"But its not D&D!"

*whine*

I've been entertaining myself by keeping up with the Enworld forums, with regard to D&D 4e.

There's a few different kinds of traffic there right now. Alot of rules mechanics discussion, some newsish scoops about what this or that developer said, or what this or that publisher is doing, and then a healthy smattering of blatantly pro or anti 4e threads.

The ones that have amused me most greatest are the ones that whine about how "Its just not D&D anymore!" Or how they argue that its "Less realistic". These make me grin, and clap my hands in near-silent glee. Typically I only have to scroll one or two posts to see someone justly smack these posts down. Because c'mon people, "Not D&D"? We're talking about the game that is about killing monsters and taking stuff. and "Less realistic"? Like elves and fireballs were realistic in the first place.

But now to step back for a second, and lend them just a bit of respect, when they say "Not D&D", these are usually folks who have gone on and on and on and on about which editions of D&D they've played, and so on. So I think that what they're trying to say is that they're disappointed that its lost some of the feel of 1st/2nd/3rd edition. Or some combination of those. Which I suppose I can understand. Some people like keeping up with the weight of their coinpurse, or dwarves not being able to be higher than 12th level, or THAC0.

"Less realistic"? Obviously, I'm chuckling when I discuss D&D and realism, but perhaps they're talking about realism as it relates to its (arguable) source material, easily (but not only) Lord of the Rings. If they're using this as the base for their gripes about realism, then I can give them some credit.

Where am I going with this? Nowhere. That's where.