WebShaman, I have to disagree with you that 4e is a roll-playing game and not a roleplaying game. There is nothing that prevents you as a player from roleplaying in 4e. However, 4e has been created in such a way that, strangely, almost makes players, even veteran players, into limiting their thinking when playing the game and kind of indirectly forces them to roll-play.
ANY game can be played role-play style - just depends on the group. IMHO, that is a given. But that is not the point that I was making about 4E. You go on in the quote above to describe why 4E fails to remain true to it's D&D heritage, and why so many in the PnP scene have fled from it (me included) to Pathfinder (which I find to be the true successor for PnP D&D here).
The main point is, that 4E has moved away from its roots in PnP and towards the online CRPG experience (ala WoW). This left most of the PnPers in the cold. It is for this reason alone that Pathfinder became a valid option IMHO.
As long as D&D continues to move towards WoW, there will never again be a game based on D&D that will be a successor to NWN. The only option here that I can see is to go with Pathfinder. Bioware has already proved that using a different IP can be a commercial success (ala DA).
It should not be all that difficult for a company like Bioware to use the Pathfinder IP and create a commercially successful game that truly exceeds NWN, thus becoming the true successor to it. It is what I am hoping for.
