JoeGKushner
First Post
So from violently opposed to wouldn't vommit if you had to play it and would encourage people to play other games?
Probably not quite the 'switch" i was personally thinking of. Starts off with open hatred, ends with muted dislike. Not seeing that 'big' change I was speaking of here.
But it could just be me.
Probably not quite the 'switch" i was personally thinking of. Starts off with open hatred, ends with muted dislike. Not seeing that 'big' change I was speaking of here.
But it could just be me.
Well, I suppose I may be a first, then......
Initially I was as violently opposed to 4th Edition as any "hater" could possibly be. Bought a 4e Player's Handbook the day of its release, and returned it 24 hours later after reading through the bulk of it. At the time, I thought it was simply something I would never want to play.
Later, I was convinced by a friend to play in a couple of one-shots. As a result, I starting looking at various forums trying to get a handle on what I should expect, whether maybe I had overreacted initially, etc.
After getting some more insight, and playing in a couple of one-shot games, I am actually pretty neutral on 4th Edition as a rules system. It's probably not what I would choose to play, given the choice, but I'm certainly not opposed to playing it. Having read many opinions/essays on the merits of 4th Edition, I have actually come to understand, at least in part, what WotC's goals were for the edition, and have a better grasp on the rationale of certain rules changes. In other words, in large part to engaging in the so called "Edition War," I actually came to understand 4th Edition a little bit better, and what WotC was trying to accomplish. Now, while I still disagree with some of the core design philosophies, I can certainly appreciate the system's merits (and flaws) as they are, and if my long-time core group of players decided tomorrow to switch to 4e, I'd shrug my shoulders and go with them.
However--The fact that I am now ambivalent to the 4th Edition rules, does not mean I am mollified towards Wizards of the Coast as a business entity.
If there's a company that's had a worse 18 months from a public relations standpoint than Wizards of the Coast, I certainly can't think of one. Even if 4th Edition ends up being the "Greatest RPG Rule System of All Time" (not likely, since I think 3.x / PF is a better system right now ), it doesn't change the fact that WotC has generally botched every opportunity they've had to generate a feeling of good will towards people like me--people who might have adopted 4th Edition wholeheartedly, but generally didn't like the entire calculated "vibe" of the company producing it. As a whole, very little of what WotC has done in the last 18 months has felt much like it was oriented to me, the consumer, but was rather done to maximize profits.
At this point, I will almost certainly never invest in more than the three core 4th Ed rulebooks, and possibly the PHB2. I certainly will not buy the "Power Source" books, I certainly will never be a DDI subscriber, and I certainly will not buy minis/maps/DM material from them. And given the chance, I will encourage any group I play with to instead play Pathfinder, because I feel that Paizo, as a company, is more deserving of gamers' hard earned money, and because their ruleset is the one I would, given the choice, prefer to play.