What scares me

[Li Shenron]

IIRC, the NDA WotC made playtesters sign forbade them from even telling they were playtesters...

I don't understand the reason for this. Have there been blackmail/corruption episodes in the past?

 

[Baby Samurai]

"No. You may have to make a Fort save or suffer penalties for the rest of the day, but you will not die from massive damage unless it drops you to -10. "


…This depresses me.

 

[Khuxan]

EN Worls members who used to be regular posters, but don't post much nowadays (or don't post at all), especially on the 4E board are probably good candidates to be playtesters.

I'm curious to know if you have people in mind (you don't have to name names) or if you're just speculating. It seems to me it could be that once-regular posters are annoyed by 4e or turned off by the fact there's little non-4e conversation any more.

 

[Wepwawet]

It's obvious 4E will kick ass!!!

But come on... I'm sure they have to protect whatever things they're still designing. It's only in June 2008. So it's pretty obvious it's very soon to know more. Otherwise they could simply publish it tomorrow!

And why do they need to say it kicks ass? For what I read they don't need to say that, it simply looks great. Anyway, we are the ones who need to verify that, not the people selling it
And look at 3E! It kicked ass back in those playtest days... And what became of it? Updated to a 3.5 edition, still with bugs.

I'm glad they don't tell all that much. It's a sign that they're maturing the game.

I'll just simply stop reading this forum.. Always the same (EDIT: No I won't )

 

[The Merciful]

I don't understand the reason for this. Have there been blackmail/corruption episodes in the past?

Companies in general prefer to control the info that goes out about their products. Often bit silly, I agree, but also the standard practise.

 

[Li Shenron]

Companies in general prefer to control the info that goes out about their products. Often bit silly, I agree, but also the standard practise.

Sure but technically being (dis)allowed to say you're a tester doesn't change the flow of info

 

[Banshee16]

It's obvious 4E will kick ass!!!

But come on... I'm sure they have to protect whatever things they're still designing. It's only in June 2008. So it's pretty obvious it's very soon to know more. Otherwise they could simply publish it tomorrow!

And why do they need to say it kicks ass? For what I read they don't need to say that, it simply looks great. Anyway, we are the ones who need to verify that, not the people selling it
And look at 3E! It kicked ass back in those playtest days... And what became of it? Updated to a 3.5 edition, still with bugs.

I'm glad they don't tell all that much. It's a sign that they're maturing the game.

I'll just simply stop reading this forum.. Always the same (EDIT: No I won't )

I'm not sure that silence is evidence of anything but....silence. We really still don't know much about it.

Personally, I'm in an odd position. Some things I've heard had me confused, or concerned at the beginning, and my concerns have since abated, given further information. But I have several that have gotten me more and more concerned, the more information I get.

All we can do is hope and pray. I've actually been thinking of ordering a set of 3.5E core rulebooks, so I've got a new set to last me, if I have to skip editions.

Banshee

 

[JohnSnow]

Sure but technically being (dis)allowed to say you're a tester doesn't change the flow of info

Well...maybe not. But consider the following.

Say you're a playtester, and you come to ENWorld. You see all these inaccurate comments about various 4e things. You can say "I'm playtesting 4e and that's just not true" but nobody would believe you. They'd pump you for specifics. They'd bribe, cajole, and do all kinds of other things in an effort to get you to come clean with SOMETHING.

The designers and developers aren't allowed to divulge much more than "this is cool." A playtester who said too much could potentially turn people off the game by talking about a mechanic that gets changed in playtesting. WotC probably has enough trouble keeping track of everything their employees divulge. Monitoring the online output of several hundred (or thousand) playtesters to make sure they aren't saying too much would be ridiculously onerous. It's far easier to just have a policy of "you can't say anything - period!" That's something you can manage without having to devote 15 full-time employees to monitoring the internet.

 

[cthulhu_duck]

I think the only thing you can do is wait and see what is released and evaluate whether it works for you and your gaming group or not.

 

[The Merciful]

Sure but technically being (dis)allowed to say you're a tester doesn't change the flow of info

Well, the known testers could be pressurized by 3rd parties to tell more. Much harder if they don't know who is and is not a tester.