D&D 4E An Optimistic View of 4E

[The Little Raven]

But so far, nothing they've said suggests to me that they are going to pull off any of thier ambitious goals.

Lack of evidence is not evidence of lack.

You keep trying to argue that, which is why people get annoyed.

I can understand how you are annoyed by the pessimism. I'm not so much annoyed by the optimism that people display as the fact that they are willing to display such optimism solely on the declaration of an intent to accomplish some goal, without any solid indication of what the mechanics might be or how it might all fit together. I'll believe it when I see it.

A lot of people base their optimism on the game that was called a significant preview of 4th edition: Star Wars Saga Edition, since that game cleans up a whole lot of problems with the previous core d20 games. We have things (combats in Saga are WAY faster) to base our optimism on, whereas your negativity seems to stem from resistance to change.

 

[Matthan]

There are things that I would be excited by if they pulled them off, for example better balancing between spellcasters and non-spellcasters or less reliance on magical loot.

But so far, nothing they've said suggests to me that they are going to pull off any of thier ambitious goals.

I can understand how you are annoyed by the pessimism. I'm not so much annoyed by the optimism that people display as the fact that they are willing to display such optimism solely on the declaration of an intent to accomplish some goal, without any solid indication of what the mechanics might be or how it might all fit together. I'll believe it when I see it.

Well, that wasn't all that positive, but I can understand having a "wait and see" approach. I think even the most optimistic of us may take a pass if the early reviews are horrible. What gives me optimism coming at your situation is that the declarations of intents to accomplish goals aren't coming from nowhere. The developers aren't simply declaring that this will be the best game ever in the general. They are pointing out rough areas and talking about wanting to fix that. The very fact that they are aware of these issues encourages me. But I'm an optimist and I'll quickly admit that not everyone is comfortable being that.

For me, their approach reminds of something that I come across when I read videogame reviews sometimes. One of the best reviews I read mentioned that the developers of a sequel had removed all of the bad design and gameplay and improved all of the good design and gameplay. It wasn't revolutionary, but it was a better game. That is my perception of how the developers are approaching 4E. That idea, in and of itself, is exciting to me, but when you add the people behind that idea, I feel secure in that excitement. These are designers who I think can pull this off.

But an optimist would say something like that wouldn't he?