It's all about the tone and delivery. Everything we say here is pretty much all opinion, but some posts come off stating opinion-as-fact, which is a little hard to interpret through a message board.
Again, the problem here is the chip on your shoulder.
Let me state again, very clearly:
I left AD&D for better games. I didn't go to 4E because there are better games.
Now, if you can't get past the two Is is that and find the opinion implicit in the statement then you are being touchy.
That something I don't get - this idea that playing 4e somehow means you are after a different experience than others who enjoy the hobby. I mean, sure, that is possible, but switching editions has not really affected how we (my group and I) play or approach the game. We still get the same experience we always did with story and roleplaying. The biggest difference, as most people are keen to point out, are the mechanics, and if anything, it's only served to magnify the other elements that we generally prefer to dungeon crawls and looting. I'm not sure what I'm missing here, since most of the folks with ideas about what people that like 4e are into, usually assumes that we're after a more gamist, dungeon-delve feel, and at least in all my (and a lot of the frequent posters in the 4e subforum) experience, that isn't the case at all. Maybe my group is just weird.
HA!!!
First, I think I ninja'ed your comments nicely. Thanks for the support there.
Second, you JUST said opinions are not universal and yet now you are expressing frustration that the gaming experience of everyone is not universal. I mean, seriously, is even trying to prove my position to you relevant?
How do you know that your 3E experiences and mine were the same? I'll readily agree that YOU may very well get the same experience from 4E that you did from 3E. But do you now claim that opinion as universal or do you agree that it is not?
I maybe do have a chip on my shoulder, but it has less or nothing to do what what you're saying - more like how you say it. Doesn't matter what the topic, I find the opinion-stated-as-fact approach annoying, I'll be honest.
Please show me where I stated an opinion-as-fact. Again, if you remove the chip from your shoulder you will find that stating one of a variety of things is "better" than related alternative to that thing is a very natural expression *of opinion*. Forcing an "as fact" reading into that statement with no basis for that twisting of statement is the fault of no one but you.
As for 4e and market share/mass appeal, I couldn't care less what others think, so long as they don't suggest that things I like shouldn't exist (I am not saying you did, but others have implied this or downright stated it).
And, again, that is *YOUR OPINION*, which I respect. But I wasn't even talking to you, so what does your opinion have to do with anything. This thread isn't about you.
In the end, too, I am a firm believer that good=/= popular and popular =/= good. Mass appeal is not an endorsement of anything, in my book. I do get that it affects the bottom line, so I care insofar as whoever produces things I like has enough incentive to continue.
I think making 10 people happy tends to be better than making 3 people happy. At least in the context of talking about a freaking GAME.
Also, there really is such thing as market forces, even when they prevail against you personally. Now, you could spend a very large pile of money and WotC would probably sell the design control of 5E to you personally. Then you opinion would actually BE the universe for this question.
Though I am more and more frequently gratified to see 4E fans making comments of this nature. The implications are amusing and they tend to validate statements I've been making for years. (fyi, just my opinion)