Has 4e caused a great rift between gamers?

[Hjorimir]

I think what is causing the rift if the existence of both 4e and Pathfinder together. Both have players that are hard proponents and they -understandably - want their game of choice to succeed. I think the worry is that the other system, whichever it may be, threatens that success and by the same extension the game they prefer itself. This has created the undertone of nastiness we're seeing now.

If it was as simple as there only being 4e going forward with product support, players would simply choose to go with it or stick with something else, but you wouldn't have all of this fighting as there would be nothing to fight over.

That's my opinion, anyway.

 

[Barastrondo]

Interesting poll, but I think "gamers" is too general as to be meaningful.

Yeah, it's a term that even includes people who don't play D&D (or a derivative) of any edition, or who pick up D&D only as one of many options*. I doubt there's as much of a rift among gamers-full-stop as there is among D&D-gamers, but once you start with a more specific definition of "gamer" to focus on the people who have the largest investment in D&D of any edition, of course the answer is going to be "yes."



*The gaming club I belonged to in my high school days met weekly, and you played one game for 5 weekly sessions, then everyone switched around. Some popular games would return campaign-wise in later brackets, but the idea was to try a lot of stuff. I got to play Star Wars, Paranoia, Traveller, Toon, Beyond the Supernatural, Champions, AD&D, Cyberpunk, Twilight 2000, even Living Steel. It was pretty great.

 

[Mark Hope]

If it was as simple as there only being 4e going forward with product support, players would simply choose to go with it or stick with something else...

Don't forget that, initially at least, this was indeed the case. When 4e was announced, many of us decided to stick with 3e. Pathfinder's subsequent announcement was just a bonus

 

[ProfessorCirno]

I think there is a split, and a much bigger one then from 2e; when 3e came around, 2e was very much dead. Everyone was sick of it, save for a relatively small bunch. 3e was the "rebirth of D&D," if you want. When 4e came around, however, 3e was still very much alive and kicking. Pathfinder doesn't cause the split, or cause the split to grow bigger - they're just going to be the D&D for one side of said split, while 4e will be the D&D for the other side.

 

[Azgulor]

Well put, ProfessorCirno.

 

[JeffB]

It certainly has on the WWW

It's made boards I used to enjoy visting (here and Necro in particular) not very much so these days. It's 90% BS arguing (see the "racism" comments in the FR book thread), and about 10% decent reading (i'm sure I'll see some Nerd Rage about the statistics I just pulled out of my ass too)

Extremely frustrating. And pretty sad considering it's a freaking game we are all talking about.

 

[cangrejoide]

Rifts using MDC. What else need be said eh? D&D, any edition, has a long way to go to catch up.

Thank you. Mr. Siembieda will come along any minute now with a C&D for this thread.

Way to go Joe, way to go!

 

[Varianor Abroad]

I went with "Some of" as an option. I was going to post about "4E only causing rifts with Old Skool Gamers on the Internet" but then I saw ProfessorCirno's post, which I think is far more intuitive, intelligent and introspective.

 

[darjr]

I'm in a 3.5 group and we are happy playing 3.5.

I'm also in a 4e group and we are happy playing 4e.

Some of the 3.5 group are in other 4e groups and most of the 3.5 group has professed an interest in 4e, just not quite yet. I dunno, they don't see 3.5 as broken nor 4e as better enough yet to switch.

The 4e group I'm in, other then myself and one other player in the above 3.5 group, are all complete 4e converts or newbies. New players and a brand spanking new DM. Many of them are playing because of 4e.

 

[Andor]

*shrug* I think 4e has caused a Rift amoung D&D players. Unlike some I don't think this is the end of the world. In many ways the old days when 2e was a dinosaur that didn't know it was dead yet, it was a richer gaming enviroment. There were more gaming companies in the big leagues, and a wider selection of games available, both by genre and within genre.

In the meantime I'll happily play 3e and willingly play 4e.

Game on.