As at IT professional, I hate the H1-B Visa program and want to see it eliminated. This judge is a complete idiot. Just because a person is from India or Bangladesh does NOT make that person a better IT worker. I work for a medium sized Midwestern University. There was another IT worker from India who went on about how technologically superior his country is and how his people are the ones that keep our technology going. Yet, this guy could not read the bright yellow and black tag on the side of a UPS that said to plug the battery in. There are about 10 others from the Indian subcontinent who work at my college in IT and every single one of them are sub par (of course, so is the rest of Information Services... but that is another kettle of fish).
As for my stance, I am for a reduction of ALL immigration, not just the H-1B.In my opinion, the the H1-B is just stupid. We should just train and hire our own people. We should also ban sending our jobs overseas just so corporations can give their CEOs 20 million dollar a year bonuses.
Starcraft 2, Diablo 3... Everyone's expecting them and (thus far) Blizzard isn't delivering:P
Hmmm.. maybe that's because their release schedule is that it is done when it is done, rather than an release date set by corporate overlords who have no idea of when a game is finished.
And they due deliver, just not on your timeframe.. Id rather wait a few months or so and have a kick ass game rather than a crappy game just to make the release date.
This is what I hate generally hate about comic book movies (and this applies to all movies made from print media sources). I understand that you have to make some changes because you are dealing with years of back story and have squeeze it into 2 hours.
But that said, would it kill them to at least keep the story straight rather than add characters who had nothing to do with the Weapon X program? Blob and Gambit had NOTHING to do with the weapon x program (not even in any sort of retcon'ed timeline). Where is Maverick, Mastadon and Kestrel? They are not listed on IMDB on the cast list (but Blob, Gambit, Deadpool and gent Zero (the latter two were involved in later incarnations of the Weapon X program, not Wolverine's origin).
So maybe I am being a picky fan boy, and the movie does look awesome, but would it kill them to get it right for once?
Read Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA (search for it on Amazon), it has all the relevant details including cited sources in the footnotes. If you are to lazy to do this yourself, then do ask for souces.
... with NASA for years. There has been lots written about it. Some, like the secret Egyptian ritualistic cult is bunk. A lot, like the amount of images that NASA has edited or deliberately taken at lower resolutions than the equipment was designed for or at really poor angles.
And if you read though the Apollo transcripts, there are some really bizarre comments that only make sense if you take them in the setting of discovering alien ruins or debris on the moon.
And if you look at the history of the UFOs and alleged government cover-ups, you see that the few that have broken their silence on the matter have effectively been death bed confessions. Others that have done so have just disappeared (i.e. Bob Lazar).
What I find strange, if there is no real cover-up of UFOs, then why has the government spent so much time and effort trying to sweep it under the rug, so to speak. There are documents out there, that have been released through the FOIA process that show how much time and effort has gone into it and how high it goes (I have seen documents from Eisenhower, Truman, and Kennedy on the subject). If there are truly no such thing as UFO's, then why address the issue at all?
No.. the WAS Cillian Murphy as Johnathan Crane/Scarecrow... I just double-checked IMDB, and there he is, listed in the credits of both films for that role.
Gorshin played THE RIDDLER.. not the Joker. And he died from lung related illness caused by decades of smoking. He also died in 2005 not 1995 at the ripe old age of 71 (the same age as George Carlin... coincidence?). Now Cesar Romero played the Joker in the 60's Batman tv series (and movie). He died in 1994 at the age of 86. I couldn't find a reason for his death, but more than likely, it was old age.
For this wonderful, well researched post, you deserve a gold metal at the FAILolympic.
Eve Online is not one of the 'Big' MMORPG (they peaked at 100k in 2006 and from what I can find only have a 40k - 50k estimated player base today. So by the criteria I used for my post, Eve Online does not measure up. Yes, they may give away their expansions, but where has that gotten them? They have a core of niche players who are space simulator players and want space combat. At their peak, the were just barely 1% of World of Warcraft. Unless they do something spectacular, they will wither away quietly, never to be heard from again.
