Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Clint_L" data-source="post: 9371049" data-attributes="member: 7035894">What each episode of this excellent series is making clear is how much of an impact the overall gaming zeitgeist of the time had on each successive iteration of the game. We've discussed the influence of WoW and MMORPGs on 4e, and of DIY wargaming culture on OD&D. Certainly in 5e you see a kind of reactionary, throwback impulse that probably had a lot to do with older players coming back to the game or getting their kids into it, and how that manifested itself as part of a wider embrace of nerd culture traditions via pop culture and the internet. 5e is, at its heart, a fairly reactionary version of D&D (and I say that as someone who prefers it).It's seldom as simple as "this thing led directly to that thing." But when they mention, for example, that two designers simultaneously came up with the idea for encounter powers etc. during the planning of 4e, it's hard not to notice how much those resemble cooldown management in MMORPGs, just as the notion of saving throws arose out of wargaming way back in the day. The zeitgeist matters. Now we are seeing the influence of actual play shows on the game's continuing evolution. It's healthy, IMO.</blockquote>