4th Edition as a Player

After DMing 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons for many months, today I had my first chance to experience it as a player. I must say that I'm liking this version more and more. It promotes cooperation and makes every player's contribution (role) valuable. I still dislike some of the more video game like aspects (squares, simplified movement, allies not giving cover for ranged attacks, etc.) but I cannot complain with how the system works. It is not hard to teach. It makes game play similar for all classes (which I did not like at first) which means you all always have something to do and you all basically go about doing it the same way. It is overall a big improvement on previous editions of the game. I spent much of one epic battle (we were 1st level characters) in the belly of a giant frog! That's me in the far frog. One of the things I like about this version is that it is not hard to drop a character, but it is rather hard to kill them. I'm slowly being digested by this frog, I've stopped making saves to get out (I couldn't roll over ten four times in a row! And I'm rolling to make sure I don't die, but still taking damage. I was 2 HP away from the magic -11 dead mark when Glen made a miraculous hit on my frog, freeing me! I managed to hang out long enough for a healing to get me back up. But I had missed most of that fight. That's the last time I volunteer to open the door for the party while they hold back at the entrance! Sheesh. It was much fun though, the fact that it came so close made it exciting. I was already envisioning my brother Jimm the Shady taking over (my character was the eladerin artful dodger rogue Slimm the shady) so I could keep playing. Fun day!