And this list was not meant to be all inclusive because I left out Lords of the Rings Online (which is only a year old), City of Heroes, Star Wars Galaxies, Pirates of the Burning Seas, Dark Age of Camelot, Guild Wars and Final Fantasy XI just to name a few of the bigger ones, not to mention all of the failed (Matrix Online) and "free" MMOROGs.
There will be MMORPGS that come (I for one am excited about Stargate Worlds) and that go, but until Blizzard releases its next gen MMORPG, World of Warcraft will remain the big dog in the MMORPG yard. Even if the player base drops to 10% of peak, that is still 1,000,000 players, more than double what EQ (the biggest MMORPG before WoW) was at its peak.
Your arguement makes you sound like a movie critic. You say such and such movie is bad, the acting is bad, the story is bad, etc... and yet the movie makes 300 million at the box office.
You say the numbers don't mean anything, but they do. They show that it is a product the people want, they want to play that way, and a vocal minority (like movie critics) are all that gets written about, so they make their statements with their subscriptions.
I play EQ2 when I want a break from WoW (or CoH/V) and there are some things in EQ2 that are great, but there is a lot that is pure crap (including the UI... but EQ2Naos us awesome... the rest... not so much). As far as what constitutes 'more mature' the chat I have seen in EQ2 rivals Barrens chat.
So you gave WoW 9 months? So you quit shortly after BWL was patched in.. you missed the opening of Silithus, the Dragons of Nightmare, the race to open Gates of Ahn'Qiraj, the nightmare that was Naxxramas.
You say that once you grind to the level cap, then all there is to do is either get gear or PVP...
Obviously you either have no raid experience whatsoever, or you missed the point entirely. Raiding is not about getting gear. That is a nice byproduct. Raiding is about testing yourself and your guild against the best the game world can throw at you. Its about the rush you get the first time you down Onyxia. Its about the scorching heat of battle in Molten Core. Its about wave upon wave of orcs, bugs, trolls and demons. Its about struggling through the reaches of the Black Temple and throwing down those who would make themselves out to be a god.
Except for how they're launching WotLK without the actual Lich King. He'll be patched in before the NEXT expansion comes out.
I haven't seen this anywhere, but even if he isn't patched in on day one, they have stated from the beginning that it would take a whole raid full of 80s to take Arthas (you know him.. the Lich King.. undead guy on the frozen throne with Frostmourne). Considering the length of time it would take to gear up raids full of 80s, patching him later is a smart move. Besides... it is the SAME THING they did with Kael'thas Sunstrider in patch 2.4 when the introduced the Sunwell Plateau. You see... Blizzard has been really good about making content patches as well as bug patches, so anyone who has played WoW for more than a minute knows this.
Also, the instances/raids/zones of Dire Maul, various Battlegrounds, Blackwing Lair, Zul'Garub, Silithus, Ahn'Qiraj, Naxxramas, The Black Temple, Zul'Aman, and Sunwell were all released as free content patches (when other companies [i.e. Sony] would charge for them). This does not include all the 'fun' stuff like world events and changes to the environment.
Blizzard knows content is king, but they also know that you WoWheads will keep paying for their lame expansion packs. Once again, your ignorance is showing. We are about to get the second expansion in the 4 years WoW has been around, if the rumored November release dates hold. Lets look at some of the other 'big' MMORPGS and see how they hold up.
Ultima Online Released 1997, Expansions released in 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2007 with one another on the horizon. Peak subscribers - 250,000.
Everquest Released 1999. Expansion released two expansion packs in 2000, 2001, 2002, and two every year for 2003-2007. That's a $30.00 expansion pack every 6 months! Peak subscribers - 430,000
Everquest II Released 2004 (going directly head to head with WoW). Expansions in 2005, two in 2006, and 2007. There was also 3 'Adventure Packs' released in 2005 and 2006 that were paid for equivalents of WoW's content patches. Peak subscribers - 350,000
Which brings us too...
