Good Lord, I hardly expected this many responses.
Some very interesting and insightful.
With none of the historical, mythological, religious, cultural, literary, poetical, etc. connection to the past of the real world which made the original game so fascinating, realistic (given the necessarily accepted semi-fictional parameters of a fantasy based role-playing game), useful, and enjoyable?
I give the quote in bold to answer the unrealistic part.
I understand the paradox given the necessary parameters of a fantasy game.
The paradox however does not negate the truth of my statement.
What I mean by unrealistic is a flight from those very things that best inform a game in which more than mere diversionary entertainment can be extracted from the game.
When things are merely diversionary entertainment and escapism, with no real connection or link to the real world, they lack value other than diversionary entertainment.
In my opinion and way of looking at things, and this is my opinion, if I am to devote hours of my time that could be directed towards any useful pursuit then I wish to take away from that time and pursuit something other than just a temporary "pornographic" (in the widest sense of the term) and very self-absorbed, narrow, and limited experience.
I suspect I cannot state this any better, no matter how often reiterated and that those who understand understand, and those who do not, or have not yet considered the question, may not. But in my opinion it is a waste of time and energy I could better spend at far more profitable pursuits to sink more resources into a game than I could extract from the game in some useful way. And in some way which would be useful outside the narrow confines of the gaming environment. (This is not to say that it is not possible to produce and play very useful as well as enjoyable games, they are far from mutually exclusive traits, and I will devote time to what in my opinion is good and useful gaming in the same way I would train for athletics, develop a real skill in the real world, or study literature, or history.)
In other words the enjoyment of the game for me and my players comes from the fact that it adds something to real life, not distracts from or artificially substitutes for real life. That will not be the opinion of everyone, for people vary, but it is my opinion, and the opinion of my players. This is not to say a game cannot be escapist and enjoyable, but it is to say that if this is the entire point of the game, how it functions, or if it substitutes for instead of enhances real life, then it does nothing more than waste time at a pursuit of very doubtful value.
In my opinion then it is my hope, though I know few details, that this new edition will move back in the direction of being useful, more realistic, and enjoyable. That it will have some point and purpose other than just a game in order to game. That it wills serve some function greater than just killing time. That the game will be about more than just itself for sake of itself.
But I do not know.
That is what I was soliciting opinion about.
And I thank those who both agreed and disagreed or even misunderstood me.
But I hope someone can tell me in what direction they think the game will actually move.
The most obvious cue is the art direction of each edition.
A fascinating and insightful observation and one I was going to mention originally, but thought it might make the post too long and would distract from the overall point. So instead I used the example of modern fantasy writing versus Classical Mythological fantasy. But I definitely saw where you were going with this and your point.
You must be an old fart like I am.
If you think modern fantasy is vapid, you haven't read much modern fantasy.
Yes I have and I'm not much impressed either.
Though I think things are getting a'lot better than they were two or three years ago, that's for durn sure. If it keeps up it won't be as bad as it used to be. I'm gonna miss Harry Potter though.
I liked the comparison to bad video games, but you failed to also compare it to anime and WoW.
Made me laugh. Unfortunately I don't watch anime or play WOW.
Not that there's anything wrong with that, mind you.
Anyways I hate to sound so pedantic about all of this. To me it's just a game, and one should maintain it in perspective and with a sense of humor.
It ain't exactly curing cancer, walking on Mars, or like posting on the internet. Well, maybe it is like posting on the internet.
Point is, I just happen to agree with myself on this particular matter.
Which works out quite conveniently as far as I'm concerned.