D&D 5E Has 5E Restored or Diminished Your Faith in WotC?

[Pour]

Unfortunately, it's diminished my faith in WotC. Just looking at the product schedule for 2012, the last real 4e product comes out in May. So much has been left undone, which I won't bother to list here. We've gotten promises about DDI content providing a few gems, but it's simply not enough. The uncertainty of the 4e tools is even more discouraging come 2014.

As for a 5th edition, it seems the strengths and contributions of my favorite edition are being relegated to feat tax and a theorized 'tactical module' in 5e, or else being ignored outright. The way WotC has been pandering to older editions, I already feel like my playtest feedback will be less regarded than lapsed players'. I want to give 5e a fair shake, I just imagine the edition lobbyists and vocal haters will have their way in what, perhaps, is an already largely decided-on system. Did the Edition Wars count as playtest feedback?

Ah well. It doesn't help my mood how many people are using 5e as an excuse to hate on 4e yet again. So yeah, my faith is diminished, not only in WotC but the earlier edition communities at large. There's some good people in that crowd, but the last 4 years of Edition Warring have left me wary and suspicious of 1e-3e gamers as a whole. They've made it loud and clear I am not one of them, that my tastes are sub-par, that I play a shadow of their former glory, and that they don't identify with me. Well, I don't identify with most of them, either, and I don't want to identify with most of them. 5e won't change that. At best, it'll allow me to play my preferred style under the same number as they're playing their preferred style. Is that really unity?

 

[AeroDm]

If forced to choose I'd say diminished, but really it has just slightly solidified my impression that WotC is moving farther away from me. I look at 4e and objectively see a solid RPG, it just isn't an RPG directed at my preferences, and that's okay. I probably haven't been a very profitable customer for WotC for a while now and I doubt 5e is going to change that. From what I've seen so far, they're doing a nice job of not repeating mistakes and are aiming towards a universal edition, I just don't think it can be pulled off. I don't see how they can produce an edition that caters to a wide range of tastes without spending resources (and asking me to pay for) rules and content I have no intention to use. I'll check it out, I'll keep an open mind, but my gut isn't telling me I'm excited.