Majoru Oakheart
Adventurer
When I sit down to play D&D, I sit down to play D&D...not this DM's version of D&D.Setting "at best" aside though, the concept of playing a published adventure is contrary, in my opinion, to the very nature of the game. If a DM solicits people to play in his game and then runs a game that someone else created, it violates the social contract. It's like someone inviting you over to watch a movie, sticking a DVD in, and then going out with some other friends and leaving you alone. In the literal sense, you are watching a movie (or playing D&D), but the person's lack of caring and investment is hurtful and socially unacceptable.
When a DM runs an adventure written by someone else, they are still in the room with you and are still participating. They adjudicate. improvise, and modify the adventure according to things happening in the game and decisions made. They aren't abandoning you. They are just doing less of the work themselves.
To continue your analogy, I think it would be like the DM saying, "Hey, come over and we'll watch a movie" and then when you show up and he puts a DVD in and says, "You'll love this movie. I directed it." Most people think "That's awesome, we get to see a movie directed by our friend!" You're implying the social contract should be: "Wait, I thought you were going to write, direct, film AND star in this movie yourself. You never said we were going to watch some Hollywood movie written by some Hollywood writer that you merely directed. Thanks for abandoning us."
I mean, I'm not saying that ISN'T your group's social contract. But I can tell you that isn't everyone's. Nor is it very common. I've seen the GenCon RPGA room filled with nearly 1000 people playing Living Greyhawk where nearly all of them were playing the exact same adventure. I've talked to the people whose entire GenCon is playing or running prewritten adventures for 28 hours....that they paid large amounts of money to fly out and do. I've been to conventions that people have planned all year just to make it a big event to have a premiere of an adventure that attracted people from other countries.