Fan 1. "You've changed this game too much. It no longer feels like the game I loved."

A new edition needs to contain new content to attract new customers and feel fresh for established ones. The previous editions are all still available to you, however, and are evergreen.

Fan 2. "Some of the changes have ruined this game for me. I can't play with this metaplot."

Remove the parts you dislike and build on the parts you do like. It's a template; not a dogma. In my Forgotten Realms, the Spellplague never happened, but the Dragonborn are present.

Fan 3. "If I'd written this, I'd have changed it this way."

We rarely design games by fan consensus, and if we did, there's still the risk you wouldn't like what we wrote. A lot of games provide community content for folks like you who want to design the material themselves.

Fan 4. "It seems you really phoned it in with this one. You homogenised this clan / class / people out of laziness."

I can assure you laziness is not a part of most functioning game designers. We don't get paid enough to be lazy.

Fan 5. "Why did you change my favourite clan / class / people?"

To make them more attractive, or playable, or intriguing, or usable by the GM, or establish them better in their world. Giovanni / Druids / Gnomes consistently rank low on player polls, hence the change.

Fan 6. "Why did you cut my favourite part of the game out of the core and all current releases?"

They were cut because they didn't fit the game's core theme, and wouldn't have received the justice they deserved if included in the core. You'll inevitably see them again.

Fan 7. "Thank you for your work on this game, which really shows. There are parts I love, and parts I won't use, and that's fine. It's a game of imagination, so I can make stories using this as a basis and you've given me loads of new ideas."

No, thank you. You're why I do this.