Jengenritz wrote:First, let me assure everyone here that I'm not trying to be rude. If it is taken that way, I apologize in advance.
Second, when I say "you" I don't mean "you-you," I mean it in the general sense. If I refer to or address someone, I'll say their name. I'll say this again: I'm not referring to specific people unless I say so.
Lastly, I recognize that I'm hardly impartial since I wrote/am writing some of these modules. That said, I'm also not blindly shilling for Goodman Games...I'm a freelancer.
Moving on:
I've spoken with several of you on a handful of occasions through the board, and I appreciate that you have interest in the DCC line. I mean, TheMilford is selling guitars! That floors me. Unless, I suppose, he's a guitar salesman, but I assume he's not.
Some of you have stated you don't like the cover art. Although not shared by everyone surveyed, that's certainly a fair opinion. The cover is different, and "different" invariably rubs some people wrong. Look at the Edition Wars, for instance.
This board - specifically this thread - is the proper place to express any opinion of the cover art. All opinions are welcome, certainly, as long as comity is preseved.
If all you want to do is say, "I don't like the art," you can pretty much leave it at that. Message received.
I can't speak for Joseph here, but I imagine if you actually want your comments to be taken into consideration - which is not the same thing as having your comments acted on - then specific comments are more useful than broad statements.
If you don't like the art, what about it don't you like?
It helps to be dispassionate. The discussion with JZavoda in the other thread ended up getting heated and snarky. You are commenting on business decisions, so be businesslike.
It's cool that people care about gaming - and the DCC line - enough to get worked up, but ultimately doing so ends poorly.
In the interests of continuing the discussion and not just being some tool who lectures people on how to act civil on a board, I offer the following:
What if the covers had not changed at all?
Even if the module clearly stated that it was compliant with 4E, wouldn't there be a stink about Goodman Games "misleading" people with the cover art? The buying public has been led to expect 3.X content from such cover art, and they could certainly cry "shenanigans" if the content was actually 4E.
I'm only speaking as an observer, but change was necessary to not mislead the public, I'd imagine.
For the collector: why does the cover matter?
I can make suppositions as to why, but that would be ascribing motivations to the collectors, which is unfair to them. And I really hate it when people do that in an argument; I even hate it when I end up doing it.
Therefore, this is an open-ended question.
For the converter: why does the cover matter?
We're drifting back into content again, but let's face it: you don't just buy the cover, you get what's between them, too.
It's been stated time and again that the content is the same (aside from being in 4E): authors, interior art, editors, playtesters. More important, the focus is the same...still evocative of the old-school modules while bringing something new to the table. More than the rules, the feeling should be easily carried over to your OG groups.
This isn't a rhetorical question, I hope for an answer.
I'd call you by name but I don't know it.
As far as business practices and snarkiness goes, much better that the guy trying to sell the goods keeps away from it. Customers can be a little snarky especially after they've been insulted. I'd point out the specifics but the last time I tried the post was deleted. Easy way to get the last word.
First, let me assure you that you are being rude. Normally when you have to lead a post by saying you aren't being rude it is a very good indication that rudeness is exactly the intention.
Your survey on who likes the new cover art and who doesn't seems to have been a very private one. I've never heard of it and on the forums I frequent the DCC line is very popular. But we are mostly old school gamers and collectors. Very likely to be turned off by modern covers on a classic line.
But as far as just saying "I don't like the cover" and shutting up lets talk about why the art is bad, why the change in style is even worse, and what it promises for the future. One of the reasons why the old style art is important is the link to the excellent 1e material, that with the change to a different style also became a change or low quality content. The change is distrubing because as old school gamers we have seen and heard the same rhetoric from a game company before.
As a collector the old style cover art was better, it was graphicly sound, pleasing and contiguous with all the DCC material that had gone before. It linked the DCC material to the days of old which collectors venerate. So the change is not only one in favor of a common and inferior style but a slap in the face to the honored past.
For those of us who convert the art matters. While words are valuable a picture is worth more than a thousand, and having that old fashioned cover positioned between the DM and the Players recreated a heady atmosphere that modern school gamers cannot imagine, nor obviously can those in favor of this sad change.
An era has ended. How appropriate for this year of loss to the gaming world.
Or even worse... like when 2nd edition came out 
