What does Mearls have to gain by spinning it as testing well? Is he secretly holding a grudge against you, FS and a few others?
I highly doubt he would spin it to further some grudge against anyone. I do think it is likely he would spin it so you can view his company and his efforts in a better light.
"Oh the playtests are going well, that means the game is improving," is a likely reaction to what he said. Similarly, "Oh, Mearls says that they are having a hard time deciphering what is coming out of the playtests, do they know what we want?" would be a poor outlook. I have no doubts why he would want to make us think things are going forward.
As others have said, it is impossible for
us to judge how things are polling until we have the data. Right now we just have to listen to what they are saying about big picture concepts and hope we can sway the issues in ways we appreciate. We further (which you seem to) would have to automatically believe people like Mearls when they say that the feedback has been good, a trust that many of us no longer have in the good people over at WotC (at least no longer automatically).
And [MENTION=78357]Herschel[/MENTION] if your objections to my (or anyone) participation in these threads stems from "you don't like it, so go away" then I don't appreciate it and won't respond. These forums are open to anyone to put forth their opinions on the
topic. I don't like this fighter option, I'm giving reasons why not, and I hope and seek for it to be changed going forward. Many people have similarly agreed to aspects of those arguments (going back to the beginning of these threads) if not all of them. So, I know what I'm contributing. Now, if you want to reply to the content of my
arguments then we can have a conversation, if you want to talk about the content of my character (or signature) then I won't.