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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Thunderfoot" data-source="post: 8566557" data-attributes="member: 34175">Objectively D&D changed not with video games per se. I would say the first inklings of something in the air was altered was 1992...  I started to notice the change in art work from realistic to cartoonish, weapons went from swords to giant meat cleavers hefted over the shoulder. Armor went from medieval styled protection to pieces of stylized metal and capes billowing in the breeze while wearing headbands on spikey hair.  In a word...Anime killed the feel of old style gritty D&D.  Video games, which were also mostly made in Japan at the time, just followed suit.Gone were the heroes that started as the everyman of pulp fantasy, replaced with wise cracking, loud-mouthed punks who were hot shots from birth.  Gone were the myriad of unique fantasy worlds and in were homogenized fantasy settings.   The state of mind of D&D is less the system and more the reflection of the players, community and society as a whole.As they years progressed fewer and fewer players were influenced solely by the volume of literature they read and more and more influenced by the amount of pop culture they consumed.  This morphing of the 'nerd culture' more than anything lead to the changes in the system.  This is why older players tend to have the 'nostalgia' for the old ways and newer players call older players 'dinosaurs' or worse.  The rules, the settings, the tropes all tend to mirror whatever is currently 'popular' among the players.  None of the systems are perfect in that respect, but different systems tend to highlight or focus on certain aspects more than others.  AD&D was more gritty 4e more 'cartoonish/videogamey' or what have you.  2e more story driven, 3.X and 5e kind of mishmash of all of the above.  As stated earlier 3.5 went from fantasy to more of a dungeonpunk vibe.  Moreover, we all need to recognize that neither forward progress nor old school ways are 'better' they are subjectively acceptable based on your own circumstance.  BECMI and 2e will always be more 'my game' and 4e will always be an 'abhoration' in my mind, simply because of what the were meant to accomplish and who their target audience was.  It doesn't mean 4e is a bad system, just bad for me.  Neither does it mean 2e is the best system, just good for me.    And the more we acknowledge that fact, the more we can get back to gaming.</blockquote>

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