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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aldarc" data-source="post: 8414176" data-attributes="member: 5142">The development for 4e was rushed with a lot of problems (even aside from the horrendous marketing strategy). A lot of the math, subsystems, and mechanical interactions were incredibly unpolished. By the time that WotC got the math and such right, and once they finally began learning how to write good adventures for their own system, instead of going back to improve their prior line, they moved on to Essentials as a gamble to win people back. This alienated some people who liked the prior class set-up, and too little too late for those who moved on to other games (e.g., Pathfinder, OSR, etc.). So Essentials further divided the fanbase. There were a lot of incredible things about 4e that made it an incredibly easy game to GM and engaging game to play (IMHO), but we lost a lot of its more amazing innovations (e.g., monster design, defenses, healing surges, etc.) in the knee-jerk reaction to all the negative reactions for what WotC bungled. This is one reason why - and I don't really care how many times I repeat myself - I would love to see 4e opened to OGL so 4e fans could make a polished retroclone version of the games (i.e., both Core and Essentials) the same way that the OSR has done with their retroclones of B/X, BECMI, and 1e.</blockquote>