Why I'm not buying the 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons anytime soon

[cnoocy]

I'm not a hardcore gamer. I'm an enthusiastic player of pencil-and-paper role-playing games, but I've probably played or run less that a dozen different systems. I like computer role-playing games, but generally only when played as a group, with multiple people in the same room. One thing I have never been able to get into is online role-playing games. I've had accounts on LambdaMOO and Second Life, but I haven't really done anything with them. It's the talking to strangers that does it, I think. I'm not good at striking up a conversation, especially if I don't have any information about the person. (Though I am only marginally better at doing this in person.) So instead of getting into World of Warcraft and EverQuest over the last few years, I've continued playing Dungeons and Dragons.

You know how a lot of people have been reading the 4th edition rules and saying "this makes me want to get out my dice and play again"? I had that reaction years ago with 3rd edition. And I've been playing since. I've been playing with friends while, it seems, all the famous people have been abandoning pencil and paper to do their gaming online. I don't have a problem with that. I think it's great that there's this new type of gaming developing. But it does mean that while a lot of people see the elements from World of Warcraft in 4th edition as two great tastes that taste great together, to me it looks like they're changing the formula for Coke so that it tastes more like Pepsi.

Note: This was set off by Eric Burns's post on the subject, though I don't have a disagreement other than personal preference with what he says there.

Comments

[cnoocy]

The thing is, as an MMO outsider, I can't tell what's part of standard MMO official practice and what's part of MMO culture. And either way, it's clearly jargon, which makes me feel like an outsider to this new form of D&D. And D&D is the one place where I've never felt like an outsider, so having that feeling is in fact a bit upsetting.

I should also note that I'm not a Magic: The Gathering insider, either. I tried to spend the 90's not getting hooked on the addictions that were eating my friends. You could say that D&D (as well as Mage) was my anti-drug. This is fueling some of my issues. I've been playing D&D instead of doing these other things, and now they're making D&D more like these other things?

I responded to some of this in lapak's journal, so there's a little more over there.

[alanrileyscott.livejournal.com]

There's definitely some new jargon, but it's new to EVERYONE. You don't know what a Striker is, but neither does the guy who plays WoW (he might think "it's like DPS", but that's not an especially apt comparison.)

I don't play MMOs either, and nor do I play Magic. And I love the game. (Caveats: I played a sneak-attacking rogue in 3.5, so I took pretty well to the increased importance of positioning. If the battle grid makes you throw up your hands in disgust, then you might not like 4e. Also, I GM a lot, and am biased in that 4e makes game prep a lot easier.)

I definitely recommend that fans of previous editions try 4e (not necessarily buy it, mind you--the sucker's $120 plus tax) and see if they'll enjoy it.