Yes it does. I tried DMing a game in college where all of us had been away from the game for several years. One guy was a power gamer and completely ruined it for everyone else.
Okay, I've done some more reading and I think the mumorpeger complaint is based on the online content coming up. There's an online play feature that will be available for people who can't get together in one spot to game, there's an online character creator, and the errata will be released both in print and in a consistently updated online patch sorta version. Oh, and all of this will be available for a monthly fee of something like $10-$15. Given that none of that will be necessary, just helpful, I don't know if it's a big deal.
Everything else seems to be nerfing complaints, mechanics complaints, and "you're making it too easy for people to learn and play!" rather than "you're making it like a memorpurgar!". I still don't know much of anything about how the actual mechanics will work to be able to judge these complaints, except in one regard; I think wizards got absurdly powerful and broke the game.
All told, it's looking interesting and good. For example;
* Mike Mearls: "[3E]... assumed that the party fought only one monster. In 4th Edition, we’re doing things a bit different. We’re shifting to a system that assumes a number of monsters equal to the number of characters."
* A hazard simply fits in in the same way that a monster does: "That makes it much easier to design green slime, pit traps, whirling blades, fountains that spray acid, and crumbling stone walls. One such hazard can simply take the place of one monster, leaving you with three or four monsters in the encounter. Since monster level is a more rigorous measure of power, we can turn those measures and scales around and use them to create environmental hazards, traps, set pieces, and other interesting tactical twists. ... A swaying rope bridge battered by howling air elementals fits under the encounter building system. A burning building that collapses around the PCs as they fight the evil hobgoblin wizard fills a similar role, as does a bizarre altar to Vecna that randomly teleports characters around the room. Hazards, traps, and other dangers simply fill in for one or more creatures in a fight."
I can't recall ever encountering a trap and monsters at the same time, despite the fact it would make for a much more dramatic and interesting encounter. Elsewhere they talk about making a trap a more involved encounter itself with multiple functioning parts with differing initiative rolls and whatnot. So in addition to balancing classes, they're trying to make the environment a part of the game rather than just colorful background. Just like they're making characters customizable, I think they're trying to make the world more customizable for DMs.
Also, they're trying to phase out the sweet spot. You know, the first few levels are a slog where you have to struggle to survive. Then you hit smooth sailing where the characters are powerful enough to do what you'd wanted without being so powerful it's not fun. Then you hit the high levels and either the gameplay has changed so much or the characters are so overpowered or complex that it's not fun any more. They're trying to make it so that every level is fun and interesting, even if they're fun and interesting in different ways.
Again, I don't know how the mechanics will actually work; the sweet spot problem alone would take a lot of effort to avoid. However, Wizards has got a whole lot of experience with game systems to help them out. All in all, I'm really looking forward to this (rogues useful in combat at level 3? Awesome!)
