Is it just me, or is anyone else out there a little perplexed by the wild excitement of the MerricB's on this board?
WOTC wants to make more money. That's their job; they make money. As a company, that's is their goal. Fine. To do this, they have decided to release 4E.
As gamers, and consumers, we know why they are doing this: again, to make money. It's not because our 3.5 games suddenly became unplayable. It's not because we were clamoring for 4E (the majority of gamers in most polls on this site didn't desire 4E for a number of years yet, if at all). It's not because WOTC really wants to make the game more fun for us; if their new release manages this, that's a bonus.
The bottom line is money; they know they can make a huge profit out of 4E, and that's why it is being created and released. If it's a great game, that is icing on the cake.
{I'm sure many WOTC people are working hard to make it a great game. But 4E is going to be release when the business people say, not when it is honed into "greatness." }
So, honestly, why is everyone getting so excited/crazy about this?
How are you not simply acting like little pawns being pushed around the board by the WOTC PR people?
If you are playing 3.5 and having fun, why even bother looking at/wasting time with 4E until (at the very least) it is released for a few months, and you get a chance to read reviews and do some (free) game tests?
All this chitter-chatter and overheated parsing of WOTC 4E snippets; it's really a bit sad.
I don't understand the blind fan-boy devotion, which is what I see in a lot of 4E threads. It is a new release of the game, released to make money. WOTC wants your money. That is the bottom line. And for this you are hopping up and down with excitement, your fistful of dollars extended?
Isn't it, well, more normal to, well, you know, actually view a new product with a modicum of skepticism, educate yourself about it (after it is released), and only then - if what you see matches your expectations - get excited about it and buy it?
Why this sheep-like, herd-like, lemming-like thralldom to WOTC financial-driven announcements?
