AbdulAlhazred
Legend
Nor do you have to be stuck with what some random guy came up with in 197x. You are describing NOSTALGIA, and moreover it is YOUR NOSTALGIA and calling it a general principle that should be applied to everyone. Take a step back, see the bigger picture. I was THERE in the mid 1970's and was one of the first people who experienced D&D as a commercial product. It is crude, haphazard, and only a rough approximation of what RPGs are today. It also represents merely one small take, a mere glimpse of a vast territory.IDK, despite some less than great design, I still love games from the 60,70,80's. There is an element that makes a game come alive that isnt tangible. You can make the best designed game possible, but if it doesn't give the expected experience, folks are not going to like it. You can also keep the feel and brand while designing a sound game. You dont have to jettison what came before or go left field to make things better.
Likewise other seminal games, Traveller, T&T, En Garde!, Bunnies & Burrows (the first skill system!), Metamorphosis Alpha, Boot Hill, etc. are all first cuts at a genre (well, T&T might not be quite that, but it was still pretty cool and had a lot of influence on later games). Of course those games are somewhat 'special' in the sense that the first vision of a whole genre is always going to form a lens through which all else is seen, to an extent. That doesn't make it the bestest and onliest. Neither does the 1st edition of a game necessarily make it the best edition.
The world moves on. We've learned things far beyond what E. Gary Gygax conceived of. Do you think he wanted people looting the same old B2 dungeon over and over again forever, and nothing else? I strongly doubt it. Maybe he was a bit chaffed by some of what came after his contribution, but all the people that worked on creating the RPG hobby in the early days would be/were/are thrilled that it is what it is today, evolving and growing and vital, not some static tradition that follows your nostalgia.