Ignoring the cloudwatching quote, except to say "it doesn't mean what you think it means; it's just a bad wording"...
Clavis said:
Examples of top-down decisions from TSR include the massive crap they took on Greyhawk (for example: "From Their A$$es", I mean "From The Ashes") just to spite Gygax.
Cites, please?
Creating combat rules that REQUIRE the use of miniatures. An additional expense, that WOTC will be happy to provide you with. How swell of them.
What combat rules? 3.* edition works with no miniatures at all; I should know, having gamed for several years wo. using them. Now, counters or miniatures do enhance and clarify the combat, I think, but they're hardly required.
The ever-expanding rule-set, all of which has official sanction. Try to tell some players that they can't play a Thri-Kreen Duskblade/Warlock/Psion with two +6 double-bladed swords, and and they will throw a fit.
How on Earth is this WotC's fault? This is purely a player-DM problem.
The totally unnecessary changes to Halflings and the silly changes to Gnomes (Bards?), both completely top-down and unasked for.
By the "unnecessary" changes to halflings, I take you refer to their changed appearance and society? (Because, crunch-wise, they aren't that much different from what's gone before.) A lot of people, myself included, found those changes quite welcome; Tolkien's hobbits make lousy adventurers (Bilbo, Frodo & co. being very much the exception from the norm), and it's a bother to keep figuring why all these pudgy homebodies are going out to risk life and limb as rogues.
Gnomes, I can sympathize with you (insofar as I care about them
). IMO, Wizard would be a better favored class for gnomes, with bard or sorcerer fitting the elves nicely.
The whole silly 3.5 edition thing. A .5 edition? I still can't understand it except as a way to make people buy their rule books all over again.
It was a bit clumsily handled, but IMO a good thing. 3.5 fixed some clear problems and generally improved the game.
The apparently massive 4th edition re-working of the game, that promises to be compatible with NO previous edition. This way, you'll have to re-purchase ALL of your books. Once again. Just what everybody never asked for.
With the information we have at this point, it's impossible to tell with any certainty how easy or hard it is to convert material and characters from previous editions into the 4th ed. As for "having to re-purchase your books", nobody is coming to your house, burning down your gaming library, smashing your dice and forcing you, at gunpoint, to buy 4th edition. And no matter what you think, WotC has to address the new gamers as well, who are going to need all the stuff you already have, and more.
Oh, and lets not forget the fervent denials that 4th edition was anywhere on the horizon.
The "fervent denials" thing has been addressed elsewhere, several times by now.
The destruction of Dragon magazine, with the rise of the Digital Initiative. One wonders to what extent 4th edition will be "crippleware" that requires the monthly subscription to be usable.
To the best of my knowledge, the extent will be zero. DI is intended to enhance your game; it's not required. As for the "destruction" of
Dragon, it's going to be available online.
Funny thing is, I really believe that WOTC started out with the best of intentions towards D&D. But you know what they say about the road to gaming hell...
And I really believe you believe that. But that doesn't necessarily make your opinion correct, or well-informed.
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