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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AZRogue" data-source="post: 4145823" data-attributes="member: 3963">I'd like to return to one of the original points, instead of the "does it feel like DnD" argument; honestly, the feel of the game is going to vary based upon individual taste. The game felt instantly like DnD to me after the first encounter and all of my players thought the same and couldn't find anything they disliked, though some of them won't know how much they like the system until they see the actual character creation rules. The point I'd like to talk about is why would WotC NOT allow JD and Sean to become playtesters? That just boggles my mind. I might not agree with JD's taste in games, going by his critique, but who cares? I know what I like and don't need any validation to continue liking what I like. But getting guys like JD and Sean in as playtesters would have been a great move, IMO. For one, there was an NDA. It's not like they're going to talk about what they don't like if they didn't like things, so WotC couldn't have been worried about that. For another thing, maybe they WOULD love the game, provided they could see the rules. Also, they would have had the opportunity to submit their critiques to the designers and their background would tend, I think, to make their critiques USEFUL, even if the designers decided not to take the advice (which is more than fair). Add to this the facts that they both WANTED to be playtesters, and asked to be, while Sean was even approached to do freelance work for the system, and it really makes absolutely no sense.I don't know why they weren't allowed to be playtesters while other designers WERE allowed. I don't know why WotC failed to let them be playtesters but still wanted Sean to do work for 4E. I don't know why no one got back to them to at least say "sorry, we have enough playtesters at the moment" or "sorry, we don't like you, and you smell slightly of soup."Odds are it was just an oversight, but one of several I've noticed that adds a sour note to my liking of 4E. I love what I've seen so far and I WANT to like this edition, after the complete and utter failure of the last one (for my group) but I wish they'd learn to be a bit more ... savvy. They also should have been more forthcoming with the GSL information instead of giving a deadline, failing to meet it, and then basically saying "any minute now" for the last few months.  "We're in the final stages of deciding on a timetable to vett a proposed meeting to determine a projected release date in the future" or something. In other words, "we have no idea at this time and cannot speculate, much less offer a deadline, in good conscience, though we will release a statement once we have something of substance to announce." We would still be in limbo, but we would have known we were in limbo instead of expecting something and slowly realizing things were in limbo on our own, which is worse IMO. But, whatever, I don't want to talk about the OGL/GSL, just pointing out another thing that I think they bungled a bit.And I really wish they'd release more information than just Blog posts. I wish they were more active. One of my favorite memories of the 3E release was Sean (mostly) answering someone's direct question regarding some change in the system almost every day. Sometimes several times a day. The information was small, but it was in a steady stream, not small and in tiny infrequent dollops hidden in blog posts. Sean revealed a hell of a lot of information (while his ever present charm made me dream of dropping heavy objects on his head, as previously mentioned). At this point, without Enworld to gather the info that's been released, I'm not sure I'd know much of anything about 4E. WotC should really thank Enworld. If it wasn't for the info I've found here I would have never given the new edition enough of a chance to decide that I like the direction it's going in. I mean, I love most of what I've found out and really can't wait to start playing with the actual rules--waiting for the release is driving me crazy, like waiting for christmas as a kid! But that's due to Enworld's efforts, unfortunately, not due to anything that WotC has done. Was there a point to all this? Hell, I don't know. But I feel better now, so that's good enough for me. I'm oldschool and realize that posting to a message board is for my own edification and satisfaction, not to actually change anything. Only the whipersnappers think the point of posting is to accomplish something. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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