A trio of interesting D&D articles.

[Anastasia]

D&D: Past, Present and Future.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/9292-The-Ghosts-of-D-D-Past
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/9293-The-State-of-D-D-Present
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/9294-The-State-of-Dungeons-Dragons-Future

Some interesting stuff in here.

[Carthrat]

I found them a bit arrogant. They're mostly right on how the culture around D&D has gone and how some of the design decisions have impacted the game, but I can't help but read it like they see themselves as the only option available for tabletop gamers around, like it's all on their shoulders to provide a variety of roleplaying experiences.

Yeah D&D is many games. Also, there are many games out there. D&D pigeonholed itself into a particular style with 4e, but that's actually fine because there are so many other resources available. There doesn't need to be one catch-all game for everything anymore.

(this nostalgia stuff always gets my goat)

[Anastasia]

I think the point they're making is that for a long time, D&D was by far the leader of pen and paper games. Because of this catering to many people makes a hell of a lot of sense, and this is why the OGL was so successful. I find 4th edition lacking, and that's one of the lesser reasons why.