| erisraven |
The war in my view on BOTH fronts is a one of back story/invested knowledge vs. commercialism.
I was a WoD player from before the release of Vampire (Yes, that's possible - my great GM picked up the first promotional flyer at a convention and ran a pickup game then and there.). I owned every book, novel and game that WW came out with. I was GLAD they blew up the world, granted, but I was aggravated at their reuse of old names with new concepts. It was confusing as heck. The new system is an improvement, but the new 'world' wasn't - that's the reason I've refused to move on. If I'm going to play a system, sure, change the politics around, modify things, whatever, but for goodness' sake, don't use names that don't vaguely correspond to the old concepts.
In D&D's case, yes, I am invested in 3.5e, but I was willing to embrace 4e. That is, i was until i saw they weren't going to embrace ME. I've been running a homebrew campaign world for ten years. I have a lot of time and effort invested in created races, characters, etc. Not only was there no conversion, they actively discouraged the concept, and released a half-finished system at that. There was no way to convert my game, since half the races and classes weren't supported. The rehaul of the spell system, needed as it was, doesn't work with anything I've done. And then there's the GSL. Like many, I had looked at the possibility of publishing the world. By the vague terms of the GSL, converting to 4e would have given WotC more rights over my creations than I was comfortable with.
Stepping away from my own world, There's the mangle they've made of the Realms - the only other world I played. Have a current campaign there? Screw you, said WotC. We're skipping a hundred years and tearing up your world so we can have a vague excuse for how the new mechanics could possibly work.
Because, I say sadly, they don't. The new game isn't D&D as we know it. It's both easier and harder to deal with. From a system driven by character flexibility and choice, we move to a videogame-analogue. If I wanted to play 4e, I'd take up World of Warcraft. At least it doesn't try to pretend to be what it's not.