MasterTrancer
Explorer
In my opinion yes, any game designer should shape the product she's working on...otherwise why bother with designers in the first place? A bunch of clerks could just gather the results of (endless) polls and forum posts and create the most mediocre (in that it appeals to everyone) system...sounds fun huh?
The true issue, as many have greatly exposed before my post, is that when you work on something as powerful (almost living) as D&D you should appease the whim of the greatest part, that otherwise would turn back to whichever edition it likes the most.
Which brings us to what I see as the core of the problem: why create editions upon editions?
The first answer that comes to mind is "so to unite the fanbase", but it would be too naive, and plainly disconnected from the real world.
I remember that when 3E came out, one of its main tenets was "to solve the multiple decades houseruling of 2E"...which considering the age of 2E seemed rightful, though the 3.5E offspring may have hindered the original target.
I wasn't playing anymore D&D due to personal life when 4E came out, so I can't know why it was coinceived, other than my personal opinion in browsing through the PHB (or however it's called, I just borrowed it from a friend) which ran along the lines of "this new D&D is targeted mainly to the now-10-yrs-old, raised on M:tG and such" (which was perfectly fine and rightful as well, just didn't suit my flavor of play...though I haven't been able to actually try it out, so I may be terribly wrong).
So, I'm coming back to the original question: why Next? (I know that this may have and surely has been answered countless times, but I'm a very recent comeback to D&D)
Is it a move compared to my 4E guess, i.e. so to bring new players in the movement? If that's the case, great!
To unite previous-editions players? Don't see it working.
To give another flavor to old-time players? Nice, though I can't see that strong drive in this, so to create a new venue.
I know that I am a dreamer, but woulnd't it reap more money putting out new, updated books for the various settings (and settingless as well), with the rules to be used with all the previous editions?
I am no experienced game designer, though I would have considered also this, which would have alienated way less people to the game in my view.
My 2 pieces of low currency,
MT
The true issue, as many have greatly exposed before my post, is that when you work on something as powerful (almost living) as D&D you should appease the whim of the greatest part, that otherwise would turn back to whichever edition it likes the most.
Which brings us to what I see as the core of the problem: why create editions upon editions?
The first answer that comes to mind is "so to unite the fanbase", but it would be too naive, and plainly disconnected from the real world.
I remember that when 3E came out, one of its main tenets was "to solve the multiple decades houseruling of 2E"...which considering the age of 2E seemed rightful, though the 3.5E offspring may have hindered the original target.
I wasn't playing anymore D&D due to personal life when 4E came out, so I can't know why it was coinceived, other than my personal opinion in browsing through the PHB (or however it's called, I just borrowed it from a friend) which ran along the lines of "this new D&D is targeted mainly to the now-10-yrs-old, raised on M:tG and such" (which was perfectly fine and rightful as well, just didn't suit my flavor of play...though I haven't been able to actually try it out, so I may be terribly wrong).
So, I'm coming back to the original question: why Next? (I know that this may have and surely has been answered countless times, but I'm a very recent comeback to D&D)
Is it a move compared to my 4E guess, i.e. so to bring new players in the movement? If that's the case, great!
To unite previous-editions players? Don't see it working.
To give another flavor to old-time players? Nice, though I can't see that strong drive in this, so to create a new venue.
I know that I am a dreamer, but woulnd't it reap more money putting out new, updated books for the various settings (and settingless as well), with the rules to be used with all the previous editions?
I am no experienced game designer, though I would have considered also this, which would have alienated way less people to the game in my view.
My 2 pieces of low currency,
MT