World of Warcraft Released 2004, Expansion in early 2007, with a second to be relased this year acording to rumor. It has also released numerous FREE content patches (see above) that would be considered expansion packs in other MMORPGS. Peak Subscribers - over 10 MILLION worldwide.
So you keep drinking the 'Hater-ade' and 'QQ Moor' about something you obviously know nothing about, or at the very least bothered to google before spouting off and showing you are way south of GWB (or moss covered rocks, for that matter) in the intellect scale.
Last time I checked, this is America, snowgirl, I have a damn right to work in whatever field I want to. That said, as a computer tech, why the hell should I have to get a license in another field just to practice my chosen profession (that I have spent years in, I might add) just because idiot judge 'might' through evidence out.
That is utter BS. If someone happens upon a crime, and calls the cops is the judge going to through that evidence out because it was not first discovered by the police? Hell, no. First of all, look at what kind of precedent that would set. Second, its just stupid. Apply the same rule to the tech working on a system when he discovers illegal porn. Normal rules in most shops would be to immediately stop working on the system and call the cops. The police would then confiscate the system for their trained and licensed forensic techs to examine. There is no way that the porn discovered could be considered 'fruit of the poisoned tree' due to an illegal search and seizure because the moment that you give full rights to the tech to work on your system, then anything out in the open (i.e. not encrypted) is fair game. Its just like having weed in your trunk when you take your car to the garage to be worked on. That shop would have the right to call the police and that evidence seized and you would be subject to arrest.
Seeing crap like that makes me glad I don't live in Texas...... and you KNOW who comes from Texas....
I think he is referring to the fact that they are really pushing the Arenas as an eSport. While I don't think that anything in WoW should be a eSport, the things that they have done on the PVP side hasn't really affected the casual or PVE Raider that much. Bizzard has pretty much always kept close to the original lore of the the Warcraft universe (except for a couple of major retcons... i.e. the Draenei). Of course, I wish they wouldn't bow to China so much... I really want to play a Pandaren!
Now, if he was referring to Bard Hero, I for one welcome our new Activision overlords and look forward to thrashing my way through Azeroth with my guitar controller:)
instead of feeling betrayed by some game mechanic changes Not just some game mechanics are changed, but the fundamental underlying structure of what the game system is.
Its like when TSR had the Marvel Superheroes Roleplaying game. It started with the Basic system, was built upon with Advanced... and the rewritten for the 'Saga' edition, which killed it. Minor changes and refinements are great for a system. A major revamp to the rules system, kills games and game companies.
This is why I made the statement I did. Yes, I am an 'old beard' and have played the game for a long damn time. Yes, I do prefer 1st Ed. AD&D. When 2E came out, we took a bit from it and shelved the rest (basically we played 1.5e). When 3E came out, I had largely moved on from D&D to Gurps and back to some old games like Traveller (which we later fused Gurps and Traveller LONG before SJG had the license), Aftermath, and Dardevils. There were things I liked about 3E when it came out, and I felt that while things were different with mechanics like feats and such, on the whole it still felt like 1E.
This new system is just a MMORPG in pen and paper format. And yes, I play MMORPGs so I can recognize the same mechanics at work.
Today is the day that Dungeons and Dragons died.
This is it. The game system that survived Second Edition, the WOTC purchase, a collectible miniatures game, and not one but TWO horrid movies.
I played in some games during beta testing and I can tell you, that as 30 year(well, 29 year if you want to be technical about it) veteran of D&D (ah... the basic box set with the Errol artwork.. classic) as well as countless other games that most of the gamers today have never heard of, I can say that this is the final nail in the coffin for such a beloved game system. Its a good thing that Gary did dye before this came out because he would keel over on the spot if I saw what had become of D&D.
(please ignore the anonynous post.. didnt notice the wrong password and posted it anyways)
Actually, as someone who has played and DM'ed D&D since 1980, have worked for game companies such as Steve Jackson Games, AEG and even TSR, I can say that this game that they are now calling 4e is not worthy of the lineage of the previous versions. It is simply an attempt to gain the attention of the MMORPG crowd and it WILL fail utterly. They have wasted the 'seven figures' that they have spent on making this version and as such, Hasbro will be either shutting them down or selling them off.
