Well, this might be a surprise to some, but people on the internet like to argue. Second to that, people on the internet LOVE to prove that they are "cooler", "hipper", "more with it", "more indie", and "more hardcore" than everyone else on a forum. So, you'll find it anywhere with almost anything.
Seriously.
go to any forum you might frequent and make a post about anime. Just say you recently saw some anime show and you thought it was pretty good. WITHIN SECONDS you'll have tons of posts talking about how that is new garbage and the old stuff was better and you don't know anything and how they were into anime back when they were tape trading VHS copies of fan made subs from laser discs. It's just the way it is.
The "Edition War" is just another spark of this. If someone brings up 4E, you'll see someone trash it and talk about how the older edition was better. It really doesn't mean anything at all, it's just that people like to argue, and it's something they can argue about. Plus anything new has to be crap and the old stuff is "where its at".
You'll see old Star Trek vs New Star Trek vs TNG vs DS9. It also plays into the concept of "The Last Generation". Everyone tends to see their generation or their culture as "the last great generation". Their music was so much better than their kids, their movies, their values, their everything was better than the new stuff. This is a really deep seated habit that people share, you'll see this come up constantly. The internet feeds this need.
I personally think it's a good thing to see these threads pop up. Honestly, before the announcement of fourth edition, I didn't hear a whole lot about D&D. I didn't see it being talked about anywhere. Since 4E came out, I see alot of chatter about it in different places than expected. I think this is a positive sign for the hobby. Plus, heated edition wars just shows how passionate players can be. We just need to make sure that passion doesn't disenfranchise new players.
