billd91
Not your screen monkey (he/him) 🇺🇦🇵🇸🏳️⚧️
As I said before, the criticism WotC expressed for D&D and the "criticism" that fans have towards the "videogamey-ness" of 4E are not even comparable. The first was rational and fair, the latter was not. The former is fine and requires no apology, the latter is not fine and was just plain rude, and an apology might be nice.
I have a somewhat opposite view of some of this. First and foremost, I thought WotC should have known better what sort of reaction they'd get from the criticism and how it was phrased. I remember my impression on first encountering the statement about faerie rings. I was looking over the 4e preview materials in Waldenbooks because I hadn't looked around for much about 4e before that point. I was still optimistic about what it would be like. And that statement was a real forehead slapping "What are they thinking?" moment for me. It was so irrational to kick the sleeping dog of the fanbase.
If anybody knows anything about any fan community they should know that rationalism isn't part of it, at least not in the attachment fans have to the objects of their affection. We aren't Packers fans because it's rational to be Packers fans. There aren't that many people who calculate the cost of fandom and decide that it's more rational to be a Cubs fan to be a White Sox fan. We are fans because we have an emotional attachment to them. We aren't D&D fans because it's rational to play D&D. We are D&D fans because we've invested emotional connections to D&D. Sometimes, it's a particular view of D&D as well. You kick that emotion, you get an emotional response. Ideally, it should at least be polite, true. I can't excuse a lot of behavior on either side of the political divide here (and it's still going on it you peruse some of the other threads in this forum). But I can at least predict it and I'm not even in the gaming industry. That's why I don't see it as "fine". It was amateur stuff from a professional company. I expect better.