Mercurius
Legend
WotC's recent....behavior, coupled with what feels like a couple years of winding down and even death spiraling, inspired a recurrent thought to arise in my head with a bit more force than usual: Maybe I should consider Pathfinder?
Now before you get in a tiff and cry "Edition War!" let me explain. I haven't played anything 3.x for six or seven years and have happily enjoyed 4E for the last two. I liked 3.x and like 4E more. I own the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, the Gamemastery Guide, the Campaign Setting and most of the Chronicles (I don't plan on running Golarion but am a setting junky and enjoy reading about it). But I don't feel like I know the Pathfinder system well enough to form an erudite opinion on its merits and demerits, or even how it differs from 3.5.
I haven't seriously considered switching to Pathfinder before because A) I like 4E, B) my group of casual players are all used to it and it would probably take a bit of convincing to switch, and C) There are certain things about 3.x that I don't miss, especially the emphasis on "system mastery" and the workload involved in DM preparation, both elements which I'm pretty sure Pathfinder hasn't drastically changed.
The more I've gotten to know 4E, the more I've appreciated it as a whole, and continue to dabble with ideas on how to "perfect it" to my tastes, into my own "5E". But I haven't yet mustered up the time and energy to do it, or at least get beyond the dabbling phase.
So why Pathfinder? If I like 4E well enough and my group is fine with it, why switch to something else? Well, let's put it this way: we vote with our dollar; in the RPG business, where diehard gamers buy books that they never play (guilty as charged), it goes a step beyond that and we vote with not only our ca$h but our dice rolls - which games we choose to spend our precious time on. One would hope that the game's company that one gives their money and dedicates their time to play, is a company worth supporting.
WotC is hardly Monsanto, but I can say that I honestly question the direction they are going in. I feel that they have made and continue to make poor choices, especially in the realm of communication with their fan-base, with a succession of seemingly never ending and compounded bad moves. Paizo, on the other hand, has impressed me with just about everything about their business - they seem to be a stand-up company from top to bottom, and an exemplar of what an RPG company should be like. Their love of the game seeps into their products; this is not to say that the folks at WotC don't love the game, but that it has a kind of taint to it, a combination of their flawed PR (to put it mildly) and Hasbro's corporate patina.
Before you accuse me of being a primadonna, please understand that at this point this is only an idea, a thought, a speculation. Furthermore, I don't have a huge emotional charge about this either way--I am not angry with WotC or feel personally slighted, I just don't have a lot of faith in the direction they are steering the ship or much respect for them as a company. That said, I hope that this lack of faith and respect will proven to be misplaced, that their recent assertion that they want better communication and customer feedback is authentic and will result in follow-through. The proof will be in the black pudding.
Finally, just to be clear: I will continue to purchase both WotC and Paizo products (as well as those of other companies). I am a fan of RPGs, a casual collector, and don't have any plans of getting out of the game. I am more talking about how I want to spend my time, which game (or version of the game) I want to play - and, by default, which I want to support on not just an economic level, but a "psychic" level.
Now to you. Have you thought seriously about "defecting" to Pathfinder or another edition of D&D or game altogether? (I have also considered Savage Worlds or Star Wars Saga or numerous other games, but my group and I are all a bit hooked on D&D, at least at the moment). Have you been questioning WotC and thought of switching to a different game in order to support a company that you respect more? What is your experience?
Now before you get in a tiff and cry "Edition War!" let me explain. I haven't played anything 3.x for six or seven years and have happily enjoyed 4E for the last two. I liked 3.x and like 4E more. I own the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, the Gamemastery Guide, the Campaign Setting and most of the Chronicles (I don't plan on running Golarion but am a setting junky and enjoy reading about it). But I don't feel like I know the Pathfinder system well enough to form an erudite opinion on its merits and demerits, or even how it differs from 3.5.
I haven't seriously considered switching to Pathfinder before because A) I like 4E, B) my group of casual players are all used to it and it would probably take a bit of convincing to switch, and C) There are certain things about 3.x that I don't miss, especially the emphasis on "system mastery" and the workload involved in DM preparation, both elements which I'm pretty sure Pathfinder hasn't drastically changed.
The more I've gotten to know 4E, the more I've appreciated it as a whole, and continue to dabble with ideas on how to "perfect it" to my tastes, into my own "5E". But I haven't yet mustered up the time and energy to do it, or at least get beyond the dabbling phase.
So why Pathfinder? If I like 4E well enough and my group is fine with it, why switch to something else? Well, let's put it this way: we vote with our dollar; in the RPG business, where diehard gamers buy books that they never play (guilty as charged), it goes a step beyond that and we vote with not only our ca$h but our dice rolls - which games we choose to spend our precious time on. One would hope that the game's company that one gives their money and dedicates their time to play, is a company worth supporting.
WotC is hardly Monsanto, but I can say that I honestly question the direction they are going in. I feel that they have made and continue to make poor choices, especially in the realm of communication with their fan-base, with a succession of seemingly never ending and compounded bad moves. Paizo, on the other hand, has impressed me with just about everything about their business - they seem to be a stand-up company from top to bottom, and an exemplar of what an RPG company should be like. Their love of the game seeps into their products; this is not to say that the folks at WotC don't love the game, but that it has a kind of taint to it, a combination of their flawed PR (to put it mildly) and Hasbro's corporate patina.
Before you accuse me of being a primadonna, please understand that at this point this is only an idea, a thought, a speculation. Furthermore, I don't have a huge emotional charge about this either way--I am not angry with WotC or feel personally slighted, I just don't have a lot of faith in the direction they are steering the ship or much respect for them as a company. That said, I hope that this lack of faith and respect will proven to be misplaced, that their recent assertion that they want better communication and customer feedback is authentic and will result in follow-through. The proof will be in the black pudding.
Finally, just to be clear: I will continue to purchase both WotC and Paizo products (as well as those of other companies). I am a fan of RPGs, a casual collector, and don't have any plans of getting out of the game. I am more talking about how I want to spend my time, which game (or version of the game) I want to play - and, by default, which I want to support on not just an economic level, but a "psychic" level.
Now to you. Have you thought seriously about "defecting" to Pathfinder or another edition of D&D or game altogether? (I have also considered Savage Worlds or Star Wars Saga or numerous other games, but my group and I are all a bit hooked on D&D, at least at the moment). Have you been questioning WotC and thought of switching to a different game in order to support a company that you respect more? What is your experience?
