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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rasyr" data-source="post: 2249121" data-attributes="member: 2855">Umm.. Actually, you have. Remember, in 2000, after the release of 3e, 3.5 was already in the planning stages for 2005. And even though it got moved up to a 2003 release date, that still is you proof that at least SOME books are planned more than 12-18 months in advance.Personally, I have no argument here, because I believe the same thing. Unfortunately, I also believe that Hasbro will be the prime motivator for the release of 4e, not WOtC itself. WotC may end up not having any choice in the matter.If they are thinking about a 4e in any manner, then it is likely to be in development at some level. Even if the release is not scheduled until 2010, it would be in development now, so that proper playtesting can be accomplished before release date. Well, 3e is effectively dead, there is only 3.5 to explore things in. But the things that are left to explore are only part of the equation. Sales are a major part of the issue, and rgps in general are in a downturn of sales right now. No arguments here. Please understand that personally, I don't WANT to see 4e for another 10 years or so, unfortunately, I believe that we will see it much much sooner. Possibly as early as 2006, or even 2008.With 3.5, you got less than 1 year's notice. Also, it is quite possible that things can change and cause dates to be moved (3.5 being moved from 2005 to 2003, anyone?) so that the 1-2 years notice might not be possible. Make sure you understand that completely. While Charles might WANT to give you such advance notice, he may not be able to for some reasonAdditionally, giving that much notice is a very, very bad thing to do, business-wise. Once a revision is actually announced, it will practically kill sales of the prior version. It has happened to other companies before and will again. Distributors and retailers won't want to touch anything in the old version because they don't want to get left holding the bag with stock that won't move.It is for this last reason, that I think that we will never see 2 years notice for 4e, that at most we might see 6-10 months of notice, and that notice will be tied into a large "ramp up" campaign with lots of tidbits in Dragon, website articles, etc...</blockquote>

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