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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 6218528" data-attributes="member: 37579">I don't disagree with this. It is true, from a certain point of view. I wouldn't say "snap decision" so much as "forced to make a last minute decision". WotC didn't really leave Paizo much choice, not having the licence ready and not letting them test the game. So instead Paizo had to spend company funds to send someone across the country to play at a convention, all because WotC didn't want to send someone across town with the rules and an NDA to get Paizo on board. Things might have gone very different had Paizo sent a different staff member, someone whose play style was more in line with 4e. Still, it wasn't a decision made in a vacuum. Many of their fans were uncertain of 4e and wanted Paizo to stick with 3e. Again, had WotC done a better job of winning people over there might have been fewer people pushing Paizo to stick with 3e. I can't say I agree with this. Many, many gamers didn't upgrade from 1e to 2e. While it became harder to find groups it was not impossible. Especially with the internet. And, really, many gamers already had groups so it wasn't a matter of finding players so much as maintaining players.It's the publisher's job to make people WANT to play their game. They can't just count on people playing because there's no other option. If a game publisher cannot convince people to play than another game publisher will win people over, like White Wolf was doing while TSR was imploding. That's capitalism at work. Bigby's invisible hand. Even without another option I think 4e would not have done well. It might have taken longer to collapse but it would have still ended. Stockholm Syndrom isn't a great way to keep people buying your product.And 4e had a full year to win people over before Pathfinder was really in stores. The Alpha playtest saw very limited release. And, really, for many 3e players at the time the reaction to Pathfinder could have been summarized as "I already bought the 3e rules twice, why do I want them a third time?" And back in 2007, Paizo was not nearly as well known. I was vaguely aware of them as the Dragon and Dungeon company, but mostly after the news of the licence being lost.And I don't recall them saying anything like "We hate 4e so much that we can't support it in good conscience." I suppose I could check the archive of their website. WotC had every opportunity to win people over to 4e. Instead, people stuck with 3e until they slowly heard about this company that was producing updated 3e products. And they slowly started switching. At the end of the day, WotC dropped the ball and was unable to win people over. People like me tried 4e and played for a year but eventually decided I liked 3e more and swapped back.</blockquote>

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