D&D 5E Do you want D&D Next to succeed?

[Crazy Jerome]

As long as people aren't spouting off about particular features or rules in Next without bothering to read and try them first, or in some cases, outright lying about them after they try them or have been proved wrong after earlier spouting, then I'll count us all ahead of the game.

It's a low bar, but if we can hit it, it would be nice.

 

[mlund]

In general people will be indifferent or hostile towards a game they don't want to play. It takes attention away from the game they want to play, and they need the interest of others to have a good gaming experience. If a new game comes along and takes my good players away and leaves me with a choice between having bunch of undesirables as my gaming pool or changing games for something I like less I'd be a bit sour on the whole thing.

I want Next to succeed, but I also want its success to be pinned to giving me the game I want to play.

- Marty Lund

 

[Shadeydm]

Little thing called the edition war. You may have noticed it. Marketing is a big part of any product's success, and in a niche hobby like ours, word-of-mouth (or internet) is a big part of it. Word of mouth can be negative, as well as positive - and based on irrational rejection as well as personal experience. So, yes.

So you are saying a handful of irrational people on the internet killed what was otherwise a successful game? Really? Are you one of those people who don't believe we landed on the moon either, that it was just a conspiracy? lol

 

[Tony Vargas]

So you are saying a handful of irrational people on the internet killed what was otherwise a successful game? Really?

I never said 'handful,' nor exclusively on the internet. The segment of the community gripped by the zietgiest of the edition war was not tiny.

 

[Shadeydm]

I never said 'handful,' nor exclusively on the internet. The segment of the community gripped by the zietgiest of the edition war was not tiny.

So all the people who didn't like 4E were irrational? Only irrational people didn't like 4E? If a lot of people who were not irrational didn't like 4E then i'd say your issue is with 4E's designers. I just really don't see how edition warriors can kill a game. Your really not making any sense.

 

[SteveC]

Of course! D&D to a very large extent is the rpg industry, and if it takes a dive, RPGs as anything but a hobby goes with it. I hope 5E is something I want to play, and I think that the next playtest will really give me an idea of whether or not it will be.

For a true story: when 2E came out, I started to be disenchanted with D&D, and I started to learn about and play other games. For many, many years I primarily played HERO. Towards the end of the 2E era, the game came back to the sort of thing that I enjoyed, so I came back with it.

In the mean time, I still played some D&D, but I found that there were many games that (for me) were better and that I enjoyed more. I suspect that the same will be the case here. The one thing I will miss will be the good conversation I have on ENworld, but I'll still drop by every now and then.

I think wishing for D&D to fail (or any game, for that manner) is the worst part of fandom, and something we can all do without.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Of course! D&D to a very large extent is the rpg industry, and if it takes a dive, RPGs as anything but a hobby goes with it.

RPGs are something other than a hobby?

For many, many years I primarily played HERO. Towards the end of the 2E era, the game came back to the sort of thing that I enjoyed, so I came back with it.

Similar experience, here, though I continued a campaign half way through 2e's run, I rarely played D&D, preferring Hero and even Storyteller.

I think wishing for D&D to fail (or any game, for that manner) is the worst part of fandom, and something we can all do without.

We certainly could have done without it the last 4 years...

 

[Hussar]

Absolutely. I am not sure why anyone would want D&D Next to fail.

Just catching up on the thread, but, after 4 years of 4e, I'm not sure why anyone would think that there aren't a fairly vocal group of gamers out there that are cheerleading the failure of an edition/gaming company.

 

[Hussar]

So, rendering an opinion constitutes subversion?

In that case, there were a lot of people who worked towards the demise of the prior D&D editions, as well as those nefarious writers trying to sabotage The Dark Knight Rises by giving it bad reviews.

There are certainly people who dislike 4e (and who dislike many other things), but I seriously doubt their opinions constitute a meaningful effort to make it fail, nor am I seeing how they are inherently "irrational". Or is the case that people have done something above and beyond giving their opinions?

Personally, I'll be looking at 5e with a critical eye and speaking my mind on it (as with any significant development in a hobby of mine), but there's nothing more to it than that.

No, it's more like people who go to sites like CNN, see anouncements for 4e, and spend considerable time edition warring in the comments. Hrm, nothing says, "Come to my hobby" like seeing a bunch of nerdrage geeks spazzing out about an edition in a public forum.

Like RangerW says, there's nothing wrong at all with criticism. But, the outright misinformation that has gotten spread around for years, all in the name of "proving" that edition X is teh suxxors goes far beyond someone simply speaking their mind.

 

[Abraxas]

We certainly could have done without it the last 4 years...

Or any time before that and now...