days, but I highly doubt that they spent their time worrying about 2E before it'd been announced. I was a player in the 2E days, and the playtest groups notwithstanding, 3E wasn't even a thought before it was announced in 1999.

I suspect it was because they didnt have ready access to a communication tool that brought together tens of thousands of gamers from across the world and permitted almost instantaneous discussion 24/7.

Writing letters to Dragon magazine doesnt have quite the same impact and yet I am pretty sure many people did just that.

takasi · Apr 19, 2007

It's not on my mind. At least, not until the next D&D Experience, and even then it won't be on my mind until 2009 probably. I have so much 3.5 material (including Burning Sky btw) to play through that I have very little desire to consider the next big thing at the moment.

BlackMoria · Apr 19, 2007

It's 'car wreck syndrome'. Everyone feels compelled to get a look and gawk. And you talk to others about the car wreck you just saw.

Dragonhelm · Apr 19, 2007

I have to wonder if EN World in general is driving the speculation on. After all, it has a 4e section and it's one of the major RPG news sites out there. Is this a localized phenomenon, or does it permeate the entire industry?

Mark Hope · Apr 19, 2007

It was 3.5 that did it. The sudden appearance of an new edition (or edition upgrade or whatever you want to call it) changed peoples' view of D&D from being a slowing evolving system with new editions every decade or so, to being a system that could be upgraded to a new edition at any time, even overnight or when you just weren't looking!

I do prefer 3.5 to 3.0 (and never bought much 3.0 stuff, having some odd premonition of upgrade shenanigans that I can't explain to this day) but I do think its a shame that it had this effect on gamer consciousness.

To be fair, there were rumblings about 3rd edition back in the late days of 2nd edition (I vaguely recall it being mentioned in an editorial in the late TSR era), but there was never any hint that it was being actually worked on until its release, nor was there a perpetual expectation that it was imminent, about to fall on us along with most of the sky.

I'm sure that there are other factors (the blasted new-fangled interweb being one of them and a general push for New Shiny Goodness from marketing-land) but I'd agree that 3.5 is at the heart of it. A shame, really, and a bit poisonous.