D&D 4E 4E: Manufactured Excitement

[Sir Brennen]

It's not because WOTC really wants to make the game more fun for us;

I think this is the fatal flaw in your argument.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

iPhone had similar hype and people rushed to get it untested, now the gripes and lawsuits are starting to crop up mere months later.

The gripes were always there, and were mostly unfounded, then as now. The lawsuits mostly didn't happen, and were mostly about "hey, you dropped the price after the early adopters bit on the full amount."

In the interim, many critics say it's a giant leap forward for cell phones, especially in America, and it'll forever change the marketplace.

Now, I wouldn't go that far with 3.5, but if you want to say 3.5 is the iPhone of gaming, I guess that's your call to make.

 

[Magus Coeruleus]

I'm excited about reading very "clever" comments such as this, which really add a lot to the debate.

Well done!

I can't get enough of them!

You know, when you make an original post that is blatantly insulting to some people (even if not those responding to you, either way it's unkind) and use such "clever" diction as "lemmings" and "sheep" and "fanboy" I really don't see how you can assume an intellectual "high ground" and critique people for not being substantive. You really could have made your point in the OP without getting rude, as Piratecat said. I don't think anyone here thinks you don't have a valid topic for discussion, but you did not approach it in a sufficiently respectful, level-headed manner as to then chide others for the tone of their replies. Seriously, reread your OP and ask yourself, is that the sort of language that makes someone sound completely serious, honest, and open to friendly debate?

Even though I'm not giddy over 4e and so granted not the sort of person you were specifically attacking in your OP, I'll just chime in that my interest in following development of 4e is that I recently ended 2 3.5 campaigns (one DMing, one playing) and by then I was actually sick of D&D. Especially at high levels, too many stacking bonuses to track, too many different abilities to remember even when most of them have become obsolete, too much time spent at the beginning of each session with a boring shopping session for Xmas tree ornaments (magic items). As a gamer and scientist, I am interested in how things work, and so learning about the development process and mechanics is of interest to me. It helps to be kind of burnt out on D&D to not get too wrapped up in anticipation, yet interested enough to be curious to track the previews. By the time 4e comes out, maybe I'll be ready to give D&D a try again. Maybe not. Either way, I don't understand how following developments is somehow not looking at content. Sure, you should wait until something is complete to pass final judgment, but what on earth is unusual about attending to preliminary content? Movie trailers and reviews, discussing thoughts or drafts of a paper with someone, smelling the aroma of cooking food--it's 100% natural to predict, anticipate, and seek information in advance of an event. One of the major functions of the brain is to hypothesize, predict, and anticipate. You have neurons that are specifically more responsive to cues predicting an event than the event itself. (Sorry for the neuro spew--it's what I do for a living). I don't necessarily agree that the anticipation is more important than the event in this case, but there is plenty of biological, psychological, and sociological evidence for the motivational salience of anticipation--hardly something odd or demeaning to a person's intelligence.

That said, I have to agree with a previous poster--I too am getting irritated by what to me sounds like an overly-hyped tone from WotC employees talking about the game. Sure, they may be excited and they certainly want us to be excited but jeez, they take it so far it starts to sound less than genuine to me, like they don't respect the ability of the audience to recognize coolness for themselves, or like it is not in fact cool and they have to overhype to compensate. Just give the tidbits with a measured dose of enthusiasm and leave the rest to us, I say. Ditto for trashing 3.5. Heck, even if I'd be inclined to trash it more than they do, it just feels odd to have them do it with such intense vigor. Don't overdo it, WotC. Let the ideas speak a little more for themselves!

 

[Cadfan]

Today I bought a pizza from a local pizzeria. A nice girl who works there smiled and talked to me while I bought the pizza. I see her there every few days, so we know each other at least as acquaintances. Its a locally owned business, and I think she's the owner's daughter. She's probably 18 or 19 years old, and she works the ovens, mans the front counter, does a bit of everything.

