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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 5739479" data-attributes="member: 59082">See, I think part of what WotC hasn't realized is that aesthetics and the general feel of something really impacts a person's feeling for the game. You ( @<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/member.php?u=22424" target="_blank">delericho</a> ) and I may rationally agree that anyone can take what they like of the game and make it their own, and it doesn't matter if art like page 131 of the 4E DMG exists - I can just bypass that and play the game I want to play. But the problem is that everytime I skim by page 131, I am reminded that this iteration of the game was not created with my demographic in mind; it was intended for a much younger group that might say "keewwwl" and be drawn in by that sort of goofiness. OK, maybe that's a bit harsh but my point is that even someone like myself, that takes the "Make it my own" approach, is off-put by that sort of aesthetic; much of the hardcore fanbase of D&D is even more traditional than I am.The problem is that the diehard core of D&D gamers remain an aging set. As far as I can tell, there were two major "migrations" to the game: those, like myself, that started in the early 80s with AD&D and are in their late thirties to forties, and those that started with 3E a decade ago and are in their mid twenties to early thirties. This doesn't mean that there aren't D&D players outside of those zones, but that the bulk of the "bird in hand" is in there--between about age 25 and age 45. It is my opinion that WotC, no matter how much they want to attract new players, should focus their core game on that group--on keeping the bird in hand--because it is that group that will come back and spend hundreds of dollars a year on splat books and will probably play the game until they die. I would even say that it is those core, classic ideas of D&D that set it apart from MMORGs and more modern contrivances, and that for D&D to remain viable deep into the 21st century it is going to have to offer something much different than more computer-generated simulationism (although still remaining technologically up-to-date, but with technology as enhancement, not the focus, but that is another conversation really).So I'm all for dragonborn and tieflings and shardminds and whatever else being part of D&D. But if Mike & Monte are really talking about a more simplified core with a complexity dial, than there is going to be a core game that is at the heart of the D&D experience and, imo, that core game should be classic D&D with only relatively mild flavorings of more recent, exotic offerings.</blockquote>

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