I have a tendency not to give in to hype. Or rather I have a tendency not to follow the crowd. This applies pretty much to every aspect of my life. So when a new Harry Potter book comes out I generally ignore it until everyone else is done drooling and moves on to the next thing. Everyone seems to follow this pattern: buy a horse, ride it for a while, get bored, sell it for glue. People are very faddy. There seems to be a fair amount of following going on in D&D. I refuse to go along. Take for example a recent request I made on an unhelpful forum.
I asked if anyone had seen a conversion of the old Tome of Magic elementalist classes from 2E. The reply was to use the Wu Jen. Okay, that makes at least three (3) assumptions:
1. That there is any corelation at all between to two, which there isn't.
2. That I enjoy the unrealistic cultural stew pot that seems to be a normal assumption in D&D these days. Cultures on earth are separate for a reason. Just take a look at the picture of the Dwarven Samurai whilst trying to keep a straight face. If you can keep a straight face then you're not going to understand what I'm saying anyway.
3. That I play my game your way and that is to mix everything in the books no matter how stupid. Drool.
I actually like the Wu Jen class. I'm just not running an Oriental Adventures campaign is all.
I think gamers, game masters in particular, should find their own style and respect the style of others. I hate the Forgotten Realms. I have a friend that loves it and I'll even play in his game. I think most have a love-hate relationship with the D&D today. I do. I find some of the things that have been done to my game down right offensive as a matter of fact: nose rings, tatt ...