Just an odd occurance - I hit the button to take me to the first unread post. It was short, and the adds at the bottom where showing. One was for d20Pro, and the other was Frogger. I was trying to figure how what editions those represented before realizing they were adds
4e: (but see explaination below - because it is not "its videogamey" comment)
In WOW, there are an number of ways you can get into the game. For me, I played on two "levels" during my time of addiction. One is how I played for the first six months - just going along, doing quests, an occassional 5-man, and the character build was "organic" - just whatever power seemed interesting. Lets call that "Casual". My last 6 months was as a Raider. I had to optimize the build, keep gear up, get gold, know the fights, execute my role in fights.
Pre-4e D&D feels like like Casual to me. You could optimize if you want, but you really did not have to and still have fun. As a group, you set "how serious" you wanted the game to be.
4e felt more like a WOW Raiding to me. 4e did a great job optimizing the game on both sides of the screen. GMs have great tools to make balanced encounters and know how to use the monsters (soldier, artillery, etc). As a player, I feel like I had to (1) optimize my PC, (2) know my role, (3) execute that role and (4) everyone else has to do (1)-(3) in order to enjoy the game
I have enjoyed both approaches, but my current group is Causal (certainly NOT Raiders).
