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Message: <blockquote data-quote="thedungeondelver" data-source="post: 5483031" data-attributes="member: 34865">I'm going to preface this by saying I should probably have my head examined posting this message this late in the thread.  I will also say that I have no dog (any longer) in the I-hate-4e-fight.  I don't.  With that said (and yes I posted something like this elsewhere, but I wanted to edit it up and rather than just link back there, mention it here where it was salient to this thread):My take on the Mearls'  article is:  He seems to say that Wizards of the Coast has a big tent and darn it all why can't everyone just come underneath and play and have a good time?He's ignoring the fact that for a lot of gamers, WotC have put that tent up in the courtyard  of a castle with unassailable walls and a locked gate, through which  only fans of 4e may pass (currently; they'll probably all be thrown out  in 18 months or so and only fans of the next iteration may stay or come  in).  People in internet forums who shout "shut up and play the D&D  you like" actually have some cachet when they say so...because those  folks don't hold the keys to that locked gate.When the public face of WotC shouts "shut up and play the D&D you  like" it's at the very best naively hollow and at the worst cynical and  assholish because you're not giving folks an avenue to play the D&D they like.   Or - no!  Wait!  Yes they are!  You can get used previous edition  D&D books!  You can get games that are almost like D&D!  Right?   Is that it?  The statement being made is "Well...you can go off and  play clone games, or buy old books, but we're not supporting you but darn it everyone can play the D&D they like!" then the cognitive dissonance in that piece becomes thick enough to walk on.At that point, we can do a reduction for about 10 minutes on a high boil  and we're left with the essence of what he's saying which is : "Go  away."Well, some ask, what do you WANT?I want: WotC to quit pretending old D&D didn't exist, or that it was  bad and messed up and wrong and only the committee that designed 4e got  it right, and to quit doing something so obviously stupid that even I  can figure out that it's wrong, and that's keeping PDFs under lock and  key.  I don't demand that 5e feature backwards compatibility with  AD&D.  A slipcase "classic edition" limited re-release of AD&D  books would be nice but isn't necessary.  I sure as hell don't  want new adventures.  Got plenty, thanks.  Just put the PDFs back up and  quit pretending that, without that, "It's all D&D, baby".  Because  until you give people back a reliable, legal avenue to play actual real  D&D other than what is out now, it isn't "all D&D".  It's "the  game we want you to play, and nothing else."That's it.  That's all.  The servers the PDFs were hosted on weren't  WotCs, the transactions weren't managed by WotC's servers, it cost WotC nothing  to maintain.  Conversely, it was income, period.  Pure and simple.  The  argument that "oh how can you expect them to sell a competing product"  is pretty specious.  Either [CURRENT EDITION] is strong enough to stand on its  own, or it isn't.  If it isn't, it's crap and should be done away with.   If it is, and people recognize that, they won't be "confused" by "other  versions".  I well remember when Bastion Press started the whole  scanning business how excited people were - people who had no interest  in playing AD&D (that's the scans Bastion Press started with, by the way, and the AD&D DUNGEON MASTERS GUIDE .pdf was the top selling item on WotC's online store for a long long time after it was released).  Why?  Because  with the exception of a few psychos with a frothing Hatred of All  Things Gygax(TM), lots of folks were eager to get copies of old modules  to convert, or a DUNGEON MASTERS GUIDE to have handy for gem generation,  poison generation and, yes, "wandering prostitutes".  And - get this! -  they used it alongside their 3rd edition books and nobody died and everyone was beautiful.Apparently the world where WotC lives now is a place where up is down  and black is white and I don't even know what could be going through  their heads but at this juncture, again, saying "It's all D&D" is  about as hollow as a chocolate easter bunny without something to back  that up.</blockquote>

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