Its not Ed's fault the Realms took a turn for death. He probably thought it would be in good hands and offered up his advice if it was ever needed.
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D&D 5E Forgotten Realms
- Thread starter Mistwell
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Its not Ed's fault the Realms took a turn for death. He probably thought it would be in good hands and offered up his advice if it was ever needed.
Mistwell
Crusty Old Meatwad
I'm the first generation of video game kids. I had pong, and Atari 2600, and my family built the first (well, second) consumer personal computer (an IMSAI, the same computer seen in the movie War Games with all the switches). It's certainly not that I disdain video games. But I stand by my argument that avidly reading fiction as a child and teenager on average leads to more valuable things for society than avidly playing video games in those years. It's not always the case, and both can be bad and good, but I think on average I have the right of this.
My SAT scores (and later LSAT scores) were better for the reading than for the games. My language skills, my writing skills, my reading skills, my comprehension skills, even my critical thinking skills, all improved far more from the reading than from the video games, and I think that continues even into modern video games. My hand-eye coordination and rapid reaction skills improved from the video games, but I don't think those skills are as valuable to society in general as the reading skills, at those ages. And, I think a lot of rude trollish behavior and taking advantage of anonymity also is exacerbated by the video game culture of today. It teaches some socialization, but often it emphasizes the negative socialization more than the positive (though not always).
Nor do I think that's society leaving me in the distance - Harry Potter and Twilight and Hunger Games all prove that reading fiction remains a popular form of entertainment for many during those years, if the right fiction is available and known to them. They might read it on an electronic device rather than in the form of a paperback book, but they'll still read it.
I think we will continue to see both video games and fiction novels thrive in the future. I don't see the death of novels any time soon, though certainly they are undergoing a transformation, much as video games are as well.
An extremist minority, regarless of how vocal, does not a majority make, despite their belief to the contrary.
DMZ2112
Chaotic Looseleaf
As much as I want to pursue this, Mistwell, Umbran is right -- we're way off topic. Let me just say this: if we were talking about children being born in the 1970s, or even the 1990s, I would agree with you completely. But I think the rules are different now.
So what you are saying is that the Realms is being changed because of a very very small amount of people?
I will agree with everything you say here except the Twilight thing. IMHO, sniffing paint and/or glue and running around naked in rush hour traffic is more productive than reading that drivel...
To an extent, yes. Most gamers aren't forumgoers complaining about Edition This and Story That, they just enjoy their game, story and pasttimes. New Edition=New "Realms-Shaking" event anyway, and hunder the whole "re-unification banner" that means trying to bring back the "old" while keeping the "new". Note that the Spellplague isn't being retconned out or anything silly like that, but Returned Abeir is going to, at least partially, un-return in a similar manner but it appears parts will remain. Kenny, er, Mystra will get her umpteenth rebirth/reincarnation/manifestation as it's once again time for another pantheon shakeup and in a few years we'll see it all over again.
The question is at this point do any of the long-lived races of Faerun even blink at a cataclysm any more, having witnessed them numerous times.
Zardnaar
Legend
Well rumor has it the last 4E realms book (Menzoberranzan) sold very poorly and novel sales declined as well as a direct result of the changes 4E made. The Realms forums on the WoTC used to be very popular and the authors used to post there as well and it is now a ghost town with maybe 3 posters left. There is also a Salvatore interview basically saying they screwed the Realms up.
DMZ2112
Chaotic Looseleaf
If it's Tuesday, this must be the apocalypse.
Im sure WoTc didn't come to this decision based on people in a forum. Obviously, sales and fiture sales have the biggest part to play. I just can't believe they actually admitted to the screw up.
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