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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 6239724" data-attributes="member: 59082">Thanks for the thoughtful reply, [MENTION=92511]steeldragons[/MENTION]. First of all, sounds like your boyfriend is a bit of a project taste-wise - get him reading Lord of the Rings pronto. ;-)Seriously though, I think you bring up a very important point. I am very aware of the generational issue, largely because I teach and counsel adolescents. And really what you're talking about is a larger, cultural-historical issue, especially in relation to technological and media development. I'm reminded of Marshall McLuhan's idea that the "Gutenberg Galaxy" is ending and we're transitioning into the digital age - and he was writing in the 50s and 60s. Or the bifurcation between "digital immigrants" and "digital natives," the latter having lived most of their lives during the internet and computer age (so roughly born early 80s or later). The point being, the "boomer" generation of D&D players, of what it sounds you and I are part of - those of us who started playing in the 80s - are of a different generation than the young folks that might start playing D&D in the next few years.We cannot understate the change that has happened in the last 20 years. 20 years ago there was no internet; of course there was a kind of "proto-internet," but it didn't emerge in a ubiquitous way until the mid-90s with the World Wide Web. 15 years ago palm pilots were cutting edge, and it wasn't until 2007 that the iPhone was introduced and revolutionized smartphones. Kids in the 10-14 range that you describe as a possible demographic focus for WotC have grown up in a world that is based on the internet, in which smart technologies are the norm, and something new is coming out every year. Who knows, in 20 years we might be talking about DM apps for your home robot.It isn't all fluffy and wonderful, though, like some 1950s vision of the future in which all our problems are solved and we live in a high-tech utopia. Many think that's still possible, and in a way that's the underlying assumption held by tech companies. But there is a shadow side of which we're just starting to see signs of - anything from reduced attention spans to obfuscated imagination processes to a decrease in real human interaction. This <a href="http://www.theonion.com/articles/relatives-gather-from-across-the-country-to-stare,34842/" target="_blank">Onion article</a> comes to mind.Returning to D&D, if we remember, one of the things 4E tried to do was appeal to the World of Warcraft and anime crowds and, by and large, it didn't work. It mainly just pissed off us old-timers who want our elves to have whites in their eyes and don't think PCs that have a breath weapon or a demon rapist for a father aren't the kewlest thing evar. If D&D tries to compete with computer games it will lose. Its a completely different cognitive activity. D&D is based on the imagination, on generating imagery and evoking real human inner experience, while video games fill the mind with external, simulated images. They're almost exact opposites. But it does sound like WotC wants to diversify the brand name of D&D to different areas, and I think that's a good idea and, in a way, can keep the tabletop game "pure" of such elements, or at least keep them to augmentation only and not replacement (in other words, virtual tools and apps that augment the theater of mind rather than replace it, like a video game does).I have a feeling which may be more of a hope, that at some point people are going to long for the "real" experience of human imagination. And I hope that D&D is alive and well - and still a tabletop RPG - when that happens, to serve these "imaginal immigrants." I know that I, for one, as an "imaginal native," don't want my theater of mind replaced with pre-digested and generated imagery. I want my imagination to survive and thrive.I'm sorry if I rambled all over the place - I'm a bit distracted as I write this as my wife keeps hinting that I need to get in the kitchen and help with dinner! But hopefully I got some ideas across.</blockquote>

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