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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 4922580" data-attributes="member: 19675">There are conversion guides for games as mechanically disparate as 2Ed and HERO 4th, HERO 5th and Tri-Stat, Palladium RPG and 2Ed...Not to mention all of the GURPS or D20 versions of other games out there.3.X has a lot more in common with 4Ed than any of those.2 things you should know about me: My MBA is in Sports & Entertainment marketing; I have no inherent dislike against RPG edition changes.I was actually looking forward to 4Ed before I got it.And even before I got my hands on 4Ed via my pre-order, I was constantly astounded at the (bad) quality of the marketing campaign.  They violated several basic tenets of marketing.Believe me- when you are replacing a successful product, you don't do point by point comparisons with how you're changing things in the new product.  At least, not explicitly.IOW, its one thing to say "We are doing X with this subsystem" and quite another to say "We are doing X with this subsystem which really never worked right and caused a lot of problems in the old edition."  By making that comparison explicit, you evoke an entirely different mentality than when you simply point out you're changing it.  You're inviting the comparison: you're saying the new system is better, when the truth is it may merely be different.  Even if the change is better suited to work other changes you made, outside of that complete context, you've made a statement that begs a value judgment.And by the time the players have a chance to see the change within the complete context of the revised game, that judgment may be set in stone.Consider the marketing of "The Last Temptation of Christ."The ad campaign specifically pointed out that it was a realistic depiction of how the Bible described Jesus' final days on Earth before his crucifixion.  They even mentioned/leaked the nature of the titular temptation- forsaking the sacrifice in favor of a life married to Mary Magdaline.Had they just done standard Hollywood advertising of it, there would not have been a huge backlash among conservative Christians who hadn't seen the movie.Bible movies are HUGE for Hollywood.  They LOVE a big Bible epic.But by talking about how "realistic" and "accurate" they were, by playing up the movie's dialog being in Aramaic, etc., they invited comparison with previous Bible movies.  That the final temptation was something that involves a touchy area of Christian theology- just how human was Jesus- made that comparison all the worse.The movie did fine, to be sure, but it got a LOT of negative press.  (Ultimately, it was probably a wash, but its hard to be sure.)</blockquote>

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