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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 5080685" data-attributes="member: 80487">It's just a fact of life that if I happen to prefer X to Y, then someone else may well prefer Y to X for the same differences.You can't reasonably have your 'better' -- a matter of opinion -- without having a 'different' as a matter of fact. If it's not different, then it cannot be better in any way that has an objective referent.There may be a few who honestly have no preference for one E over another, but that is hardly a compelling argument for shelling out cash for any particular one. Odds are that such indiscriminate D&Ders bought whichever one they're going to buy some time ago.Those who "gotta get 'em all" get to experience the existential angst suffered by every pitiful soul whose beloved E happens not to be the darling of someone somewhere. For them, let there be rendings of cloth, and gnashings of teeth, and castings unto the outer darkness of ... all the rest of us, I guess.People stayed away in droves from Metamorphosis Alpha. Some of them (as well as many others) bought Gamma World, though. A lot of people disliked the price of Empire of the Petal Throne too much to find out how much the contents of the box did not suit them.Some would never play a 'historical' RPG such as Boot Hill or Top Secret, while others balked at the comic-book antics of Marvel Super Heroes.Star Frontiers or Buck Rogers? Heck, a lot of avid players of (A)D&D turned to GDW's Traveller for adventures in the far future.If you just cannot be satisfied unless everyone else shares your preference, then here's a news flash: You are going to be disappointed.It is (literally!) the business of Wizards of the Coast to slap the D&D trademark on whatever they think they can sell that way. Soda pop? Yep -- As Seen On TV, or at least in the ads here on ENworld.None of us has any obligation to like Jones Cola, or anything else just because it has the 'D&D' label on it, any more than because it had the 'TSR' label on it.It would be the same if it were titled Dragonquest or Lords of Creation. "But those are Hasbro trademarks, too!" (Well, they would be if they had not lapsed -- which Advanced D&D apparently has.) "How dare you prefer D&D to DQ or LoC? What sort of twisted vileness could lead to you consider them actually different?"They were designed to be different, to appeal to different markets. Big surprise: The effort was successful!Other firms choose other approaches. Some shoot for keeping one market segment while reaching for another.So what? D&D was a hobby before it was a business. It would not be a business without the hobby. It may well be a hobby when it is no longer a business. It may turn into a business that has sweet kiss-all to do with fantasy role-playing as we have known it.If it turns into a religion with thought police hunting down heretics, then you can count me out.It's just a game!</blockquote>

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