Mercurius
Legend
Very simply put: They're sick of us, the fans - especially the long-time fans. In fact, the longer you've been into D&D the sicker-of-you they are. They are still amicable to the newborn 4ers, especially if you came over from World of Warcraft (then they absolutely adore you, but you're really part of the problem because you're an anomaly and they don't realize it). They tolerate you if you came over with 3.x, although they absolutely despise you if you converted to the Game That Shall Not Be Mentioned (Pathfinder). They don't trust you if you've been into D&D since before 3E, in those old TSR Dayze, and they just plain dislike you, and are a little afraid of you, if you started in the Golden Age of the 80s. Started in the 70s? You're senile and not to be worried about as you're likely playing one of those silly little retro-clones and are under the mistaken impression that there really is an Old School Renaissance and not just a bunch of grognards who happened to recently discover the internet or finally transferred over from Usenet.
You know what? Maybe they're right to be sick of us. What an unruly bunch, always bitching and whining - nothing is ever Right (meaning, how we want it to be). Every single one of us will find something to complain about and, it seems these days, more and more of us are feeling disillusioned as if we lost something precious but we can't remember where it is or even exactly what it was...
Damn, maybe we should all just write our own Fantasy Heartbreakers and leave poor Wizards of the Coast alone to continue in their failed attempt to create a new D&D generation out of today's kids. Most of us have at least sat down with pen-and-paper and thought, I could make a better version of D&D if I just had the time....umm...uhh...I don't have the time...Yeah, that's it.
The thing is, we're really all they have. Today's kids are too jaded with video games and CGI (or ruined, depending upon who you ask). Their imaginations have been filled with garbage imagery from Barney and Sponge Bob to Grand Theft Auto and Avatar. They don't want to "make stuff up" because they don't have to - they can just plug in and turn on. Why pull out a piece of paper and write--with a pencil of all things, as if this was the 20th century--your character down? Aren't the stats supposed to be on the screen? And where's my first-person weapon? Why can't I see it in front of me? All I see is a bunch of over-or-under-weight 30+ year olds sitting around a table laughing and eating snacks and talking about stuff that I can't see or attack with my mouse.
You might be wondering at this point, is he serious or joking? The answer should be obvious: both. It is the painful laughter of someone who realizes that life goes on, that change is inevitable, that change isn't always good change and that wonderful things get lost in the roar and thunder of "progress." Just ask Sitting Bull.
Back to the topic. A reminder, and perhaps warning, to the gentle folks at Wizards of the Coast: You need us! You may gather some new converts along the way; some of these "Gen Text" kids may grow weary of CGI and the feeling of lack that they will experience as they grow up without a developed imagination and realize that Harry Potter is not the height of imaginative literature but fantasy-for-the-masses; at the least, even Big Band Jazz and Model Railroading pick up new converts, even if it is only one or two for every ten or twenty old-timers that die off. Not only will we, the diehard D&D fanbase, continue to love D&D until our dice bags are pried from our cold dead hands, but we will continue to buy your product even if we don't like it. If and when you come out with a 5th edition you are guaranteed a certain number of sales simply by virtue of the fact that each and everyone of us will be curious and even if we don't like the new edition we will love hating it. Heck, even James Maliszewski will probably buy it, if only to lambast on his blog (which I like, btw).
And you know what, WotC? We need you. Most of us don't have the time or energy to write our own Fantasy Heartbreaker. And even if we do it somehow isn't the same, just as self-publishing your novel isn't the same as getting picked up by a Big Publisher (or at least a publisher that isn't Lulu or your friend with the fancy word processor), if only because there is a feeling of being part of something, of community, that we get from playing D&D, from playing the Official Version.
So WotC, you need us and we need you and, in the end, we still love you. But please, don't forget about us, don't deny our existence, don't focus your entire energy on trying to do something that simply can't and won't be done, and most of all, please don't transform D&D from being a pen-and-paper RPG.
And, for the love of some deity or another, please get Bill Slaviscek a PR representative or at least some classes in interpersonal dynamics and communication.
You know what? Maybe they're right to be sick of us. What an unruly bunch, always bitching and whining - nothing is ever Right (meaning, how we want it to be). Every single one of us will find something to complain about and, it seems these days, more and more of us are feeling disillusioned as if we lost something precious but we can't remember where it is or even exactly what it was...
Damn, maybe we should all just write our own Fantasy Heartbreakers and leave poor Wizards of the Coast alone to continue in their failed attempt to create a new D&D generation out of today's kids. Most of us have at least sat down with pen-and-paper and thought, I could make a better version of D&D if I just had the time....umm...uhh...I don't have the time...Yeah, that's it.
The thing is, we're really all they have. Today's kids are too jaded with video games and CGI (or ruined, depending upon who you ask). Their imaginations have been filled with garbage imagery from Barney and Sponge Bob to Grand Theft Auto and Avatar. They don't want to "make stuff up" because they don't have to - they can just plug in and turn on. Why pull out a piece of paper and write--with a pencil of all things, as if this was the 20th century--your character down? Aren't the stats supposed to be on the screen? And where's my first-person weapon? Why can't I see it in front of me? All I see is a bunch of over-or-under-weight 30+ year olds sitting around a table laughing and eating snacks and talking about stuff that I can't see or attack with my mouse.
You might be wondering at this point, is he serious or joking? The answer should be obvious: both. It is the painful laughter of someone who realizes that life goes on, that change is inevitable, that change isn't always good change and that wonderful things get lost in the roar and thunder of "progress." Just ask Sitting Bull.
Back to the topic. A reminder, and perhaps warning, to the gentle folks at Wizards of the Coast: You need us! You may gather some new converts along the way; some of these "Gen Text" kids may grow weary of CGI and the feeling of lack that they will experience as they grow up without a developed imagination and realize that Harry Potter is not the height of imaginative literature but fantasy-for-the-masses; at the least, even Big Band Jazz and Model Railroading pick up new converts, even if it is only one or two for every ten or twenty old-timers that die off. Not only will we, the diehard D&D fanbase, continue to love D&D until our dice bags are pried from our cold dead hands, but we will continue to buy your product even if we don't like it. If and when you come out with a 5th edition you are guaranteed a certain number of sales simply by virtue of the fact that each and everyone of us will be curious and even if we don't like the new edition we will love hating it. Heck, even James Maliszewski will probably buy it, if only to lambast on his blog (which I like, btw).
And you know what, WotC? We need you. Most of us don't have the time or energy to write our own Fantasy Heartbreaker. And even if we do it somehow isn't the same, just as self-publishing your novel isn't the same as getting picked up by a Big Publisher (or at least a publisher that isn't Lulu or your friend with the fancy word processor), if only because there is a feeling of being part of something, of community, that we get from playing D&D, from playing the Official Version.
So WotC, you need us and we need you and, in the end, we still love you. But please, don't forget about us, don't deny our existence, don't focus your entire energy on trying to do something that simply can't and won't be done, and most of all, please don't transform D&D from being a pen-and-paper RPG.
And, for the love of some deity or another, please get Bill Slaviscek a PR representative or at least some classes in interpersonal dynamics and communication.
