To update or not to update? That is the question.

[Kzach]

I see a lot of discussion about errata and updates and don't wish to take away from those discussions but felt that this particular aspect of the conversation deserved it's own thread.

The particular aspect I'm talking about is the question: would you prefer there to be no updates?

For me personally I understand all the people who gripe about updates. It's painful having so much change over time and having to keep up with it all. But at the same time, given that I believe most of the updates work towards making 4e a better and more fun system to play, I'll take the instability over no updates at all, any day.

So I may gripe about updates and errata, and I may not like all the changes, but I'd still rather have them than not. What about you?

 

[Dice4Hire]

Overall, I am about to go back to paper. There are so many updates, and overall they have so little impact on the game, at least with a reasonable group, that it is not worth the effort.

Granted, it is nice to see what people think are overpowered, and some are, I admit, but it is a lot of pain for very little gain at the gaming table.

 

[delericho]

would you prefer there to be no updates?

If my only choices are "what we have now" or "no updates at all", then I would prefer no updates.

However, I refuse to accept that those are the only options. A middle ground must surely be possible.

 

[nikadeemus327]

The system needs to evolve somehow. I'd rather have continual updates instead of stagnation.

 

[Kzach]

If my only choices are "what we have now" or "no updates at all", then I would prefer no updates.

However, I refuse to accept that those are the only options. A middle ground must surely be possible.

Hence why I didn't make it a poll

 

[Mengu]

I want updates. Otherwise laundry lists of house rules will pop up in every game, much like 2nd edition.

I also like the more dynamic environment, with the game evolving to meet the demand. I don't want any paper, or rather I don't want to be stuck with rules on paper. Paper is hard to update.

 

[OnlineDM]

I'm okay with the updates. Sure, it would be lovely if everything WotC ever published remained balanced with later material, and they never screwed anything up. Lots of folks feel that's the appropriate standard, and they should always get it right the first time.

They don't. And yet I still enjoy the game. I enjoy it more with the updates than I would without them.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I like having the updates and (because I am a DDI subscriber) it causes me no difficulty incorporating them into my games. My players and myself also do not get bent out of shape if a power gets changed mid-campaign... as the way we look at it, the characters are what they are based upon personality and how they are roleplayed, not the specific mechanical bits on the character sheet. So retraining has never been an issue, it's never mattered if there was a "consistency" of what a character could do in combat over time, and errataed powers can either be accept as is, or retrained out of. And we have no concern about the idea that "hey, the fighter used to be able to knock enemies prone, but he can't anymore!" (because of a retrain). That kind of character detailing means much less than how the PC is actually acted.

 

[MrMyth]

I am very happy with the current state of updates. If anything, I want more of them. The willingness to analyze the game and fix mistakes that need fixing is, to me, the mark of a professional publisher, and one of the greatest strengths of 4E.

 

[the Jester]

I expect everyone would prefer a game with no updates, but that means a game that is stable, solid, and never expands, so it would need to be 100% complete out of the box. I don't think that's practical with rpgs, where so much of the joy of the game lies in looking at all the new shiny options.

New options, imho, lead to broken combos which lead to errata. Here we are.

Now, that said, I would greatly prefer a "two-step" errata process. First, about two months after release, an errata doc that cleans up any editing issues in Book X. Then a maybe annual update that 'fixes' any major discovered issues system wide.

Monthly or even bi-annual errata updates for the game are too much, imho.