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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Darrin Drader" data-source="post: 4495318" data-attributes="member: 7394">Ah, OK. You know, we often take comments on the internet in the worst possible way since the person isn't present and their body language doesn't give away their cheesy grin when they say something. I took your comment as outright mockery when I can see now how that isn't how you meant it. On the other hand, my original comment was clearly diverging into hyperbole, which is something I occasionally like to have fun with. Mia culpa.I've stated that I don't like the powers mechanic at all, but that isn't the insult. In fact, some streamlining from 3.5 is a good thing. The part that I think is an insult is how you're paying more for less with 4th edition. It isn't just the font size, it's the way that information is placed on the page, the amount of white space, the amount of room taken up by powers when they could have been greatly condensed. If I had some way to compare the wordcount between 3.5 and 4, I'd be able to demonstrate just how much less you get. What we know is that entire classes and races are gone, spells are gone, most magic items are gone. Oh, but they'll be able to sell you these options later on! That's where I personally feel insulted as a customer and as a long-time D&D enthusiast. That's just my personal opinion, but in my mind its valid. If you want to hit the reset button, do it, but find a way to make the purchase of the core rules at least as useful as it was from the previous edition. Or to put it another way, an edition change should be an upgrade, not a downgrade.I can understand why someone might think that I'm saying that they're having badwrongfun. That's not where I'm coming from. I occasionally like to vent because of my own frustration with the direction they took the game. Honestly, I'm cool with players personal preference. Play 4E, play True20, or play OSRIC. It's cool. I just can't bring myself to spend any more money on the current edition of the game, which I find frustrating. After 24 years, D&D has finally become something that I find unpalatable. I stuck with it through the questionable days of second edition, but 4E is several steps too far in a direction that I don't like. I get a headache when I look at all the colored notecard-like blocks of powers in the books. I refuse to design for it.In my case, the vitriol is aimed primarily at marketing, which have gone to some lengths to try and kill the OGL, and to the designers who I know should have delivered something better. I know many of the people involved, I know what the thought processes were behind the direction4E took, and I know that the best interest of the game was not what 4E was all about. It's about transferring as much green as possible from you to Hasbro's shareholders. Given what they put out there, I'd rather take the money I was spending on WotC and give it to the little guys, like Paizo and Green Ronin, because I know that at the core of those businesses are people with an honest and legitimate love for the game, which is something that Hasbro never had and WotC is rapidly losing. I apologize if my comments come across as offensive, but I am offended by what we've been handed.The fact that the OGL can't be revoked means that there is a choice, and for that I'm grateful. I just find it sad that certain business decisions have led to a fracturing of a very large and formerly very supportive community, and that so much anger and intolerance is leveled at people on both sides of the argument. I should mention that someone, who will remain nameless (for now) but has a community supporter account, shot me a private message tonight here at ENWorld that consisted of one word: "Ass." So I'm an ass for saying that I don't like 4E? Diverging opinions now incur hostility here at ENWorld and this is OK? Of course the fact that this was done through a private message and not out here on the boards suggests both immaturity and cowardice. If 4E is such a wonderful game, why the hostility? Why the defensiveness? To me, that just suggests doubt in the minds of the people who can't tolerate their favorite thing being called into question. If a thing is truly good then it can stand up to criticism.</blockquote>

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