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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Felix" data-source="post: 3973753" data-attributes="member: 3929">Ayup.Check. Your. Sources.Regardless of what standard of "popularity" you're using for the Book of 9 Swords, and regardless of the truth value of if it was "popular" or not, there is no incentive for WotC to call the book anything but "popular".As I was reading this thread I thought to myself, "Self, I remember thumbing through the book and being underwhelmed and uninterested by it. I also remember lots of buzz on the boards about particulars that folks didn't like, and agreeing with them. But in this thread WotC said it was popular, and it seems they'll be basing 4e on some of its ideas and mechanics, so maybe I was wrong about the Book of 9 Swords."I had this thought as a person who doesn't expect to buy 4e, and who wasn't enamored by the Bo9S. I'm not saying that somewhere there creeps a marketing exec giggling and twirling his mustache because he's doing this on purpose; I'm just saying that if WotC is trying to shake things up a bit and revive the game's popularity by offering a different game with shiny new mechanics, then "popular" is one of the words I'd use as a marketer to describe the beta testing. It suggests that while the new game is different, some of the fundaments were well received by folks who loved the game that you, yes you, loved: and you'll love it too!So there's no reason to call the book anything but popular. It follows the adage: When In Doubt, Declare Success!A response to this, of course, would be that there is little incentive for WotC to base a new edition on something unpopular. If WotC wanted to stay with the same old formula for D&D, you'd be right. But something tells me that WotC is taking a risk here: something tells me they're not basing a new edition on something that was popular, but rather basing it on something that will be popular, even if it grew from something that wasn't. The relationship between roses and compost heaps comes to mind. So whatever the Bo9S was, WotC thinks (hopes? prays?) 4e will be popular. Maybe it was a popular book. Maybe it's a marketer's gimmick. Maybe because 4e *will be popular*, a previous expression of its game design philosophy should also have been popular: and so it necessarily was. *shrug*Meh. I wouldn't put too much store in WotC calling one of its products "popular"; coming from their lips the word is meaningless.</blockquote>

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