Taken directly from the Wiki:

As of 2006^[update], Dungeons & Dragons remained the best-known^[8] and best-selling^[9] role-playing game, with an estimated 20 million people having played the game and more than US$1 billion in book and equipment sales.^[10] The game has been supplemented by many pre-made adventures as well as commercial campaign settings suitable for use by regular gaming groups. Dungeons & Dragons is known beyond the game for other D&D-branded products, references in popular culture and some of the controversies that have surrounded it, particularly a moral panic in the 1980s falsely linking it to Satanism and suicide.^[11] The game has won multiple awards and has been translated into many languages beyond the original English.

I am certain no amount of hate will hurt the over all brand of the game.

The D&D brand has been crap since Wizards of the Coast bought them out years back.

I hear they are making a new ruleset, again.

Sounds about right, launch a game, then change the ruleset.

Again a bigger company buys out a smaller one and whores out the name.

Crap since 97 !

TSR fo life YO!

Originally posted by paulytheb

The D&D brand has been crap since Wizards of the Coast bought them out years back.

I hear they are making a new ruleset, again.

Sounds about right, launch a game, then change the ruleset.

Again a bigger company buys out a smaller one and whores out the name.

Crap since 97 !

 

TSR fo life YO!

Actually DnD 3.5 (under WoTC) is widely regarded as the best ruleset by a large margin, a sentiment with which I readily agree. It offers flexibility and complexity without being needlessly obtuse (such as AD&D). I mean come on, THAC0?

Also, they are most likely making a new ruleset because 4.0 is generally thought of as being sub-par, and more suited for a video game or miniatures game (which may have been the intent).

TSR were a bunch of assholes who sued at the drop of a hat, wasted money, and generally treated their playerbase like crap. If WoTC hadn't bought them, it's quite likely we wouldn't have Dungeons & Dragons today.

Originally posted by paulytheb

The D&D brand has been crap since Wizards of the Coast bought them out years back.

 The problem is it is Dungeons & Dragons that crap.

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons has always been awesome (Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance I'm talking about here, not the other shitty universes and lores)

Originally posted by paulytheb

The D&D brand has been crap since Wizards of the Coast bought them out years back.

I hear they are making a new ruleset, again.

Sounds about right, launch a game, then change the ruleset.

Again a bigger company buys out a smaller one and whores out the name.

Crap since 97 !

 

TSR fo life YO!

 

I think you're dealing with a little bit of romantic nostalgia there. TSR's problems and resulting sale to WoC was a direct result of TSR's (i.e. Gary Gygax's) own mismanagement. At the time, TSR was one of the bigger bullies on the block, having bought out Avalon Hill and SPI.  They were going to declare bankruptcy when Gygax sold them to WoC.  If you may remember, it was the TSR management that screwed over Dave Arneson, who help pioneer the original game.

TSR also engaged in their own versions of obsoleting rules systems every few years.  There was AD&D, Basic D&D, Advanced D&D, Advanced D&D 2nd Edition, all of which were published before WoC bought the company.

WoC simply carried on the grand tradition.

Please 3.5 was a power creep nightmare. Every new sourcebook printed would add new feats that would obsolete entire prestige classes. Not only that the feat system in and of itself while great when it was introduced in 3.0 as a way for characters to be improved upon, slowly became a system that pigeonholed characters on what they could and could not do. The question I heard over and over in the later years would be "do you have a feat that allows you to do tthat?". If you didn't you could not do it.

4th edition for me actually breathed new life into the game. Unfortunately they became lazy and stopped supporting it when essentials came about. Will not touch this new edition they are working on. If I roleplay it will either be Shadowrun, deathwatch , or the new Iron kingdoms RPG.

The 1983 Red Box Basic D&D Rules (and 91 rules compilation) will always be my favorite set of fantasy gaming rules. well explained, straight forward, and just plain fun for a group of frieinds without all the power creep and BS that entered other editions. 3.5 grew too bloated and scattered with way over powered magic users while 4E was too much a minatures game for easy play. But that shouldn't surprise anyone as more than one Hasbro owned game relies on extras to keep going. Look at Magic. 4E really would have been better on the PC. Sure D&D will always be here as a name if nothing else. But I am starting to think that more than the rules their game worlds both old and new are what will have value in the future. I'm really surprised no one has made Dark Sun, FR, Greyhawk, or Planescape into an MMORPG for the PC.

This thread caused me to spend several hours scouring the internet for the original Gary Gygax Advanced D&D rule books I had as a kid. I got the DM and the players guides. I found some good prices on ebay and amazon resellers. I'm pretty stoked about that. 

I also found some of his other books from the series on world building. I'm going back to the starting point. 

Originally posted by Crazy_Stick

 I'm really surprised no one has made Dark Sun, FR, Greyhawk, or Planescape into an MMORPG for the PC.

We don't want that to happen until we get a developer house that we trust. Can you imagine how these games would be cheesed up, dumbed down, and monetized in today's gaming environment?

Originally posted by azzamasin

Taken directly from the Wiki:

 

As of 2006^[update], Dungeons & Dragons remained the best-known^[8] and best-selling^[9] role-playing game, with an estimated 20 million people having played the game and more than US$1 billion in book and equipment sales.^[10] The game has been supplemented by many pre-made adventures as well as commercial campaign settings suitable for use by regular gaming groups. Dungeons & Dragons is known beyond the game for other D&D-branded products, references in popular culture and some of the controversies that have surrounded it, particularly a moral panic in the 1980s falsely linking it to Satanism and suicide.^[11] The game has won multiple awards and has been translated into many languages beyond the original English.

