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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Urbannen" data-source="post: 1007220" data-attributes="member: 7643">Not to hijack the hijack or anything...  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />The real criticism that Monte's review brings up is of the business practices of Hasbro.  There are a couple of changes in 3.5 that I do not like at all, almost all of the rest I like or am pleasantly indifferent towards.  I don't think the criticism is the design per se of 3.5.  The problem is that Habro allowed the changes in the book to be so significant that you must switch to 3.5, and you will probably want to buy the books to do so.  Hasbro has used its monopoly to try to force sales in a way that shows bad taste and a desire to manipulate.  Personally I would have had no problem with a truly revised edition with incorporated errata, clarifications, and a couple of major problems corrected (i.e. harm, haste, etc.). all packaged with new artwork.  I wouldn't need to buy such an edition, but new players and new-book hounds could have brought in some money to Hasbro and gotten a hopefully improved product.  Then, in 2008 they release D&D 4.0 to much fanfare.  No problem.Monte's review was appropriate.  The design of 3.5 has a lot of good, some bad, but management's underlying philosophy demonstrates short-sightedness and a lack of respect for the consumer base.  And I don't care if D&D isn't as profitable as Hasbro wants it to be.  Most of the time it isn't even a question of profitability, it's a question of continual profit growth, like from 12% to 13% to 14% every year.  It's hard to see how a game system like D&D is going to be able to deliver "continual profit growth" since you only need one copy of it.  The only way to do so is it treat it like IT intellectual properties, such as the Microsoft software and operating systems, and force the user to continually upgrade.  I think 3.5 is aptly named and is the future of D&D while it remains in the hands of the current corporate culture.</blockquote>

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