And while I have not been privy to all the rules, a lot of what is the direction that WotC is going currently can be found not only in the 4e previews, but in the Star Wars RPG Saga edition(and for my money, the WEG D6 system is vastly better than the new version of the SWRPG), and some the last 3.5 ed books like Tome of Battle:Book of the Nine Swords. While they may not have gone with the 'aggro' system, what they are spouting is not that far off from the agro system of various MMORPGs.
I for one will not be purchasing any of the 4e rules or any product that is created with them. Instead, I will support those companies that keep the spirit of D&D alive and continue to produce products with the previous rules system. If none of the companied do so(and it will be a dark day for pen and paper RPGs should that occur... more than likely it would be the death knell of it) then my gaming budget will go to other things.
Maybe its time to dust off those 1st Ed books and run from them again.../WWEGGD?
GURPS from Steve Jackson Games.. not a d20 product, nor is it OGL. And it has been around a damn long time.
Shadowrun is still around (but on the 3rd pubisher)
West End Games has its D6 line (which grew out of the Star Wars RPG system)
AEG still pubishes the L5R rpg now back to the original d10 style rules
R. Taslorian Games still makes Cyberpunk (now in 3.0 flavor)
Heroe Games still pubishies Champions
and none of these rules are 'd20'.. in fact AEG went back to their old rules system after some time spent as a d20 system. Maybe you should visit a real game shop instead of Barnes and Noble or your Borders in your mall.
Slashdot Mirror
As at IT professional, I hate the H1-B Visa program and want to see it eliminated. This judge is a complete idiot. Just because a person is from India or Bangladesh does NOT make that person a better IT worker. I work for a medium sized Midwestern University. There was another IT worker from India who went on about how technologically superior his country is and how his people are the ones that keep our technology going. Yet, this guy could not read the bright yellow and black tag on the side of a UPS that said to plug the battery in. There are about 10 others from the Indian subcontinent who work at my college in IT and every single one of them are sub par (of course, so is the rest of Information Services... but that is another kettle of fish).
As for my stance, I am for a reduction of ALL immigration, not just the H-1B.In my opinion, the the H1-B is just stupid. We should just train and hire our own people. We should also ban sending our jobs overseas just so corporations can give their CEOs 20 million dollar a year bonuses.
I wonder if the Chinese government is aware of MediaSentry's track record
I wonder if MediaSentry is aware of the Chinese government's track record?
They should, it matches RIAA and MPAA to a tee.
Starcraft 2, Diablo 3... Everyone's expecting them and (thus far) Blizzard isn't delivering :P
Hmmm.. maybe that's because their release schedule is that it is done when it is done, rather than an release date set by corporate overlords who have no idea of when a game is finished.
And they due deliver, just not on your timeframe.. Id rather wait a few months or so and have a kick ass game rather than a crappy game just to make the release date.
.. they held and an Olympics and no one watched? No one supported business who directly support the Olympics?
Boycott the Olympics in 2008.
China out of Tibet, NOW!
This is what I hate generally hate about comic book movies (and this applies to all movies made from print media sources). I understand that you have to make some changes because you are dealing with years of back story and have squeeze it into 2 hours.
But that said, would it kill them to at least keep the story straight rather than add characters who had nothing to do with the Weapon X program? Blob and Gambit had NOTHING to do with the weapon x program (not even in any sort of retcon'ed timeline). Where is Maverick, Mastadon and Kestrel? They are not listed on IMDB on the cast list (but Blob, Gambit, Deadpool and gent Zero (the latter two were involved in later incarnations of the Weapon X program, not Wolverine's origin).
So maybe I am being a picky fan boy, and the movie does look awesome, but would it kill them to get it right for once?
Read Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA (search for it on Amazon), it has all the relevant details including cited sources in the footnotes. If you are to lazy to do this yourself, then do ask for souces.
