I play Shadowrun 3rd edition, but won't touch 4th edition.
I enjoy playing the new World of Darkness setting Changeling but you could hardly convince me to play any of their older games. You couldn't hardly convince to play one of their other current games unless I could play a changeling in it.
What is it about some editions where we have preferences as gamers? What should companies be learning? Should companies always push for a new edition every few years to boost sales? Should they sometimes admit a new edition is a bad idea when older editions sold better?
The Shadowrun universe fansite has Dumpshock has banned discussions on comparing 3rd and 4th edition. Is it really because people frequently argue there or because they enjoy close relations with the developers of 4th edition? Seems like the site should be honest and just call themselves a website for Shadowrun 4th edition only but I believe they want to be a perpetual crusade to convert players of older editions. They administrators have had a subtle agenda to downplay 3rd edition and push 4th edition. The change in editions here has been followed with a sea change of faces. The old developers and the old publishing companies are long gone. Many of them were more pushed out, while others just moved on from a setting that was leaving them behind. People who play 4th edition, mostly never played 3rd edition. I can find 3rd edition play groups in every town I play in because the game is very popular and had a large following. 4th edition does not have the coverage in game stores that 3rd edition did and you don't find it in as many places. 3rd edition at release was a top selling game that outsold D&D at the time. 4th edition is an almost obscure RPG that has a profitable following, but not a big one. The few groups I've seen playing it in game stores are largely unfamiliar with any previous edition of the game. Frankly when the changes are as drastic as they are in 4th edition from previous Shadowrun editions the game shouldn't even have the same name. It isn't a game of cyberpunk and high fantasy any more, 4th edition Shadowrun is about high-tech and Guns & Sorcery. It is like comparing a William Gibson novel and a Star Trek novel because they both deal with a future. In both cases it is about the setting, the feelings it evokes, the essence of "flavor" that is being dealt with in the stories. They're night and day despite the futurism. The current producers of Shadowrun 4th edition won't go back to 3rd edition, it isn't what they started with and they have the license to do what they want and they're making a living off of it.
I wonder though, does Topps feel the same way or are they looking at the what the customers want and how much MORE PROFITABLE 3rd edition was? Ever since the demise of Wizkids, Topps has never announced their intentions for Shadowrun and Battletech and I suspect, hope even that they've got bigger plans to make the franchises more popular like they once were.
White Wolf killed off the entire storyline when they changed editions. Which is in my opinion a better way of "rebooting" the entire setting than what was done to Shadowrun. I was the opposite of a fan of the old setting, and most of the new setting as well so I won't comment a lot. Some of their edition changes have been a huge success (i.e. New Changeling versus Old Changeling) and some a huge flop (New Werewolf versus Old Werewolf). I would say their edition changes were successful, but they still have a bit to learn about what exactly makes a game good.
VOR the Maelstrom. In the planning stages for a 2nd edition after being out of print for what is going on 8 years now. It is hard to make too many stereotypes about the community as it has seen a lot of face changes in the last year. Currently there are a number of discussions about changes in the 1.0 forums and requests for additions to 1.0 content till 2.0 comes out. Why would you talk about or ask for editions to a dead game that is out of print and never coming back? FASA is out of the game business forever. What is the point of asking for tiny bits of that? If people love VOR then they need to support 2.0 and not try to tear the game apart or make it become a completely different game. The setting and game rules are not going to be "rebooted" like World of Darkness or Shadowrun were and that has been explicitly stated on more than one occasion. If you really like VOR why would you want it to be?
VOR will be a good edition change like Shadowrun 1st to 2nd to 3rd was. Fix holes in the game mechanics, add some new content, and advance the story. Editions should not be about making an entirely different game. That is the point of the word Edition: A new iteration of what already exists.
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