 

I am certain no amount of hate will hurt the over all brand of the game.

Dungeons and Dragons in my opinion died when Wizards of the Coast bought TSR and forced v3.0e(as well as 3.5e, 4.0e, and 4.5e) down our throats. 

Originally posted by squeaky1

Originally posted by paulytheb

The D&D brand has been crap since Wizards of the Coast bought them out years back.

...

Crap since 97 !

I think you're dealing with a little bit of romantic nostalgia there.

Maybe it's the romantic nostalgia, but I'm with those group as well.

Since we stopped at AD&D 2nd, I don't have first-hand experience the latter ones (beside DDO, and in the near future Neverwinter). Some people from our former rpg groups tried them, and since we have similar taste I trust their opinion, which is closely the above post: D&D 3 is a joke, 3.5 is more like an action game than an rpg, and for 4 I didn't hear a thing... I know only one guy who tried it, red the book and said 'no thanks' :)

But I do hope Neverwinter will be a good game regardless the 4ed...

Edit: to the truth I red the 3.5 players book, but I think that's not enough for a personal opinion about the system because I haven't tried it in an actual game - actually I just red it to get every inside joke from the Dorkness Rising :) (awesome movie btw)

Originally posted by paulytheb

The D&D brand has been crap since Wizards of the Coast bought them out years back.

I hear they are making a new ruleset, again.

Sounds about right, launch a game, then change the ruleset.

Again a bigger company buys out a smaller one and whores out the name.

Crap since 97 !

 

TSR fo life YO!

Whlle it may be your opinion, you can't argue the $1 billion in sales.

Well for those that loved the 3.x D&D there is always Pathfinder. I also think 4th Ed. D&D is not suited for traditional PnP role playing, but it's pretty good for a hack&slash miniature game.

Incidentally, the 4th ed. is also vastly superior to 3.x in terms of making an MMO on top of.

Originally posted by squeaky1

Originally posted by paulytheb

The D&D brand has been crap since Wizards of the Coast bought them out years back.

I hear they are making a new ruleset, again.

Sounds about right, launch a game, then change the ruleset.

Again a bigger company buys out a smaller one and whores out the name.

Crap since 97 !

 

TSR fo life YO!

 

I think you're dealing with a little bit of romantic nostalgia there. TSR's problems and resulting sale to WoC was a direct result of TSR's (i.e. Gary Gygax's) own mismanagement. At the time, TSR was one of the bigger bullies on the block, having bought out Avalon Hill and SPI.  They were going to declare bankruptcy when Gygax sold them to WoC.  If you may remember, it was the TSR management that screwed over Dave Arneson, who help pioneer the original game.

TSR also engaged in their own versions of obsoleting rules systems every few years.  There was AD&D, Basic D&D, Advanced D&D, Advanced D&D 2nd Edition, all of which were published before WoC bought the company.

WoC simply carried on the grand tradition.

Gary Gygax left TSR in 1985.

Originally posted by paulytheb

The D&D brand has been crap since Wizards of the Coast bought them out years back.

:pistol shot:

And the Brand Loyalty 500 is Off and Running!

Originally posted by PWN_FACE

Originally posted by Crazy_Stick

 I'm really surprised no one has made Dark Sun, FR, Greyhawk, or Planescape into an MMORPG for the PC.

We don't want that to happen until we get a developer house that we trust. Can you imagine how these games would be cheesed up, dumbed down, and monetized in today's gaming environment?

If we're gonna wait for a studio we all trust then they will never be made

Originally posted by Po_gg

Originally posted by squeaky1

Originally posted by paulytheb

The D&D brand has been crap since Wizards of the Coast bought them out years back.

...

Crap since 97 !

I think you're dealing with a little bit of romantic nostalgia there.

Maybe it's the romantic nostalgia, but I'm with those group as well.

Since we stopped at AD&D 2nd, I don't have first-hand experience the latter ones (beside DDO, and in the near future Neverwinter). Some people from our former rpg groups tried them, and since we have similar taste I trust their opinion, which is closely the above post: D&D 3 is a joke, 3.5 is more like an action game than an rpg, and for 4 I didn't hear a thing... I know only one guy who tried it, red the book and said 'no thanks' :)

But I do hope Neverwinter will be a good game regardless the 4ed...

 

Edit: to the truth I red the 3.5 players book, but I think that's not enough for a personal opinion about the system because I haven't tried it in an actual game - actually I just red it to get every inside joke from the Dorkness Rising :) (awesome movie btw)

I will add my agreement to those saying D&D died after WotWC acquired TSR(TSR's mismanagement has no bearing at all ont he arguement).

Every addition after dumbed down the franchise and let palyers use less and less of their own imagination.It's now the WoW of PnP RPGs,popular amongst those who have only known it's current incarnation,which is a much larger audience than us old timers,and dumbed down for said wider audience.

EDIT: having said all that it has nob earing on Neverwinter being a good game.it jsut won't be true D&D for me personally.I ahve more issues with the Cryptic Game Factory developing it and PWE running it than what rule set it uses.