... with NASA for years. There has been lots written about it. Some, like the secret Egyptian ritualistic cult is bunk. A lot, like the amount of images that NASA has edited or deliberately taken at lower resolutions than the equipment was designed for or at really poor angles.
And if you read though the Apollo transcripts, there are some really bizarre comments that only make sense if you take them in the setting of discovering alien ruins or debris on the moon.
And if you look at the history of the UFOs and alleged government cover-ups, you see that the few that have broken their silence on the matter have effectively been death bed confessions. Others that have done so have just disappeared (i.e. Bob Lazar).
What I find strange, if there is no real cover-up of UFOs, then why has the government spent so much time and effort trying to sweep it under the rug, so to speak. There are documents out there, that have been released through the FOIA process that show how much time and effort has gone into it and how high it goes (I have seen documents from Eisenhower, Truman, and Kennedy on the subject). If there are truly no such thing as UFO's, then why address the issue at all?
No... its no one ever dies in comic books except Captain Marvell, and he even gets guest appearances.
No.. the WAS Cillian Murphy as Johnathan Crane/Scarecrow... I just double-checked IMDB, and there he is, listed in the credits of both films for that role.
You sir, Have FAILED your Wikipedia check.
Gorshin played THE RIDDLER.. not the Joker. And he died from lung related illness caused by decades of smoking. He also died in 2005 not 1995 at the ripe old age of 71 (the same age as George Carlin... coincidence?). Now Cesar Romero played the Joker in the 60's Batman tv series (and movie). He died in 1994 at the age of 86. I couldn't find a reason for his death, but more than likely, it was old age.
For this wonderful, well researched post, you deserve a gold metal at the FAILolympic.
Eve Online is not one of the 'Big' MMORPG (they peaked at 100k in 2006 and from what I can find only have a 40k - 50k estimated player base today. So by the criteria I used for my post, Eve Online does not measure up. Yes, they may give away their expansions, but where has that gotten them? They have a core of niche players who are space simulator players and want space combat. At their peak, the were just barely 1% of World of Warcraft. Unless they do something spectacular, they will wither away quietly, never to be heard from again.
And this list was not meant to be all inclusive because I left out Lords of the Rings Online (which is only a year old), City of Heroes, Star Wars Galaxies, Pirates of the Burning Seas, Dark Age of Camelot, Guild Wars and Final Fantasy XI just to name a few of the bigger ones, not to mention all of the failed (Matrix Online) and "free" MMOROGs.
There will be MMORPGS that come (I for one am excited about Stargate Worlds) and that go, but until Blizzard releases its next gen MMORPG, World of Warcraft will remain the big dog in the MMORPG yard. Even if the player base drops to 10% of peak, that is still 1,000,000 players, more than double what EQ (the biggest MMORPG before WoW) was at its peak.
Your arguement makes you sound like a movie critic. You say such and such movie is bad, the acting is bad, the story is bad, etc... and yet the movie makes 300 million at the box office.
You say the numbers don't mean anything, but they do. They show that it is a product the people want, they want to play that way, and a vocal minority (like movie critics) are all that gets written about, so they make their statements with their subscriptions.
I play EQ2 when I want a break from WoW (or CoH/V) and there are some things in EQ2 that are great, but there is a lot that is pure crap (including the UI... but EQ2Naos us awesome... the rest... not so much). As far as what constitutes 'more mature' the chat I have seen in EQ2 rivals Barrens chat.
So you gave WoW 9 months? So you quit shortly after BWL was patched in.. you missed the opening of Silithus, the Dragons of Nightmare, the race to open Gates of Ahn'Qiraj, the nightmare that was Naxxramas.
You say that once you grind to the level cap, then all there is to do is either get gear or PVP...
