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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rounser" data-source="post: 4423134" data-attributes="member: 1106">Maybe you're not seeing the forest for the trees.  The basic design of both M:tG and 4E is:1) Simple set of base rules for combat.2) Thousands of exceptions based on special abilities/powers/whatever.That's the exception-based game design model.  WOTC even states in one of the core books that they're following it.  All those powers are the exceptions, and map pretty much directly to an exception on an M:tG card - both require "breaking the rules" for a special instance, because Guzzlewomps can be tapped to draw an extra card that goes directly to the discard pile unless it's a land, and 4th level Haberdashers can move an opponent a space on a successful hit, so long as it's Tuesday and they're wearing green tights.Do you follow? Indeed, but it would be naive to assume that D&D hasn't been built to help sell them.Again, I think it would be naive to assume that it wasn't designed with an eye to turning D&D IP into CRPGs, MMORPGs, and DDI online gaming.  I could be wrong.They're also pretty specific to WoW, just as WOTC is trying to make dragonborn specific to D&D.  That's trademarkable product identity branding guff, right there.  Do you think it was a coincidence that the tiefling got ousted from the PHB cover and replaced by the dragonborn?  My guess is that "tiefling" got pipped for the flagship of branding, and when the distributors complained, the runner-ups (dragonborn) got to go in the driver's seat.  They're trying to brand the game as something not generic.  This is bad for D&D, as it can no longer do generic fantasy by default.  People who homebrew don't necessarily want specific flavour.  The implied setting is supposed to be a baseline, not a bleeding edge.Not customer service retention, just customer retention.  GW is cavalier with regard to pleasing and retaining their established players (i.e. who cares about them once they've bought several hundred dollars of minis they'll use a handful of times), and WOTC is showing signs of it too with 4E.  The new edition is new in that 3E took a "softly softly" approach to the IP because they weren't sure whether anyone would convert.  Maybe 3E taught WOTC that this fear was unfounded, and they could go to town on the game.  It remains to be seen whether this is true.</blockquote>

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