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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aldarc" data-source="post: 8807803" data-attributes="member: 5142">Yeah, I don't think that 3e D&D is influenced all that much by Diablo. IMO, Diablo is just the scapegoat for disliked changes because it was in the mind's eye of the public, so it gets the lion's share of blame for a much larger market trend. In contrast, the beloved video games Baldur's Gate and Planescape were explicitly influenced by Diablo. There we are told by the game developers that the only reason that the turn-based D&D became Real Time With Pause is because of how massive Diablo 2 was at the time. But people weren't upset that the games were RTWP rather than turn-based; instead, they were happy that it was RTWP. A number of people even got mad that Planescape spirtual successor games like Torment: Tides of Numenera or the Baldur's Gate 3 sequel are turn-based instead of RTWP. I personally think that turn-based makes it more D&D like, but many still want them to be RTWP because that's how the first games were.To answer your question, I don't think that it's a matter of whether D&D should follow the then-hot pop culture item or not, but I do think that it will invariably do so to some extent. But I also think that the cycle for incorporating pop culture trends into D&D tends to be much slower than people tend to imagine. For example, Harry Potter's heyday was in the 00's, with the last book (Deathly Hallows, Book 7) being released in 2007. But there were nothing in either 3e or 4e that incorporated what was undoubtedly the HOTTEST property at the time. We don't see anything Harry Potter like until WotC does Strixhaven for MtG in 2021. And yeah, the Harry Potter IP is definitely toxic and untouchable at this point, though for reasons that have more to do with the author's views. IMHO, the grand irony for me is that 4e is not really much like MMORPGs at all; instead, it is more like D&D-inspired JRPGs: e.g., Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, Chrono Trigger, etc. And lo and behold, 4e has become an explicit inspiration for JRPG-influenced TTRPGs - e.g., <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/410108/Fabula-Ultima-TTJRPG" target="_blank">Fabula Ultima</a>, <a href="https://massif-press.itch.io/icon#:~:text=ICON%20is%20a%20fantasy%20role,both%20systems%20usable%20for%20play." target="_blank">Icon</a>, <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/beaconrpg/beacon-ttrpg" target="_blank">Beacon</a>, <a href="https://makapatag.itch.io/gubat-banwa" target="_blank">Gubat Banwa</a> - rather than any WoW-like TTRPGs.</blockquote>

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