Hm, can I say loud some thoughts about Beth? I joined here after epic failure of this tread, so... hm. Its not too late to say something, right?
Erm... *clears throat*
Sorry girls, you are such bunch of wankers, talking 'bout pretty Melisa, instead focus on very interesting question. OP of this very topic - ViolentOpposition – wrote – quote - “It's not that they can't, or wouldn't know how to, or that they're dumb, or that they forgot. No, they're actually very smart, and they could probably develop a great RPG even by Codex standards. They just don't want to. What they want is to maximise sales of their games (a more accessible game = a larger suitable audience = more copies sold). Classical RPGs are never going to sell as much as Popadragon 2, because they're just not as accessible to as wide an audience.” - end of quote.
This. In world where entertainment in games are define by fun and 15 seconds of orgasm, we have no valid ground to expecting nothing more that just... fun. And 15 seconds of... well. Zola of RPG not came yet, I afraid.
Besides, I wonder, what make RPG great? “Old school rules”? Which edition of D'n'd? Or maybe another “paper” system – which are plenty? C&C with prose on level Orson Scott Card or hard sandbox a'la Stalker? Worlds of Tolkien or Gibson?
Another thought, what if Beht. just can't do better RPG? As someone earlier wrote, they RPG systems always been rather “murky” in many ways. They games were saved by sheer size and quality content (till Oblivion). By cutting content (expensive stuff – y'know) they left with just empty codpieces in their pants. Of course they will be financially flourishing after their new hit Skyrim (because of amount of bloom...)
