Current mood:	contemplative
Entry tags:	4e, d&d, gaming

4E
I have come to a conclusion after typing back and forth with judd_sonofbert, perusing the books themselves, and reading what my friends have said about the games.

Be warned though, it's a simile:  

D&D 4th Edition is like a kick-ass little go-kart (I am imagining one of those cool new Mario Kart racers) that you buy full-assembled from Honda and has absolutely no after market products for it.  Whereas D&D 3.0-3.5 are Honda Civics cars that while initially are really crappy can be modded beyond belief and have more after market products for them than anything else ever.

Just because Honda released a new go-kart and called it the Civic doesn't mean that you can't keep playing with you old Civic.  You can't really take the go-kart on the street, since it's technically not a street legal car.  Even though there are still tons of after market products for the old Civics those days are essentially over.  Eventually the old Civics will give up the ghost and disappear.  Every blue moon you'll see a guy driving an old modded Civic but he'll be like the hippie relic who drives the VW Bus.

Now a metaphor:  People had these apples (3.5) and they were really happy with the apples  even though they sometimes got worms in them.  They asked the farmer (WotC) to get them a new Worm-Free Apple, because really getting a wormy apple can put just about anyone off apples for awhile.  The farmer went back to his farm to work on a solution.  However, when the farmer came back a lot of the people were non-plussed when the farmer gave everyone oranges.

Some people like oranges, but others don't.

My final comment about the world and 4E: Ce la Vie.