Obviously you either have no raid experience whatsoever, or you missed the point entirely. Raiding is not about getting gear. That is a nice byproduct. Raiding is about testing yourself and your guild against the best the game world can throw at you. Its about the rush you get the first time you down Onyxia. Its about the scorching heat of battle in Molten Core. Its about wave upon wave of orcs, bugs, trolls and demons. Its about struggling through the reaches of the Black Temple and throwing down those who would make themselves out to be a god.
I haven't seen this anywhere, but even if he isn't patched in on day one, they have stated from the beginning that it would take a whole raid full of 80s to take Arthas (you know him.. the Lich King.. undead guy on the frozen throne with Frostmourne). Considering the length of time it would take to gear up raids full of 80s, patching him later is a smart move. Besides... it is the SAME THING they did with Kael'thas Sunstrider in patch 2.4 when the introduced the Sunwell Plateau. You see... Blizzard has been really good about making content patches as well as bug patches, so anyone who has played WoW for more than a minute knows this.
Also, the instances/raids/zones of Dire Maul, various Battlegrounds, Blackwing Lair, Zul'Garub, Silithus, Ahn'Qiraj, Naxxramas, The Black Temple, Zul'Aman, and Sunwell were all released as free content patches (when other companies [i.e. Sony] would charge for them). This does not include all the 'fun' stuff like world events and changes to the environment.
Blizzard knows content is king, but they also know that you WoWheads will keep paying for their lame expansion packs.
Once again, your ignorance is showing. We are about to get the second expansion in the 4 years WoW has been around, if the rumored November release dates hold. Lets look at some of the other 'big' MMORPGS and see how they hold up.
Ultima Online Released 1997, Expansions released in 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2007 with one another on the horizon. Peak subscribers - 250,000.
Everquest Released 1999. Expansion released two expansion packs in 2000, 2001, 2002, and two every year for 2003-2007. That's a $30.00 expansion pack every 6 months! Peak subscribers - 430,000
Everquest II Released 2004 (going directly head to head with WoW). Expansions in 2005, two in 2006, and 2007. There was also 3 'Adventure Packs' released in 2005 and 2006 that were paid for equivalents of WoW's content patches. Peak subscribers - 350,000
Which brings us too...
World of Warcraft Released 2004, Expansion in early 2007, with a second to be relased this year acording to rumor. It has also released numerous FREE content patches (see above) that would be considered expansion packs in other MMORPGS. Peak Subscribers - over 10 MILLION worldwide.
So you keep drinking the 'Hater-ade' and 'QQ Moor' about something you obviously know nothing about, or at the very least bothered to google before spouting off and showing you are way south of GWB (or moss covered rocks, for that matter) in the intellect scale.
there's no right to work in any field at all.
Last time I checked, this is America, snowgirl, I have a damn right to work in whatever field I want to. That said, as a computer tech, why the hell should I have to get a license in another field just to practice my chosen profession (that I have spent years in, I might add) just because idiot judge 'might' through evidence out.
That is utter BS. If someone happens upon a crime, and calls the cops is the judge going to through that evidence out because it was not first discovered by the police? Hell, no. First of all, look at what kind of precedent that would set. Second, its just stupid. Apply the same rule to the tech working on a system when he discovers illegal porn. Normal rules in most shops would be to immediately stop working on the system and call the cops. The police would then confiscate the system for their trained and licensed forensic techs to examine. There is no way that the porn discovered could be considered 'fruit of the poisoned tree' due to an illegal search and seizure because the moment that you give full rights to the tech to work on your system, then anything out in the open (i.e. not encrypted) is fair game. Its just like having weed in your trunk when you take your car to the garage to be worked on. That shop would have the right to call the police and that evidence seized and you would be subject to arrest.
Seeing crap like that makes me glad I don't live in Texas... ... and you KNOW who comes from Texas....
And guess that's why the Horde always win in the battlegrounds of World of Warcraft (at least on my server)
n00b... ... my pr0n folder is 8 TB.
You missed the nutjob with the hot wife tag.
Im just sayin'....
