Why 4e is a good thing (even if you hate it)

[Dice4Hire]

I care not one whit for 4e. It is not a game I care to play. Ever. And while it may draw new players into the game, they will undoubtedly prefer 4e to other editions. I fail to see ow that helps me in any way. It will not create a larger player base for older editions, the product is not easily adaptable to the games I play, and it's probably the main reason the pdf support of oop editions was stopped. I fail to see how it benefits those who do not care for 4e in any way whatsoever.

Enjoy it if you like it, but don't proselytize that it helps those of us who don't play it. It doesn't.

Which do you think is easier?

Getting someone who never played RPGs to play your edition/game of choice? Whatever it is.

or

Getting someone who played 4E, liked fantasy RPGs, but was not satisfied with 4E?

I think the latter, myself. Getting more players into 4E cannot help but lead some of them to play older versions of D&D or different fantasy (or other genre) games.

I would love to see WOTC get thousands of more players into the games. (meaning ALL RPG games)

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Here's a good example right here.

Ding Ding! Glad to see folks aren't letting this fall down the memory hole.

 

[Glade Riven]

I care not one whit for 4e. It is not a game I care to play. Ever. And while it may draw new players into the game, they will undoubtedly prefer 4e to other editions. I fail to see ow that helps me in any way. It will not create a larger player base for older editions, the product is not easily adaptable to the games I play, and it's probably the main reason the pdf support of oop editions was stopped. I fail to see how it benefits those who do not care for 4e in any way whatsoever.

Enjoy it if you like it, but don't proselytize that it helps those of us who don't play it. It doesn't.

Oh, joy. I make a statement on how 4e has been a good thing for the industry as a whole and now I'm defined as some preacher on a soap box. I never put forth an argument on why you should play 4e or even like it.

This is the sort of attitude which will not get people new to role-playing (or even not-so-new) to check out what you like. But you probably don't want them.

 

[ExploderWizard]

I care not one whit for 4e. It is not a game I care to play. Ever. And while it may draw new players into the game, they will undoubtedly prefer 4e to other editions. I fail to see ow that helps me in any way. It will not create a larger player base for older editions, the product is not easily adaptable to the games I play, and it's probably the main reason the pdf support of oop editions was stopped. I fail to see how it benefits those who do not care for 4e in any way whatsoever.

Enjoy it if you like it, but don't proselytize that it helps those of us who don't play it. It doesn't.

Whats up with all the negative waves Moriarity? 4E is a mother-beautiful game. Thanks to the release of 4E, the OSR movement has become more popular than ever. The combination of its fairly high buy in cost combined with a dragging economy makes free retro clone games a good choice for some people.

D20:


I would never tell them this, but the D20 craze is a passing thing. This is a fad.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

We don't have any real numbers on market penetration for any of these games.

Anecdotally, the circle of players I'm in has switched to playing Mutants & Masterminds and Star Wars Saga Edition. Conservatively, that's three new rulebooks (for each system) in a group of 10 people. When we next play D&D -- er, Pathfinder -- that'll be three more Pathfinder rulebooks sold.

It's possible we'd have moved into other games anyway, but I doon't think so. Something about 4E and the fallout gave us all the hankerin' to play other genres.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Oh, I'm pretty sure the claim to dominance is reasonable. I've seen no sign that D&D has ever had what you'd call effective competition in the tabletop RPG market.

My bad. I meant to put (twice, not just the once) 'd20 (other than D&D itself)'.

But you could be right either way, natch. I honestly don't know. All anecdotal and estimation.

WH FRPG has been around forever though... At least since the days of 2e.

But there's the thing: So has d20 (i.e., D&D) !

 

[Garthanos]

Anecdotal as this might be, a fair number of people coming into our meetup over the past two years are former D&D players of OD&D, who are now hitting their 35-45 age set and looking to recapture their youth. 4E is a BIG hit with these folks, and I expect that mid life crisises have nothing to do with it

Raises hand, and I have more money and kids to buy for along side that feature...

 

[pemerton]

Seemed like the general trend durring the past decade has been do something "new" but use the d20 system, or revive/keep alive an existing system.

FATE, Savage Worlds, Exalted, Burning Wheel, and Sorcerer, off the top of my head. Dogs in the Vineyard, if that counts as making a splash.

I'd add HeroWars/Quest, The Dying Earth and The Riddle of Steel in the indie/indie-ish camp. And HARP in the more mainstream camp. And there must be a lot of RPGs that I'm not familiar with or not remembering at the moment.

 

[Dausuul]

Now, equating 4e as the black plague - that is a bit excessive.

Actually, I run 4E and mostly like it. And I felt the d20 explosion really stifled creativity and killed off innovation in the commercial RPG market.

So I'm in favor of the Black Death. I just like drawing wacky analogies sometimes.

 

[Stormonu]

For our group, the announcement of 4E gave me a chance to pull out try all the other systems I'd purchased but never got to playing. We eventually settled on WoD for our current system of choice. I certainly wouldn't mind going back to D&D, but my own personal preference would put 4E on the bottom of the heap for what version I would choose.