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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 5846270" data-attributes="member: 82106">The evidence? Well, you could go read what Ryan Dancy has to say on the subject, who is probably (at least arguably) the most knowledgeable person around on the subject. He's stated many times that the handwriting has been pretty much on the wall for the last 10 years, if not longer.Beyond that there's just general observation. TT PnP RPGs have a lot more things competing for people's entertainment time and attention now than they did 30 years ago, that's for sure. None of this can have escaped WotC's attention. Certainly they didn't do an edition roll from 3.5 just on a whim either. Clearly the trend has been to an older player base, a smaller player base, and a player base that has less time and wants to use it well. 3.5 was sort of a monster in that last respect. Suffice it to say that there are a number of issues with RPGs and D&D in particular, and 4e was clearly aimed at addressing all of them to some degree or other. It is a more modern game, more maintainable, more in line with 21st Century patterns of media consumption and was intended to open up new business models and appeal to a wider audience. It is arguable of course whether or not it succeeded in its aims and if not exactly why, but there's little or no doubt when you study the question from the business/industry side that there were very clear market forces at work there.Going back simple isn't a viable option. The best they could ever hope for would be to be right back where they were 6 or 8 years ago, when they were already well aware of all of this and looking for long-term solutions. If 5e is just a return to the olden days then it will immediately generate a need to be replaced by something that does what 4e was built to do and we'll be right back where we are now in no time flat. Assuming WotC is not dumb, which is a fairly safe bet overall, this is simply not going to happen (and I doubt Hasbro would bother to let them waste the money developing such a product anyway).</blockquote>

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