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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 5327008" data-attributes="member: 58197">Links to the Mearls interview: <a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_271/8109-Red-Box-Renaissance" target="_blank">Escapist article</a><a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/writersroom/8115-Complete-Mike-Mearls-D-D-4th-Edition-Essentials-Interview.3" target="_blank">Full transcript</a>Mearls doesn't seem exactly Pollyanna-ish; he's not saying 4E has been a smashing success, and in fact if you read between the lines he seems to be acknowledging that they lost a bunch of players and have not done as well as they would have liked at pulling in new ones. His description of Essentials strongly suggests a retool rather than a continuation (that is, going back and rethinking some of the basic ideas of 4E rather than continuing to develop along the original lines), and retooling is what you do when your product isn't meeting expectations.Now, does he say D&D is in a death spiral? Of course not. If it were in a death spiral, you wouldn't hear any WotC employee say so until well past the event horizon. That's just a basic rule of corporate life.Personally, I don't think D&D is in a death spiral yet, but the brand has clearly taken a hit and Mearls has been given the job of reviving it. I like where he's headed and wish him the best of luck.</blockquote>