Quote from: Mike MearlsThis may sound strange, coming from R&D—but it’s easy to mistake what Wizards of the Coast publishes as the core essence of D&D. We might print the rules for the current version of the game, or produce accessories you use at your table, but the game is what you, the community of D&D fans and players, make it. D&D is the moments in the game, the interplay within a gaming group, the memories formed that last forever. It’s intensely personal. It’s your experience as a group, the stories that you and your friends share to this day. No specific rule, no random opinion, no game concept from an R&D designer, no change to the game’s mechanics can alter that.

Where Mike Mearls talks about the past in order to find his future.

Read the entire column there (no DDI account required), and tell me what you think. Good, bad thing? How does the column read to you? I'd like to know what you guys think.

Quote from: Benoist;441249Where Mike Mearls talks about the past in order to find his future.

Read the entire column there (no DDI account required), and tell me what you think. Good, bad thing? How does the column read to you? I'd like to know what you guys think.

I want to read it again, but at first blush it sounds like an attempted Mea Culpa to the D&D fans alienated over the past years by WotC/Hasbro.

That and I feel they stole the name Legends & Lore from FFG's line of 3rd edition books.

Quote from: jeff37923;441252That and I feel they stole the name Legends & Lore from FFG's line of 3rd edition books.

That would be Legends & Lairs (Mike Mearls even wrote a few of those).

Legends & Lore was the AD&D 2e incarnation of Deities & Demigods.

WotC is wasting time and energy trying to appeal to geezers.

Fuck'em.  That's energy better spent on high school and college kids who have disposable incomes and interest in new experiences.

Quote from: The Butcher;441254Legends & Lore was the AD&D 2e incarnation of Deities & Demigods.

Deities & Demigods was renamed Legends & Lore for the 1985 (?) orange-spine reprints of the 1e AD&D hardcovers.

Deities & Demigods was later re-used in 2e as a Demihuman Deity specific sourcebook to supplement the 2e Legends & Lore.

At least here:

"... AD&D in any of its forms, 3rd Edition and its descendents, or 4th Edition,..."

he finally admits 4th edition is a weird aberration of the game, not descended from 3rd edition in any recognizable way.

It sounds to me like WotC desperately trying to heal the rift they caused.  One can only hope that the genie is truly out of the bottle and the effort is bound to fail.

Of course, the big context of this is that DDI isn't required to read it.  It's an open letter to the edition warriors.  I hope the conciliatory tone without a change in behaviour dooms it to failure.

Quote from: Joethelawyer;441270At least here:

"... AD&D in any of its forms, 3rd Edition and its descendents, or 4th Edition,..."

he finally admits 4th edition is a weird aberration of the game, not descended from 3rd edition in any recognizable way.

QFT.

Sure, we're all playing D&D, but the D&D we may be playing could be significantly different from the one our neighbor is playing, both mechanically and philosophically.

I'm not one to discriminate -- 4e was on my shelf not too long ago (and I still like some aspects of it), and the RC along with a half-dozen retro-clones now make up a good chunk of my shelf, but I'm not sure I dig the whole happy-sunshine-we're-all-playing-the-same-thing vibe.  Unless Wizards is willing to actively support the broad spectrum of play encompassed by all those editions, the words ring a little hollow.  Maybe Mr. Mearls means them -- I know he plays and seems to enjoy older editions, but his words on WotC's site only mean as much as the company is willing to believe in and support them.

His Valkyrie-window of opportunity has passed.

Quote from: The Butcher;441254That would be Legends & Lairs (Mike Mearls even wrote a few of those).

Legends & Lore was the AD&D 2e incarnation of Deities & Demigods.

Quote from: JimLotFP;441263Deities & Demigods was renamed Legends & Lore for the 1985 (?) orange-spine reprints of the 1e AD&D hardcovers.

Quote from: Tommy Brownell;441265Deities & Demigods was later re-used in 2e as a Demihuman Deity specific sourcebook to supplement the 2e Legends & Lore.

I'll just place my own Mea Culpa here.

Quote from: Spinachcat;441260WotC is wasting time and energy trying to appeal to geezers.

Fuck'em.  That's energy better spent on high school and college kids who have disposable incomes and interest in new experiences.

Except this column would suggest that WotC is desperate to bring those geezers you disparage back into the fold.

Quote from: jeff37923;441293Except this column would suggest that WotC is desperate to bring those geezers you disparage back into the fold.

Quite. Also, when Mearls was promoted to head of D&D-as-RPG in mid 2010, he said (on Enworld) he'd make addressing the split D&D fanbase a top priority during his reign. Quite lofty Lincoln-type leadership address, sort of thing. In that regard, the column doesn't come as a complete surprise.

What I found most interesting was this part:

Quote from: MearlsThis may sound strange, coming from R&D—but it’s easy to mistake what Wizards of the Coast publishes as the core essence of D&D. We might print the rules for the current version of the game, or produce accessories you use at your table, but the game is what you, the community of D&D fans and players, make it.

This is the most direct, uncompromising, rejection of the position "D&D is whatever WotC proclaims it so" I've seen coming out of WotC for years - the position that defaults the issue of whether 4E is "still D&D" to the authority of the IP owner. (I'd also submit 4E developer Stephen Radney-Macfarland's posts about Pathfinder being more D&D than 4E, but he only dared post this once he'd left WotC offices - Mearls is still at the helm, and writing this in his official capacity.)

To see just how controvercial this is, try to remember (if you can) how much flak Joethelawyer (right here in our thread) caught for his final posts on Enworld back in 2009. I quote some salient bits:

Quote from: JoeWOTC is not just the company that owns the intellectual property called Dungeons and Dragons, they are also the caretakers of a hobby that thousands enjoy every day. In that regard, they have a different level of responsibility which, to the extent that they are not carrying out that responsibility while paying attention to the bottom line, they seem to land themselves in hot water.

Or the entirety of this blog entry. It's as if Mearls cribbed from it, extensively.

The problem I see (and here I repeat a line from my response on Enworld) is that these words coming from Mearls feel a bit hollow, as they are not backed by anything substantial in WotC' offering. Steve Winter's "Alumni" columns apart, WotC does too little to substantially provide a "all welcome" tent for D&D fans. It's not clear how or even whether they'll change that.

But, and this is the most damning thing, Mearls has said this all before(see also this post). Given how little substance there was behind these remarks in January 2008, I'm skeptical how true they are now.

I see nothing new here. The same combination of consciously rejecting the game's identity and holding it up as badwrongfun or "legacy design" while making feeble appeals to nostalgia has been around for years. Unfortunately for the sales team, the first part has made a much stronger impression on folks, whether they disliked or liked that message.

The dual messages also contradict each other: one suggests "D&D" is an arbitrary concept, one whose components and ideas are infinitely interchangeable; the other, although worded unconvincingly and somewhat insultingly, implies it has traditions that matter and should be taken into consideration. Of course, a game or product can successfully combine innovation and tradition. It is done all the time; most brands work that way. 4e is, however, not that game, and Paizo is consciously trying to exploit that weakness.

Well, they made their bed; time to sleep in it.