NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 8946231" data-attributes="member: 6877472">I know, I know.  A lot of people came predisposed to hate 4e because they were invested in 3e (well, at least a version of 3e, since a lot of people seemed really shocked at the changes in 3e, as if they hadn't seen the signs of a new set of design principles after the Warlock, the Magic Item Compendium, and the Tome of Battle).  I mean, I was.  I was perfectly happy to play 3.5, and the first time I played 4e, I was like "uh, hard pass".  It was several years later that I was talked into going to D&D Encounters at the FLGS, and, to my shock, I had a lot of fun.  I instantly became a convert.There are legitimate reasons not to like 4e.  I can totally get that.  But just like you, I've weathered a storm of disinformation that has been spread so thoroughly, that people who never played the edition perpetuate the falsehood ("it was just an MMO").  Or how "4e was the edition that failed" when, in the reality, it had lots of loyal fans.  But the corpo suits decided it didn't have enough fans, and we were totally betrayed when they pulled the plug, and half the game simply vanished from existence.The emotions are still raw, when I think about it.  For years, I've jumped up any time I see people say things I know not to be true, hoping to teach and inform.  But slowly I've come to the realization that the people who believe 4e was garbage, or "not D&D", or "not their D&D" don't want to have their opinions changed.  And the newer players simply make the assumption that if 4e was good, there wouldn't be a 5e.  At this point, any time someone expresses a desire to bring back 4e's good ideas, I support them.  But we're never going back.  And I know someone who is so stuck in the past that they cling to their 2e books and refuse to acknowledge anything has happened since 3e came out in 2000.  I don't want to end up like that.So I've accepted that D&D is whatever people are playing at the moment.  And whatever they have fun with.  Two years ago, the people who complained about 5e and WotC's handling of the hobby were considered grumpy old crackpots.  Today, more and more people claim dissatisfaction with the game.  "WotC can do no wrong because 5e is the most popular version of D&D ever" has started to give way to the truth: Wizards of the Coast is a company.  And companies exist to make money.  All stop.Wizards wants to not rock the boat and change as little as possible, but they're going to realize very quickly that you can't please everyone all of the time.  People who want something different from D&D will go in a different direction, and take their dollars with them.The fanbase broke before over this, and it will again.  One day, a bunch of 5e fans are going to realize they've been left behind, just like the 4e fans before them, and the 3e fans before them, and the 2e fans before them.And it's going to take a lot of outrage (and lost sales) before Wizards really listens, as we've seen. They know what people want, but until it affects their profit margin, they won't care.  Because there is a huge silent majority who are still buying their products, many of whom I'm sure are barely cognizant of D&D One.What we need to do is band together, find common ground, and push Wizards to develop a game we can all accept as being "our D&D".  Because as long as everyone wants very different things, it's inevitable that nobody fully gets what they want.**Well, I mean, probability says that someone will get exactly the game they want, with nothing to complain about or wish was different, but who cares about them, lol.</blockquote>

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