Kakarasa's page

there are three seperate topics in the forum right now which show that it's possible to optimize beyond min-maxing
Those topics are

1.) Allowing characters to take Charisma as a dump stat, but not penalizing them for it - after they use it as a dump stat, they ought to be able to say that their character is attractive and, thereby, gain positive modifiers to social encounters

2.) Allowing a Wizard to collect a god-like spell book without having to worry about keeping it safe

3.) Allowing a character to optimize towards big weapons and never have to worry about the down side of when those weapons shouldn't be usable (due to space requirements)

In all three cases, rather than min-maxing, the character maxes and then demands that the GM sweep the min under the rug where it will never be seen.

Am I simply old school? Does all the passion with which these things are argued influence the game designers? Does it indicate the future direction of the game?

I mostly run games by the book. I do little tweaks here and there though. For example, I allow vital strikes to work as Spring Attacks and charges and all that. Also, the spell breath of life is actually called cure deadly wounds in my game, so that spell can be spontaneously cast a lot easier.