Part of the reason that she's nice to me and makes me tasty pizzas is because she's working for a business, and I'm a customer. She wants my money. But that doesn't make her smile insincere, or mean that she really doesn't care if I like my pizza as long as I pay for it. If she stopped working there, she would probably still smile at me if I passed her on the street. She wouldn't then hand me a tasty pizza, much as I'd like that, because that wouldn't be her job anymore. But I'm sure she'd hope in an abstract sense that I was getting tasty pizzas somewhere.

 

[delericho]

You are so right. My aversion to leaping headfirst into the publicity campaign surrounding 4E means I look forward to nothing in my life.

I may be mistaken, but I don't think I said that.

People have heard about the new edition, they're looking forward to it, they get excited. That's not at all surprising to me.

If you've read some of my other posts in this forum, you'll find that I'm actually not in this camp - I'm actually now leaning towards the anti-4e camp. Still, there are some things that I do look forward to, and do get excited about, without proper and sober analysis of the pros and cons of the finished item. Which I'm glad about - I'd rather face the disappointment of failed expectations than never have the anticipation of greatness in the first place.

YMMV, of course.

 

[Gwathlas]

Because manufactured optimism is less likely to leave you with a black hole in your soul than manufactured outrage?

So being a wotc pawn is a good thing? wotc won't be making any profit off of me or my gaming group. Not only are they writing a new set of rules most of us did not ask for but they are changing settings just so you fan boys and girls will need to buy all new books.

wotc means Greed.

 

[Simia Saturnalia]

This is refreshing; one rarely sees a troll get honestly stuck in there anymore. It's all drive-by flames and yelling these days, and I for one am interested in the return of the condescending and content-less postings the early internet was famous for.


Additionally, I find the enthusiasm in the company blogs refreshing, because it's not WotC. It's gamers who work for WotC, and they're excited as hell about the game they're bringing to market. When you're not allowed to release any mechanics to the public (or we'd have seen something by now), there's very few ways to tell people about the changes to the game other than by communicating what you feel it fixes about old mistakes. If the game had no problems House Rules and D&D rules would be silent.
Then again, I might just not have the emotional or financial investment in 3.x some might have. I accept that. 4e is D&D For Me.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

But to say that anyone at WOTC thought "hey, let's make the game better... let's create 4E... oh, and maybe we can make money too!" is living in a fantasy world. That's not how public companies work. In fact, if they did work that way, the shareholders might revolt.

The problem is that you seem to think there are two mutually exclusive thoughts to starting 4e: "Let's make money without regard for our target audience" or "Let's make the game better with no care for business success." That simply isn't the case. If it were then I would expect the shareholders to revolt. There is likely a chicken and egg situation of which came first, but either some exec tasked the RPG group to begin work on 4e, or someone in the RPG group pitched the idea of 4e to an exec who then gave it an official blessing. Either way, once the decision is made, a budget was likely set, timelines proposed, and then the execs step away from the project. From that point on it is Scott Rouse and his team that are in charge. Scott most likely has to report to his bosses on the progress, but I guarantee that the execs are only concerned about one thing at that point - is it going to be on time, and will it be on budget?

Now, I will equally guarantee that Scott and the rest of the development team are not sitting around thinking, "What can we do to make the most money?" What they are most likely thinking is, "How can we create 4e so that the most people will love playing it?" Oddly enough, that line of thinking should lead to both the best product they can come up with and making the most money.

 

[Wormwood]

wotc means Greed.

M-O-O-N that spells greed.

 

[Badkarmaboy]

I trust you don't think I am mad at WOTC for making money. I am not; it is their legal OBLIGATION to make money for their shareholders. I am fine with WOTC making money. I have a problem with people throwing their money at WOTC for reasons I can't quite comprehend. But I am getting there.

That's how you came across.

Maybe people "throw their money" at wotc because they like the product? Not so hard to grasp.

Why did Halo 3 get millions in preorders? Track record maybe?

Could be the same thing here? Maybe?