Developer Talk = Gospel?

[Wormwood]

Wow, jensun. I wish I hadn't seen that. That's...something I can't unsee.

Personally, I feel dumber for having read it.

No mean feat.

 

[darkdragoon]

Lower hitpoints, low AC, poor combat ability, reliance on non-magical means to survive.

All of which can be (and were) handwaved by magic.



And LOL at point cost as a "fix." Anybody who's not four years old will see which ability gives most effect for cost and spam them.

Cooldown and finishing moves? Weren't these the same people griping about MMO weabooness?

 

[vagabundo]

<edit> Bad Bad taste in my mouth...

 

[ObsidianCrane]

Firstly I agree with the design ideas that the 4E designers have discussed. I'm not sure how well they have achieved some of them, but the game design theory they have been discussing I understand, and I see those issues in a range of RPGs (and the CCG) I play.

The government should not however be contacting the WotC folks to help with solar power.

Game Design Theory is a different thing to "Magic > swords", one cares about the balance and playablity of the mechanics of a game, the other is a subjective choice about setting that you can feed back into mechanics.

Now if your core premise is that "magic > swords" your game design best reflect that, and that can be a cool game. But DnD has never claimed to start with that as a core premise - mechanically it has always been that way, but its not actually a core premise of DnD games. This is why mechanically magic > swords has always been bad.

The economy of actions thing is a purely mechanical thing, and everyone has 1 action is one way of solving it. It is more complicated than simply giving everyone 1 action however, so pretty much you make a call about how you want it to work and go from there.

Now to the OP I have a reply question; why do you think what the desingers say is without value?

 

[Zinovia]

Give it up people. We're all just WotC robots, so let's get back to our mindless kowtowing to the 4E devs. Nothing to see here. Where'd I leave that incense I was going to burn on the WotC altar?

 

[generalhenry]

Creativity is commonly sacrificed in the name of "equaity"

That's ok. Creativity is much more powerful than equity. Just take a look at some 3E Uber builds.

 

[Wonka]

Because magic is crazy and off-the-wall, helicopters with guns flying into swimming pools and shooting at rocket cars. Anyone can swing a sword.

Not always, certainly some higher level spells are, but not everything. And this is your opinion, and still fails to explain WHY Wizards should be more powerful automatically. And sure, anyone can swing a sword, doesnt mean its any easier to swing a sword WELL.

 

[Umbran]

Okay, folks, listen up!

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[Shazman]

I think people tend to forget one important point: Game Designers work to build what they think their target audience wants.

I don't doubt that the average game designer spends more time and skill on games than I do - but I also doubt he or she knows better than I what's fun for me.

Judging by the general tone of the 4E designers, I think it was more about what they wanted first, and what their audience wanted was a distant second.

 

[Branduil]

If you feel someone is a troll, report their posts.

Okay.