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General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
Should I play 4e?
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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7621886" data-attributes="member: 996"><p>3e & 4e /certainly/ consolidated a lot of needless complexity. Just the d20 core mechanic was huge (tiny?) that way. Nothing 'mere' about it. </p><p></p><p>Yet, here you are, weighing in. ;P</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><s> PUll down $50-100 million in a $20 million market, at the brink of the worst recession since the great depression, using as a prime selling point a bit of software developed by one guy, who, to put it very delicately, died. (nor is that the whole story)</s></p><p><s></s></p><p> <s>Downright tragic, really. </s></p><p><s></s></p><p><s></s></p><p> <s>Of course, those videogames & MMOs were derivative of D&D, to begin with, so, meh. </s></p><p><s></s></p><p><s>Bottom line, 4e was an RPG. To say it's "like a video game" or "like an heroic fantasy movie" isn't entirely false, but it in no way makes it less of an RPG.</s></p><p><s></s></p><p> <s>The edition war probably didn't cause anyone who actually gave 4e a real try to reject it... OK... not many people, there are some serious 'followers' out there, I suppose. 4e was as good a game as D&D has ever managed to be, and if you weren't too deeply wedded to the flaws of past editions, it was hard to dislike.</s></p><p><s></s></p><p><s>But the controversy of the edition war definitely kept a LOT of people from trying it. Just like nerdrage has torpedoed many a franchise's attempt to break into the mainstream before. </s></p><p><s></s></p><p><s></s></p><p> <s>You'd need a few more counter-factuals, like a realistic revenue goal, or a realistic software-development effort; or being released in 2013 after running 3.5 into the ground; or something, probably several somethings. 4e was released into a perfect storm. It could have cured cancer and brought peace to the middle east and still failed.</s></p><p><s></s></p><p><s></s></p><p> <s>I want to clarify: If you hated 4e because it wasn't broken in the old familiar way, you might've hated it less if you gave Essentials a fair shot. So not a good experience, but a more familiarly D&D - bad - experience.</s></p><p><s></s></p><p><s></s></p><p> <s>It's also really simple: The Warlord was the only class in the 4e PH1 that was unique to that edition. Because of the "PH1" caveat, to include it was to include 4e fans and to exclude it was to willfully snub them. By the same token, to include it was to just start the edition war all over again, and sabotage yourself. So they did what they had to do.</s></p><p><s></s></p><p><s></s></p><p> <s>From Hasbro's PoV, the d20 SRD is probably the worst thing WotC ever did, so I'm guess'n that'll happen, never.</s></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 7621886, member: 996"] 3e & 4e /certainly/ consolidated a lot of needless complexity. Just the d20 core mechanic was huge (tiny?) that way. Nothing 'mere' about it. Yet, here you are, weighing in. ;P [s] PUll down $50-100 million in a $20 million market, at the brink of the worst recession since the great depression, using as a prime selling point a bit of software developed by one guy, who, to put it very delicately, died. (nor is that the whole story) Downright tragic, really. Of course, those videogames & MMOs were derivative of D&D, to begin with, so, meh. Bottom line, 4e was an RPG. To say it's "like a video game" or "like an heroic fantasy movie" isn't entirely false, but it in no way makes it less of an RPG. The edition war probably didn't cause anyone who actually gave 4e a real try to reject it... OK... not many people, there are some serious 'followers' out there, I suppose. 4e was as good a game as D&D has ever managed to be, and if you weren't too deeply wedded to the flaws of past editions, it was hard to dislike. But the controversy of the edition war definitely kept a LOT of people from trying it. Just like nerdrage has torpedoed many a franchise's attempt to break into the mainstream before. You'd need a few more counter-factuals, like a realistic revenue goal, or a realistic software-development effort; or being released in 2013 after running 3.5 into the ground; or something, probably several somethings. 4e was released into a perfect storm. It could have cured cancer and brought peace to the middle east and still failed. I want to clarify: If you hated 4e because it wasn't broken in the old familiar way, you might've hated it less if you gave Essentials a fair shot. So not a good experience, but a more familiarly D&D - bad - experience. It's also really simple: The Warlord was the only class in the 4e PH1 that was unique to that edition. Because of the "PH1" caveat, to include it was to include 4e fans and to exclude it was to willfully snub them. By the same token, to include it was to just start the edition war all over again, and sabotage yourself. So they did what they had to do. From Hasbro's PoV, the d20 SRD is probably the worst thing WotC ever did, so I'm guess'n that'll happen, never.[/s] [/QUOTE]
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