I have a problem with this game. It runs well, it's fun (for an MMO), the graphics are good, the controls are more or less intuitive.
But it's not D&D 4th edition.
I was looking through the
Neverwinter forums, and found several people confused about "the rules for 4th edition", when the game is rather a loose adaptation of (re: some of the power names are the same, even if they do not function anything like the TT version) of 4th edition rules. What follows in each case is a diatribe about how the 4e haters' suspicions have now been confirmed: D&D 4e is World of Warcraft for Babies.
For all the talk of 4e being "WoW on paper", the rules do not translate well to the real-time MMO format. Are there any MMOs that use turn-based combat? As I understand it, Knights of the Old Republic had real-time exploration, and turn-based combat, and it did pretty well, but I can't remember if it was multiplayer or not. I think what WotC should have done right off the bat was to commission a party-based roguelike based on the 4e rules, and distribute it free to subscribers (or, say, the first five levels of the dungeon free, $ for the rest of the dungeon).
The point is, one cannot judge the merits of the 4th edition rules based on their half-baked adapatation to an online MMO.
People can have a freakishly good time using any rule set,
including 4th edition.