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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Vascant" data-source="post: 5709254" data-attributes="member: 13927">Yeah in some ways WotC did save Dungeons and Dragons, in other ways .. who knows.These are all my opinions....Before WotC took on the mantle of ownership, AD&D was like an overweight child.  So heavy with splat books it couldn't take its own weight.Mr Cook came along and gave us a smarter D&D, this isn't the childhood version and probably should of had a warning label stating such.  It ran much smoother then the bloated system of before but yeah when you cut off weight you do lose a little too.  What can't be overlooked is during this era that WotC started with D&D did something different, it had friends.  If you grew up playing during the 70's and onward playing D&D you had become very familiar with only one company was pretty much supplying your D&D fix, sure there were a few upstarts every once in a while but nothing matched the true source of D&D goodness.  Suddenly you could get D&D from everywhere, you would go visit your grandmother for the holidays and find out she was running a d20 publishing shop in her basement.  Of course quality was hit and miss, some publishers and names survived this.. most did not.Back to this version though, WotC made a critical mistake with this edition though.. they thought adding software support would be cool but failed to realize it wasn't just cool but rather needed and required.  They also made another mistake which clearly shows just how little thought the company gave concerning long term, the unique license they provided with this edition would go on forever.Along comes Mr Mearls, I actually had hopes for this edition but all hopes were merely based on assumptions and I would soon pay for the dream in spades.  After all, he had worked with Mr Cook so the new edition should have kind of the same feel right?  He wrote Iron Heroes, not a bad product and a good direction for giving low magic some justice but looking beyond he also gave home for details being fleshed out perhaps.  All dreams crushed....The era of needing to be a math genius to be in love with D&D was over, anyone could play this game.  One of the players at my table labeled it the short bus of gaming.  I do view some of this was needed, ever try and get a new person who never played a RPG before into Mr Cook's version... wow!  I compare it to talking someone through deactivating a bomb over the phone, one wrong move and you lose the person.  But this wasn't the mistake really, how they packages and marketed it to the current customer base was a disaster.  They should of understood anyone still playing D&D was a math geek, eye for details, etc etc etc.  So when they started rolling out the 3e rehashed marketing plan someone should of realized, these math geeks would check because it sounded familiar.  Scary part it was word for word, an echo to years past.  There was also a new bubble they still had not learned to handle, internet news.  These sharks are fierce, news every hour.. something new to sink their teeth into and you have to be able to respond to it as well.  You do it right and you are gold, sad thing is it is like the holy grail.. impossible to get right and appease even a majority of the people involved.Onward.....Mr Cook has been hired back into the WotC fold, have to admit my first thoughts were yeah back to the golden days!!  Then common sense settled in, the lawyers would never allow this to happen.  I know there is a 5e coming down now, why else hire Mr Cook.. I don't dare compare him to Mr Gygax but as far as living goes, he's really the closest thing.  WotC has to be at least a little concerned over that blip in the rear view mirror, Paizo should of died when they stopped the magazines but thrive they have.  They are pretty much the voice of OGL.  The market share is shrinking, granted still safely the largest beast on the playground but is that share enough to this massive beast moving?  We truly will never know the numbers to confirm or deny but another edition of D&D that doesn't become a rock star won't go over well, might see a new president of WotC if that happens.  While I have nothing invested in this success, I do respect those that do because I was once in that fold.  I seriously hope that everyone finds the edition that was meant for them and their playing style, yet wise enough to realize they found it.  Most seem to be worried about what a game isn't, stepping on and forgetting what a game is...WotC didn't save D&D.. We didNote:  Before someone starts an argument or flame because my opinion does not match their own, keep in mind.. this is just my opinion from someone who has played D&D since 1975.  I enjoy this game and so do you, enough said.</blockquote>

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