I think he is referring to the fact that they are really pushing the Arenas as an eSport. While I don't think that anything in WoW should be a eSport, the things that they have done on the PVP side hasn't really affected the casual or PVE Raider that much. Bizzard has pretty much always kept close to the original lore of the the Warcraft universe (except for a couple of major retcons... i.e. the Draenei). Of course, I wish they wouldn't bow to China so much... I really want to play a Pandaren!
:)
Now, if he was referring to Bard Hero, I for one welcome our new Activision overlords and look forward to thrashing my way through Azeroth with my guitar controller
Compared to 2E... its a spirt of the old game thing.
Its like when TSR had the Marvel Superheroes Roleplaying game. It started with the Basic system, was built upon with Advanced... and the rewritten for the 'Saga' edition, which killed it. Minor changes and refinements are great for a system. A major revamp to the rules system, kills games and game companies.
This is why I made the statement I did. Yes, I am an 'old beard' and have played the game for a long damn time. Yes, I do prefer 1st Ed. AD&D. When 2E came out, we took a bit from it and shelved the rest (basically we played 1.5e). When 3E came out, I had largely moved on from D&D to Gurps and back to some old games like Traveller (which we later fused Gurps and Traveller LONG before SJG had the license), Aftermath, and Dardevils. There were things I liked about 3E when it came out, and I felt that while things were different with mechanics like feats and such, on the whole it still felt like 1E.
This new system is just a MMORPG in pen and paper format. And yes, I play MMORPGs so I can recognize the same mechanics at work.
4E is the Vista of the D&D line.
Today is the day that Dungeons and Dragons died. This is it. The game system that survived Second Edition, the WOTC purchase, a collectible miniatures game, and not one but TWO horrid movies. I played in some games during beta testing and I can tell you, that as 30 year(well, 29 year if you want to be technical about it) veteran of D&D (ah... the basic box set with the Errol artwork.. classic) as well as countless other games that most of the gamers today have never heard of, I can say that this is the final nail in the coffin for such a beloved game system. Its a good thing that Gary did dye before this came out because he would keel over on the spot if I saw what had become of D&D.
I'm just waiting for him to go on a shooting spree just so he can 'prove' video game violence causes real life violence.
(please ignore the anonynous post.. didnt notice the wrong password and posted it anyways) Actually, as someone who has played and DM'ed D&D since 1980, have worked for game companies such as Steve Jackson Games, AEG and even TSR, I can say that this game that they are now calling 4e is not worthy of the lineage of the previous versions. It is simply an attempt to gain the attention of the MMORPG crowd and it WILL fail utterly. They have wasted the 'seven figures' that they have spent on making this version and as such, Hasbro will be either shutting them down or selling them off. And while I have not been privy to all the rules, a lot of what is the direction that WotC is going currently can be found not only in the 4e previews, but in the Star Wars RPG Saga edition(and for my money, the WEG D6 system is vastly better than the new version of the SWRPG), and some the last 3.5 ed books like Tome of Battle:Book of the Nine Swords. While they may not have gone with the 'aggro' system, what they are spouting is not that far off from the agro system of various MMORPGs. I for one will not be purchasing any of the 4e rules or any product that is created with them. Instead, I will support those companies that keep the spirit of D&D alive and continue to produce products with the previous rules system. If none of the companied do so(and it will be a dark day for pen and paper RPGs should that occur... more than likely it would be the death knell of it) then my gaming budget will go to other things. Maybe its time to dust off those 1st Ed books and run from them again... /WWEGGD?
You seem to have missed a few there...
GURPS from Steve Jackson Games.. not a d20 product, nor is it OGL. And it has been around a damn long time.
Shadowrun is still around (but on the 3rd pubisher)
West End Games has its D6 line (which grew out of the Star Wars RPG system)
AEG still pubishes the L5R rpg now back to the original d10 style rules
R. Taslorian Games still makes Cyberpunk (now in 3.0 flavor)
Heroe Games still pubishies Champions
and none of these rules are 'd20'.. in fact AEG went back to their old rules system after some time spent as a d20 system. Maybe you should visit a real game shop instead of Barnes and Noble or your Borders in your mall.