[mearls]

I think the most important lesson I (re-) learned in the entire 4e process is that playing D&D or any other RPG is an intensely personal activity. There's a reason why we game with our friends, usually at the home of a friend, over food and drink. This is intensely personal stuff, where we say and do things that we wouldn't let loose in public.

RPGs also encourage creation, and that spawns an intense feeling of ownership. Those are good things, IMO, because there aren't many other things in modern society that drive those very human needs.

What that does mean, though, is that it's very, very easy to piss people off when you change D&D or any other RPG. It's like giving their baby plastic surgery without asking first, or re-arranging their house while they're away on vacation. Even if you do a great job, there's a good chance they're going to be pissed off on general principle.

At the end of the day, all you can hope for is that enough people thought their baby was ugly, or their house crappily laid out, that they happy with the change or able to accept it after giving it a try. I think the stuff we've done does make improvements to areas where the game didn't work all that well, makes the game more accessible, and makes it easier to play D&D.

In the end, gamers get to judge whether the changes we have made are for the good of the game or not. When the game is out there, then we'll know. Right now, you have some people who want it to fail for various ideological, personal, or other random reasons, and others who want it to succeed for all the same factors. All that conjecture and hope doesn't mean anything until the game comes out and the vast majority of gamers who are stuck somewhere in the middle pass judgment.