Confessions of a 4E Detractor

[Nellisir]

I think it's edition war fatigue, and it's a different set of circumstances. There were a lotof people in the "not broken, don't fix it" category when 4e came out, and the edition warring was a backlash to what was seen as WotC forcing a new edition down their throats. And when 4e came out, it barely seemed like the same game - not only had they "fixed" it, they'd done outright replaced it.

I don't think fans of 4e are under the impression that 5e is really going to be similar to 4e. People who love 3e are, for the most part, happy with PF. Not a lot of people left to be outraged.

I'm intentionally minimizing my exposure to 5e because a) I don't care all that much, and b) what I've seen looks fine. Less math-intensive than 3e & PF, less boxy than 4e, more customizable and option-happy than OSR games. I'll buy it when it comes out, hopefully play it, and see how it goes.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Well, I have little interesting 5E atm, and am waiting to see what is released in August. I will get the base books, more than likely, and see what I have to work with.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

There were a lotof people in the "not broken, don't fix it" category when 4e came out,

Yup.

 

[Hussar]

I think too that a lot of things tended to feed on themselves. People's feelings were high and it just kept spiralling higher with every week that passed.

This time around they've kept things much lower key and no one seems to be blowing a gasket.

 

[Jhaelen]

I don't think fans of 4e are under the impression that 5e is really going to be similar to 4e. People who love 3e are, for the most part, happy with PF. Not a lot of people left to be outraged.

Yep, this. I stopped being interested in the beta very early when I realized it would be completely unlike 4e. I still followed most of the design articles on WotC's website and commented on some of them, but all in all I couldn't help but feel they were not working on anything that interests me. If I was interested in the direction they seem to be going, I'd go back to play an earlier edition of D&D or one of the countless retroclones.

 

[Desdichado]

There seems to be fewer people commenting on 5th Edition overall: fewer rants against it, fewer rallies around it, and not just here at ENWorld. It could be that we are experiencing a type of "edition war fatigue," or it could be that the playtesting model has given everyone a new place to direct their commentaries (or vent their spleens), or maybe it is just a general lack of public interest as a whole. Time will tell, I guess.

Or, it could be that--feeling burnt by the caustic tone of the 4e edition wars--the management here has more proactively discouraged them this time around.

I do also think, although this is purely speculative, that many of the folks who would have the most caustic things to say about Next have already wandered off out of D&Diana anyway, thanks to 4e. Or even 3e. They're just not around anymore in as large numbers as they used to be, having already migrated into either other games, or other hobbies.

 

[Hussar]

Numbers might be the answer.

Say one third of 3e players stayed with 3e, one third eventually migrated to PF and one third went Fourth. That means that you had about two thirds of fans unhappy.

Now say that half of 4e fans are unhappy. This would mean you have about one quarter the number of unhappy fans this time around. Tends to make a much smaller echo chamber.

Or as an alternative, fourth edition fans being the suave, handsome, debonair and highly intelligent and nice smelling people that the are just have too much class to engage in such loutish behaviour as edition warring.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

(snip) Or as an alternative, fourth edition fans being the suave, handsome, debonair and highly intelligent and nice smelling people that the are just have too much class to engage in such loutish behaviour as edition warring.

It's time someone stood up and boldly proclaimed the truth to the unhygienic riff-raff that support those other devolved editions. Now someone pass them some soap and the instructions required to use it so that they may be permitted to stand in our presence and receive revelation of the one true way....

Well done, [MENTION=22779]Hussar[/MENTION]!

Actually, I think the rest of your post explains the situation really well.

 

[Rechan]

Yeah. 4e Warrior here, and when D&D Next was announced, I got some perspective on how 3e fans felt, because 1) everything said about 3e seemed to be now directed at 4e, and 2) D&D Next was stepping far away from 4e. So instead of gearing up for a war on two fronts, I just washed my hands of D&D. Not interested in fighting, but also not interested in having to invest in a whole new edition when I didn't want to play it to start with. Just not worth all this.

One of the reasons I rarely poke my head back here.

Hell, I've been out so long I thought D&D 5e already came out.

 

[Roland55]

I think too that a lot of things tended to feed on themselves. People's feelings were high and it just kept spiralling higher with every week that passed.

This time around they've kept things much lower key and no one seems to be blowing a gasket.

I'm using much thicker gaskets these days. And a finer grade of grease to seal them with.