What would Gary do?

[Stogoe]

I'm sorry, Mr. Gygax. I don't know anything about you. But there are a lot of people who have made D&D great over the years, not just Mr. Gygax. Let's not forget them, either.

 

[Melan]

Gygax made a game over 30 years ago. It was a good game for the time. It has since evolved and matured into what we have today. It's updating with the world and the changing interests of people. If he were suddenly back in charge of it, I don't think that it would continue to update. He would want to try to take it back to what it was in the beginning.

You know, you sound exactly like a marketing department. The very language of your post attempts to frame the debate in ways that invites... vigorous disagreement. So I'll just put it this way: you assume a lot about the nature of games and human preferences that are, in fact, just your subjective judgement speaking.

 

[Melan]

I'm sorry, Mr. Gygax. I don't know anything about you. But there are a lot of people who have made D&D great over the years, not just Mr. Gygax. Let's not forget them, either.

In another thread, perhaps.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Well, you can feel free to answer, too. Just don't expect me to change my mind on this one without some really compelling evidence. Indeed, I find the idea of game design being driven by random Darwinian forces pessemistic in the extreme.
RC

Okay, I agree on that. Game design shouldn't be random (though I am certain that it was, for the most part, in the beginning). Maybe it is really a question on how we define the terms. Maybe I am using the term wrong or to broadly? I didn't have the distinction between natural selection and evolution in mind. Basically, natural selection affects existing games - games (or just game supplements) with mechanics that work tend to survive, and designers creating a new game find out why and how they worked, and try to apply this knowledge to the new game. This still doesn't mean that the game will be better in all regards for every possible player, because you're building something new and might find out that some things don't work together as well as they did alone or mixed with something else.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Okay, I agree on that.

Hey! I thought we agreed to disagree!

I don't believe that game design was ever random, and the more that I examine the issues that cropped up with 3e (and with the transition to 4e), the more amazed I am at how well put-together the original game was.

We certainly agree, though, that no version of a game will be the best possible version for every player.

RC

 

[Tewligan]

Who really cares? Let that doddering fool stew in his self-righteousness. Ignore him; he's not worth paying attention to.

He's a member of these boards. He gives interesting/useful input, and doesn't make unwarranted personal attacks on other users - you might try to emulate that.

EDIT: Took my own advice and edited out a bit of rudeness of my own...

 

[Lackhand]

See that orange lettering up above? Umbran's a mod (and an awesome mod at that! Thanks for keeping this place civil, mods!) -- I think he's already butted in to censure the censurable.

So the report was really just keeping the mods busy (-er than they already were).


As for what Gygax would do: Pick a game and keep on playing, I should imagine, and make the game dance.
Anyway, it's what I plan on doing

 

[Turjan]

Gygax made a game over 30 years ago. It was a good game for the time. It has since evolved and matured into what we have today. It's updating with the world and the changing interests of people. If he were suddenly back in charge of it, I don't think that it would continue to update. He would want to try to take it back to what it was in the beginning.

I don't think you are right with this assumption. If I look at Lejendary Adventures, this shows me that he went into a completely different direction. Not my cup of tea, but no "old school" nostalgia, either.

 

[Waylander the Slayer]

Please do refrain from dogpiling on people who are not here to defend themselves and do contribute a lot to these boards and also have a lot more experience on matters. There is a specific topic and a question being asked here; something that has little to do with what you think is cool or not. If thread capping is your game go elsewhere.

my answer: I have no idea. EGG didn't think 3e was what he had originally envisoned, I would presume that he would feel the same way about 4e.

 

[Tewligan]

See that orange lettering up above? Umbran's a mod (and an awesome mod at that! Thanks for keeping this place civil, mods!) -- I think he's already butted in to censure the censurable.

So the report was really just keeping the mods busy (-er than they already were).

Yeah, I didn't report it - when I read the post, I got all self-righteous and posted right away. When I read on and saw Umbran's post, I edited my message and saw it was pointless to report anything - I just forgot to edit out my stern threat of reportage. Damn, I'm not even a very good tattletale!