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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BryonD" data-source="post: 5825958" data-attributes="member: 957">When talking straight and not playing games I completely agree with you.  Essentials is absolutely NOT a new edition.  But it is also baffling to be so absolutely clear on that and yet try to declare 3.5 a new edition on what amounts to a technicality and in hindsight a business blunder.Yes, 3.5 replaced the 3.0 core.  But to declare that an open and shut case for "new edition" is pretty much the bottom of the barrel in lack of thoughtfulness.  Look at the marketing and market position of 3E when 3.5 came out.  It was HUGE.  A lot of people, with some reasonable evidence to back them up, point at 3.5 as the start of the decline of 3E.  But regardless of whether or not 3.5 had that effect, the point about the VAST popularity of 3E when 3.5 came out flies in the face of any claim that a "new edition" was wanted, needed, or intended.  There was such a massive groundswell of people playing 3E that the feedback was intense.  And a lot of good points were made about places where 3E could be "tuned up".  And with that many people playing, it *seemed* like a great way to sell a bunch of books a second time.  As much as I personally think that 3.5 DID improve on greatness, I'll also readily agree that it wasn't done with charity in the heart of WotC (not that a business need have charity in its heart) and I'll also agree that the unintended consequences were notable.  But the key point is that the driving force behind 3.5 was the huge SUCCESS of 3E.Now look at Essentials.  4E came out of the starting gates with a bang.  And then the engine fell out.  3.5 was marketed at 3E players.  4E was sold as an edition to bring in vast numbers of new players.  And a handful of months later Essentials was marketed at all those people out there NOT playing 4E.  (Remember all that talk about the massive result that were going to flow from non-gamers seeing it on Target shelves?)  Essentials isn't a new edition.  But you don't have any room to express bafflement or dismay or anything else if you want to demand an even more absurd claim.  In the end the key element of new editions is an effort to re-boot popularity.   And by that realistic standard it is more reasonable to call Essentials a "new edition" that was strategically designed to fit side by side the old edition than it is to call the rather cynical milking of the 3E marketplace in the form of 3.5 a "new edition".</blockquote>

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