Coma White
Educated
Eh, the entire argument is missing the point anyway. What guys like The Game Analists are really mad about is that the hit points made the game less unique and special, not that it's dumber. And then there are people on the Codex, who don't really give a fuck about Numenera or know anything about it, who have piled on that because they're eager to see signs of decline everywhere. But Numenera isn't even a very good system so it's all kind of silly. Here's our review of it: http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=9315
The thing that draws me to the game is less the rules or the Torment legacy (I still don't even know what this means exactly) and more the Numenera setting itself. The art, the world, the ideas are really fucking compelling and imaginative. And hey, health pools are like whatever; Bloodlines is one of my favorite CRPGs ever and it isn't even close to actual WoD rules. What perturbs me is sweeping shifts in design philosophy so late in the development cycle. Unless it isn't as late in the cycle as I was led to believe -- which now of course seems to be the case. Again, I have not played Early Access or even followed this game too closely precisely because I am so excited for it.