Saturday, January 14, 2012

Rain on the Parade

5th edition scmith edition. I don't want to rain on the parade but the new edition of D&D will suck. By suck I mean fail to achieve its promise of having something for everyone. It just can't happen. I hope I am wrong but lets look at the facts. 3rd edition was supposed to be the massive revamp of the system designed to clear up and unify the rules and make the game accessible to a mass market. Yet it was replaced only 3 years later by the 3.5 "revision". 3.5 itself was replaced only 5 years after that by 4th. That edition was decried by many of the old guard as a tabletop copy online RPGs. 3.5 had a lifespan of 5 years. 4th ed is currently four years old. Time for a new edition! The designers might want a good game but the company wants a popular one. Popular means it will appeal to the most players. Does anyone wonder why 3 rd ed was so similar to computer games? I think the designers tried to tap into that popularity thinking popular=better. They could have turned away from that path with 4th ed. But they didn't so why would you think they would now. Sure they will listen to the players. But who is going to be talking. The squeakiest wheel will get the grease. I think the grognards voices will be lost to the noise of the munchkins.

P.S. This post didn't turn out as I originally planned. I had to compose it over the noise of children in the background.

2 comments:

  1. The squeakiest wheel doesn,t always get the grease it often depends on wether the squeek is an impedment rather than simply annoying. Many times the squeeky wheel is left alone so that you know that its still there D&D will head in the direction the Company wan'ts it to go, regardless of what anyone, says because there seems to always be someone dumb enough to buy into it.

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  2. The squeaky wheel is just an analogy. It represents the loudest faction. I was trying to say that D&D will go in the direction that can get the most sales.

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