D&D 4E 4E WotC way of saying your fired?

[DaveMage]

I feel like I've been fired and it sucks.

Security!

 

[Gundark]

Then again, maybe Erik has been buying the "4E is a MMORPG" stuff that has been flooding the forums. I know there is a vibe of that from the Paizo forums and staff. Erik seems to be taking the reasonable "wait and see" approach from most of his comments. However, when I see comments like those above I wonder whether those comments are the negativity affecting him, or whether that's how he really feels and the "wait and see" is just his corporate face.

I was disappointed by the whole MMORPG thing espically from a proffesional . People who have never played a MMORPG and yet complain that 4e is going that direction is foolish arguement. Those who have played both know that they are entirely different creatures.

 

[Gundark]

I already decided to pass on Pathfinder (too much money for something I really think are flooding the market).

True, as well the AGe of Worms turned me off a bit on Paizo APs

 

[helium3]

The only part of 4E as described that sounds remotely like an MMO is how they're choosing to go about describing what roles the various classes fill. It's really not any different from older editions, other than being a little more explicit and logical in classifying various classes by function. My opinion is that any resemblance to MMO's is simply in how they've chosen to organized and present material in a way that is more comprehensible to new players, who've presumably played an MMO before.

 

[Zurai]

That's a long rant just to come to this conclusion. 3.5 support until Feburary 2009?

How do you propose that they support 4.0 when WOTC won't let them see the 4.0 rules until beyond Paizo's publishing deadline?

 

[Sundragon2012]

THANK YOU!

For 20 years I thought I was the only one who was bored senseless by that module.

Nope, it was a dumb module 20yrs ago and it is dumb now. IMO it is NOTHING more than the nostalgia of a shared experience of fun as a child that makes craptacular modules like this a benchmark of D&D's good ol' days.

I loved D&D for the last 24yrs and have DM'd it for the last 22yrs. Recently I have moved to Mongoose's Conan D20 and True20. 4e has my interest and I look forward to it.



Sundragon

 

[hazel monday]

I don't feel fired by WOTC as much as I feel irrelevant to their decision making process.
Speaking as someone who has spent a considerable amount of money on their products,It does sting a little.

 

[delericho]

How could the playtest possibly be a PR campaign when everyone involved in the playtest is under an NDA?

WotC employee #1: "Okay, we want everyone participating in this fake playtest to generate tons of good PR for us! How can we best make sure they do that?"

WotC employee #2: "We could make them sign legally binding documents saying they can't talk to anyone about 4E?"

WotC employee #1: "Brilliant!"

I believe the argument is that Wizards are having a playtest because they have to be seen having a playtest, with lots of groups under NDA, and comments being taken in, and so on and so forth.

Under the conspiracy theory, Wizards would then duly consider the comments by shredding them individually.

At least, that's how I think the "this playtest is a PR stunt" theory works.

As you may have inferred, I don't agree with this line of thinking - I suspect instead that the playtest will change a number of the fine details of the game, although probably not any of the fundamentals (unless something truly game-breaking comes to light). After two years of development, I reckon Wizards are probably pretty confident in the way it works, and will be using the playtest as a final tune-up.

Or something like that.

 

[The Little Raven]

I don't feel fired by WOTC as much as I feel irrelevant to their decision making process.

Well, you're not being paid to make decisions for the company, so I don't really see why this should be a problem (aside from a false sense of entitlement).

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

How do you propose that they support 4.0 when WOTC won't let them see the 4.0 rules until beyond Paizo's publishing deadline?

Well, it's beyond their publishing deadline for one of their products.

An important product to both their company and the fanbase, but still just one product.

I think that WotC's scheme may only be disadvantaging Paizo in particular, but I doubt it's meant to disadvantage anyone.

I don't have the numbers, but I would bet that Paizo is in a fairly uncommon situation with a product that will be produced sixth months from now, but that will involve a year long commitment.

Otherwise, it's now October. 4E isn't scheduled for full release till June. WotC is still doing testing. There were some kinks with the launch of 3E and third party publishers that, even though I fully believe they are committed to supporting the OGL to the hilt, I am certain they are loosing sleep trying to prevent.

From WotC's perspective it almost certainly does not make sense, as a general rule, to give out the rules to anyone just yet.

But, I hope, that give their respect for Erik and his importance to them as a company that they will be willing to make a special arrangement with him.

On the other hand, though, it might very well be in WotC's best interest to support Erik as he ushers out the 3.5 line with a bang. I can't think of a more capable hand for this, and given the differences between this edition launch and prior launches it might make very good sense for WotC to cushion the blow for all the people who have invested so much in 3.5.

As much as I, others, and WotC believe that 4E needs to come into being ASAP, 3.5 is a good game and worthy of a good send off.

Whether the best send off is a viking funeral or a trip to paradise farms is up in the air for me, but I don't think that 3E going down in flames in a death struggle with its son 4E would be good for anyone.