Yea, Henry!
Henry said:
A thought struck me this morning (ouch!) and frankly, I don't know why it never occurred sooner:
For all the complaints and concern about the length of time between editions that have occurred, people don't seem to be taking into account the POWERFUL effect that the internet has on playtesting and on revision of existing rules.
In the 1970's, it took years for the consensus of the gaming community to filter back to a company, assuming the company was listening in the first place.
In the 1980's, the advent of BBS's helped people share their interests and their optional rules, but the internet still was not a user-friendly place to be.
Even still in the early 90's, a company did not have many means to ascertain the direct pulse of a community built around their products. The advent of AOL, GEnie, Compuserve, and the internet galvanized who communities of gamers, and showed people the beginnings of instant feedback. For better or for worse, just as computer programs now have amazingly short development times between revisions, RPG designers have harnessed the ability of a community to determine 
from Shinola in rapid time.
It still takes a long time to discern between valid complaints and suggestions, and loud-mouthed grousing, but think about the fact that when someone comments that the Grappling Rules are cumbersome and have errors, that the DESIGNER of said grappling rules is likely listening right as it's being said! At what point in prior history has a designer of a product been able to listen to hundreds of thousands of feedback almost immediately after releasing their product?
The fact that money is a concern is not a question to me. But the idea that a revision is "too soon" is using the turnaround cycles of a non-internet age as a point of comparison to a new era in customer satisfaction and feedback.
On ENWorld, we have some posters who get outraged when a complaint is not answered in 3 hours or less; how much more instantaneous are the demands from a game designer on new or revised product?
BINGO!
Here all we are, taking the privilege and power of internet communication for granted... Our society is becoming more obsessed with speed and fast gratification! We want everything "yesterday"--and have the gall to demand things of our fellow human beings greater than a human can accomplish, because communication technology of the last 8 years is actually exceeding the average human capacity to cope with the pace of new information.
How much time in front of a computer, and presumably on the internet, do we spend just trying to keep up with, emails, chats, and discussions (all the while trying to sift through priorities and interests)? And how much of that time spent was
really worth it? I'm 40. 10 years ago, when the internet was still an obscure academic/geek thing and cell phones were just a business fad, life was less complicated, and the business world did quite well with the technology at the time!
The IT rage was sold to us as "convenient", "efficient", even "environmentally friendly" (LOL, what a lie that was! Have you seen the reems of paper the average PC disgorges in a typical office? Or the hundreds of millions of old PCs and cellphones piled in huge mountainous dumps?). I think we've been sold a lot of "BS"! And I see a whole generation of youth who of nothing but this paradigm! A paradigm where patience, class, manners, and mutual respect are sacrificed for expendient gratification.
We are spoiled by the technology we currently enjoy--if solar activity were to shutdown the internet for, say 3 months (just the summer months), would we know what to do with our lives anymore? Imagine no working computers nor internet nor cell phones for three months... If you cannot, then you know sucked in by technology you've become! I will wager, that in spite of frustration of not being to communicate as quickly, and anonymously, as we do now, those 3 months would be a genuine revelation! (I experienced such a thing when I stopped having cable TV--I was reduced to 3 local channels via antenna. At first it was a shock, but very quickly I recovered alot of my personal time; and that afforded me the opportunity to become a DM
)
I imagine 3 months of no computers would significantly lower the rate of obesity, a genuine epidemic in North America. (Enough on NA consumer eating behaviours; I could write a scathing tome on it!)
I like RPG's because it is a social thing (meeting other humans face-to-face), a table top event (usually), and requires "brains"! In constrast, while I've gotten sucked into hours of PC gaming, emailing, and chatting, I can honestly say 90% of it was a waste of my time--I am not a better person because of the technology of today. (A more stressed person, but not a better human being for all the time and $ spent!) I mean, how much information on the internet, even at a site like this one, do we actually retain and use to our advantage?
It's such a double edged sword too: think of all the new friendships and contacts the IT age has permitted to flourish?
*sigh* Too much chaff, not enough wheat, eh?
The internet has certainly ramped up the pace of technological change, and that in turn has affected our society. The only thing that can't really change is the nature of the human animal and the built-in limitations (thought processing, learning, vocalization, listening, feeling, sensitivities, personal experiences, and
meaning of life...)
All that said, and I had to get something out of my system
, I think that the utility and efficacy of 3.5 over 3.0 will dictate 3.5's success. Was it too soon? I think the older one is, the more likely one is to say "yes". A 15 year old gamer will see 3 years as "friggin' forever"; a 35 year gamer will percieve 3 years as "only yesterday". Am I "correct"?
-W.
I imagine that, given that Monte wrote the original material, this has something to do with the copyright and plagiarism laws.
