As a player of the original incarnations of D&D for many years in my youth before my life (or, I should say, the decisions I made in my life) got in the way, I would like to present an alternative perspective on the whole 4E debate. But first, some disclaimers:
1) I in no way, shape or form intend to belittle those among you who have either come to know this fantastic hobby through 3E/3.5 or who have succesfully transitioned from the older editions to the 3E/3.5 version and find it to be the pinnacle of the game's long and storied evolution.
2) I love Paizo, the quality of their products, and their responsiveness to their customers.
3) I only speak for myself and the conditions I find myself in and do not intend to imply that this positionis representative of anyone but myself. That being said, it is MY position that I will discuss. And I am sure, despite the fact that many in my position probably don't lurk on these or other boards, there is a whole segment of the gaming market that I represent.
I'm 40 years old. While wholly well-versed in all the editions of D&D up to 3E, I had not played the game for the better part of 20 years because - well - life got in the way. I got married, I got divorced, I was in the Army, I remarried, I had three kids, I became a firefighter, I moved to rural America - what does it matter? For a variety of reasons, I left this hobby I had grown to love in my youth and hadn't looked back.
Along comes 3E (and later 3.5). Despite the fact that I live in the sticks and can't find anyone to rekindle my love affair with the game, I do have two teenage sons and their friends who are dying to give it a try. So here we go. I pick up the 3E core rulebooks and give it a whirl.
Grappling, polymorphing, AAoO - I'm trying to wrap my head around these new rules in the absence of more experienced minds (I don't have the luxury of a LGS - it's 70 miles away in Austin) to learn from. THEN, I'm trying to impart their use in the game to new young players. THEY see stalls in the game that rip them, screaming and kicking, out of the supended reality that makes the game fun to begin with. THEY say, "the game would be better if..."
When new, virginal players can identify hiccups in a rules system right off the bat it doesn't bode well for a game's future and the recruitment of new players.
Now along comes 4E and I like what I'm seeing based solely on the streamlining of the rules set. I'm no idiot, but I don't want to have to engage in the same effort it would take to obtain a PhD to master the basics of a rule set. Companies like Paizo do a great job of taking the basic rules set and expounding upon it (haunts, for example) and have done so for a great many years. I'll continue to rely on them (or others like them) to do so and will selectively choose which expansions I adopt. But if I can't master the basic system and impart it to my sons and their friends, what's the point? The hobby just... dies.
I want my D&D to be fun, first and foremost. Next I want the basic system to be easy to master and impart on new players. Beyond that, I will concede styles of play to others who have more time to contemplate such issues and am willing to pay my hard-earned dollars to do benefit from them. Paizo is an example of just such an entity.
But it doesn't change the fact that 3E is "rules-burdensome," I don't care what anyone says. Try figuring out what Erylium's stats are if she polymorphs into her raven form in RotRL 1. Yeah, it's not identified as her preferred option in the encounter's tactical layout, but what good is even mentioning it in her stat block if it's going to require a half hour's worth of research work and the development of a whole new stat block just to make it happen? Open-ended flexibility for flexibility's sake is no great selling point. While it sounds great in theory, it doesn't translate well to the gaming table.
The D&D I remember was pretty easy to learn and maybe I've just got so much of "life" competing for brain space that the 3E/3.5 rules set just hasn't had the opportunity to take root and grow. Whatever the case may be, I'm open to WotC's efforts to address these sort of issues and hope that Paizo is as well.
Doug