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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hamburger Mary" data-source="post: 3816661" data-attributes="member: 17363">No. I think he, James Waytt, did hear them. He read those threads, one of which was specifically about his book. But do you honestly think that the upper management of Wizards of the Coast made their decision based purely on the rabid posting of, for most of the thread, two people? He may have "heard" them - that doesn't mean that their posts forced him to change his mind about the right direction for the setting. Take another look at things he's posted. That last one is especially critical, particularly the highlighted part. He doesn't say "I was convinced by Shady314's repeated complaints about how it would ruin his personal campaign." In fact, he says nothing about Andy, Chris, or even himself being influenced by the fans whatsoever. Yes, he "heard" the fans. However, the facts of the matter are that the TLA had not been set in stone, that Eberron is very different from FR, and that when the upper managers of WotC considered the issue they decided that it was the wrong approach for Eberron. Don't get me wrong: I'm sure that the posters helped, especially those who presented rational arguments. But frankly, I think it's utterly ridiculous to assume that any of the WotC staff somehow felt pressured to do this by a handful of people posting on the message boards - that James said "Oh my god, I can't let Shady down!" As I've said before, I doubt Andy Collins has even read the relevant Eberron thread - though I'm sure he's aware of the general uproar over FR. I think that they saw the impact of the change to FR and that this was sufficient to make them reconsider the need for such changes in Eberron - and that when they did, they realized these changes are unnecessary. So sure, James "heard" the fans. All I'm saying is that I think he then considered the issue and made what he believed to be the right decision - not that he felt compelled to to what they said. This isn't the squeaky wheel getting the grease; it's the squeaks helping to identify a fundamental problem with the wheel, at which point the grease was a logical solution. If you really think James, Andy, and Chris are all letting Shady314 direct their decisions, you've got a much lower opinion of them than I do.</blockquote>

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