screaming that "nobody" wants them is a bit much.
Well, he didn't say "nobody," he said, "we," which might be the Royal We, or it might just be him and his imaginary friend Carl, or whatever, but as long as he knows two people who don't want it, he's good.
I, personally, don't want randomized boosters in any game that I play or run.
While I appreciate the perspective that they are not "better" powers and that the boosters are "optional," like a D&D splatbook, there is one defining difference that still casts a pallor on the whole affair for me.
I buy a D&D splatbook, and I know what I am getting. I can page through it at the bookstore, read reviews of the contents, see previews, get excited for new abilities and archetypes and rules and tricks, and totally dork out on that gearhead aspect of this hobby.
I buy a randomized booster pack, and I have no idea what I am getting. It might be something awesome, it might be 90% crap, it might be repeats of everything I've seen before, it might be nothing fun, it might be EVERYTHING fun. Usually, what sells a D&D book to me is the equivalent of a "killer app," something that I want to use in my games next week, and some stuff that I might want to use in my games in the future. There's nothing like that for a random booster pack. I might get something good, but I might also get a lot of poo.
The point is, I don't know if it's worth the money I'm going to spend on it. The "draw from a deck" mechanic can still be random without every supplement I'm buying being random, too. The Wand of Wonder and the Deck of Many Things are randomized mechanics, but I don't pay $6 for extra Wild Magic results that may or may not be awesome.
Combine that with what is, for me, the uniquely narrative nature of an RPG, and you have a problem. Random supplements steal narrative control away from the group and put it in the hands of a random card-shuffling machine at the WotC card-mill. When I am making a story (which is part of what I do when I play D&D), I want to have freedom to determine my character's nature, behavior, abilities, history, etc.; and if I'm the DM, I want to be able to do the same thing for the setting. "Booster Packs" hurt that control. Suddenly, chance is the arbiter of cool in the game, and, of course, the more $6 booster packs you buy, the better chance you have of actually being cool. The choice isn't in my hands or the player's hands, like it is with D&D supplements, but in the hands of a little vacuum-sealed plastic pack.
Now, this is only my personal opinion. Others might not have a problem with it, or might even be excited by it (though I'm not hearing much from those who are excited by it in this thread, at least). I'm okay with that.
But I am not going to purchase a game that recommends randomized boosters of anything. I won't even buy the first starter set, because I don't want to buy into something I'm not going to support. I don't want to get it and miss out on the cool, so I just won't get it. I also don't want to encourage this model of generating revenue, because if it was successful, and if it grew beyond this little GW experiment, into the games that I do like to play, I would become increasingly marginalized until I gave up the hobby altogether and went to play videogames (and bring any kids I have with me).
Not everyone agrees with me, probably, which is fine, but GW seems niche enough within a niche that I won't really have to deal with it, and if most people agree with me, the model won't spread beyond GW's little borders.
