Ty said:I highly doubt that the idea of the 4th Edition is what is being aggressively campaigned against by the "Grognards." Rather, there is a subset of players of all ages, with varying degrees of favorite editions who are derogatively coined "grognards" by people. Think on it this way, if they didn't care about 4th Edition, why would they actively and purposely come onto a board, post their thoughts and observations, and basically make themselves an inviting target for others?
The rhetorical answer of course, is that they ARE interested in a 4th Edition but are NOT pleased with the proposed changes. The question Mearls and Co. have to answer is how to meet both audiences expectations. Most of the "grognards" around here are not saying No to Dragonborn, Golden Wyvern Adept, Teifling history, Eladrins, or whatever. They are saying No to the way they are being presented to us.
Another part of the "grognard" problem is that it seems many of us are told to shut up, sit down, and buy the new edition but you aren't allowed to participate in the discussion. There have been many suggestions put forward by the "grognards" as options for the designers to examine. Heck, Green Knight technically is a "grognard" because he was complaining about the short shrift Torm received. Now that his proposal for axing Tyr and replacing the deity with Torm has been acted on, it's as though he is treated as a champion of 4th Edition. The point is that minimizing criticism of what is shown is not the way to market something. GM tried that and it didn't quite work.
If you show teasers and provide snippets of information, people are going to jump to conclusions. If you really have a bona fide reason to change something as a designer and it's criticized, most rational people doing the criticizing will accept a real answer rather than puffery. Mearls and Co. don't have to justify their choices in development to us if they don't inform us. However, if they put that info out there for us to see, they are probably trying to gauge the public reaction to some extent, for good or ill. By beating down dissent and only allowing praise of a decision, you're not doing the game a favor. The only thing you are doing is creating a skewed perception for the designers, the game community, and the people actively involved in the observation and analysis of 4th Edition.
Thank you. I could not have voiced it better.
The way 4e is presented by some people feels like the old soviet union. To me at least, that is a large part of the problem, even if not the whole story.