D&D 4E Is my friend's unwillingness to try 4e irrational?

[atom crash]

And to expand on what Umbran posted above, in our lives the cheese is being moved on us all the time. (Confound you Umbran for bring "Who Moved My Cheese" into this!) Change is scary for many people, and it can also be irritating to being constantly forced to adapt to different/new situations at work or school. We take comfort in what is familiar and known.

Some people may especially enjoy the fact that in their gaming experience, the cheese wasn't moving. But now it is. We'll need to learn a new system -- even if the new system is "better," its different, and there are some who may feel more comfortable playing a system they know than trying to learn a new system, even if it is supposed to be better. And we won't really know for sure if it will be better -- and how much better it may be -- until we try it out.

That's enough to frustrate a reasonable person.

 

[sjmiller]

You know, I can really feel for Bob in this case. I am not a fan of 4e and do not plan on converting to it. Do I have logical reasons for this? Not really, at least not that I can really put into words. It's more of a gut feeling, just a personal feeling that what I have heard about 4e rubs me the wrong way. Sure, I have some more concrete reasons for not being a fan: cost, inclusion of things I do not like, exclusion of things I do like, etc. My overriding reasons are entirely in the personal feeling area. Is it logical? Not really. It is, however, my opinion, which means it is neither right nor wrong.

I bet that Bob feels the same way. Something, or maybe several somethings, about 4e rub him the wrong way. He can't put his finger on it, but he doesn't like it.

Being pressured by your group to "switch and be happy, or else" is not going to help the situation.

 

[mmu1]

This topic reminds me of my own reaction to 3.5 coming out. I was (broadly speaking) against it, most people I gamed with were for it. I found that annoying, because most of them had no reason to switch other than the fact they were happy to go with the flow - or so it seemed to me - but I quickly realized there was little point in talking about it. In the large scheme of things, it didn't really matter to me that much, so rather than argue about it with them, I let it go and did my best to ignore the parts that annoyed me.

Now, if it was 4E they were planning a change to, chances are I'd have dug in my heels instead, but I don't know what excuses I might have given for it. I might very well have tried to go with something like "it's too much work to change all my books", or "it's too expensive" or "sorry, I just don't like it" rather than state my real feelings on the subjects, which would have been something like:

"I'm really angry that we're dropping something that works, even though we don't have enough information about the new game, you failed to consider what do we have carefully enough, and the little I've seen rubs me the wrong way and IMO looks like crap. Thanks a lot, it's great to know that in a few months I'll probably have one less group to play with."

Sometimes it's good when people keep their feelings bottled up and take them to the grave.

 

[PoeticJustice]

Let's analyze the economic motive, instead of focusing on the other reasons Bob won't voice.

Why is economy an issue? Could he take umbrage at the fact that 4E is coming only a few years after 3.5, which was itself on the heels of 3.0? I know this reasoning factors into my decision of not moving to 4E. I don't think it's the right time for a new edition, nor do I think what's wrong with 3.5 is worth fixing with money. Could he be 'voting with his dollar'?

Also, learning new rules can be a pain for some of us.

Just something to think about.

 

[Betote]

Why? They complain that the D&D 3.5 translations suck. For example, that the names chosen for feats are often words that don't mean what they should.

I wouldn't say the Spanish translation of 3.5 sucks. I find most of the feat names et al quite evocative, but there's a long tradition of saying that Spanish translations suck.

Forgotten Realms' translations do suck, however

 

[kennew142]

Why are so many gamers unwilling to switch to a different game, and focus only on one?

I can only answer this one anecdotally. Not all gamers are hardcore gamers. My wife, for example, loves D&D (we've been playing togwther since 1981). She played GURPS, HERO and RQ when I ran them, but more because she wanted to play with me than for love of those games. She is always most comfortable with the tropes and mechanics of D&D. She is interested in the upcoming 4e because it seems to be addressing the issues that bother her with 3e, but when it comes down to it D&D is D&D no matter what the edition. It always feels more like D&D than it does like other games.

My wife wouldn't throw a fit if we started up a GURPS/HERO/WOD/Whatever game. But she would probably find something else to do instead. It is easier to do that now that we have three children. My group doesn't do non-D&D games anymore because for some gamers it is too much work to track different rule systems at the same time. We all like playing together, so we only play one system at a time.

 

[Grazzt]

You know, I can really feel for Bob in this case. I am not a fan of 4e and do not plan on converting to it. Do I have logical reasons for this? Not really, at least not that I can really put into words. It's more of a gut feeling, just a personal feeling that what I have heard about 4e rubs me the wrong way.

I've got a couple of friends that feel the same way. They are either going to stick with 3.5, roll back to an older version of the game, or move completely away from D&D to something else (the last being the most likely from what Ive heard). 4E (the stuff we know) just doesn't seem to interest them at all.

 

[Arnwyn]

Why are so many gamers unwilling to switch to a different game, and focus only on one?

1) Limited time (eg. time it takes to learn other games).
2) Bad experiences with other games and/or games simply not being for them.

These are the two biggies for us.

 

[Ourph]

Just as a vaguely related side note:

Why are so many gamers unwilling to switch to a different game, and focus only on one?

Our group is almost exactly opposite the situation kennew142 describes above. We all love to try new games, but when it comes to D&D we don't see any reason to switch around between editions. We found ONE D&D that we like and we're sticking with it for D&D gaming. When we want something different, we play a different game, not another flavor of D&D.

 

[Eldragon]

Anyone who passes judgment on 4e (be it for or against) before they have seen the book is foolish. There is no other way to describe it. Or, to use the parlance of the times: Don't knock it until you try it.

We have been given bits and pieces about 4e and nothing else. It is too soon to decide if you will or won't be switching your games to 4e.

I'm no longer excited about 4e, and have since started up a new 3.5 game. But that does not mean I will refuse to play 4e when presented the option.