Monday, January 09, 2012

D&D in the New York Times; also 5th Edition appears in the distance

This.  Plus, this.  I'm not sure which is more significant, that there is a new edition in the offing (which everyone knew), or that the MSM (side note: to paraphrase the Nazis, whenever I hear the word 'MSM', I reach for my earplugs) has taken note of it in an era when D&D is probably more influential but less played than ever.

As I opined earlier in response to the posts from the Escapists, I think the edition wars are over, and everyone one.  D&D is outside of WotC's control, and we'll never see the community united again the way it was during the 1e or even 2e era.  There are just going to be 5+ games going forward, probably supported more by amateurs than by big companies, and everyone is going to play a little bit of everything (or as much as they care to).

I would compare it to an oldie buy a goodie: Neil Stephenson's Diamond Age.  Before, we had The Feed: content broadcast from a point source (TSR/WotC) to a large consuming audience.  Now we have The Seed.  Everyone left who wants to play a pencil and paper RPG is fully capable of creating their own game if they want to between OGL, FUDGE, decades of back content, and free and low-cost publishing over the web and on-demand print houses.