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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 3795617" data-attributes="member: 4937">Putting aside the emotion I feel about the upcoming edition, let me state what I think where the major factors in the design of 4e.1) They wanted a much less generic setting more intimately tied to the core rules so that you didn't have to buy setting material in addition to the core rules when you were just getting started.  Despite a few references, the now venerable Greyhawk setting wasn't even really a part of the core books.  Instead what you got was a bit of Greyhawk light that was very sparsely supported.  That setting had to however, like Greyhawk, easily port adventures between published settings, so it couldn't be as distinctive as Eberron (or Darksun, etc.)  This means alot of the flavor which would normally change only in setting books is changing in the games core rules.2) They wanted a game that learned from Diablo and WoW (both said to 'do D&D better than D&D' so that it could be more easily ported to a computer environment where they (probably rightly) think that the money is going to be in the future.  That meant among other things the game had to have finer granularity in character advancement and more levels right from start.  The game had to have explicit mechanics which could be adapted to 'DM-less' play, and the game had to do aways as much as possible with concepts that don't necessarily translate well to computer environments like 'per day resources' and Vancian magic.  3) They probably have market research that suggests flagging sales are tied to flagging DM support, and that flagging DM support is tied to angst over the amount of prep time required.  So they want a game which emphasises speedier more streamlined prep time.  (I personally think those looking for speedier more streamlined play are going to be disappointed.)  They wanted a game which re-fired DM's imaginations and which taught new young DMs how to easily build the sort of complex, imaginative encounters that older DMs are used to making.4) They probably have market research that suggests that the D&D community is aging and is not attracting sufficient new younger gamers to the game.  They want to have a game presentation which they think is more attractive to gamers in the 12-14 year old age range.5) They wanted to make as much of the game as possible 'the sweet spot'.</blockquote>

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