What I miss about 3rd Ed: Part III

So today I would like to talk about an area that will no doubt be some what touchy. There will no doubt be those that think I'm wrong, or will say that I'm making an issue of nothing. But I have to say that this issue, or at least issue from my point of view, is important. So, you ask, what is this said issue?: it's roleplaying. Not roleplaying in general, but roleplaying, or the lack there of, in 4th ED. 

Now, before anyone says, 'Hey, you! Roleplaying is all up to the DM, and I'd you find it hard in the new rules that's your problem', I want to say that, in part, that is true. It is true that I could implant roleplaying into my campaign wherever I wanted. Yet, in doing so, given the way the new rules work, it makes it very hard to hand out experience.

Now truly a DM could just had out XP at will. Run the roleplaying just as in 3rd ED, but then a problem comes up. Now that I've plugged my roleplaying in, were does it fall in the ten encounter average per level? And do I give out a parcel? Because if I don't they characters will miss one as part of their level advancement. Okay maybe that's not a huge problem, but it seems to me to still be one. Maybe you could treat a gold parcel as reward for completion of a quest, but that's not always a reasonable option. 

3rd ED didn't ask the DM to work this problem out. All a DM had to do was make an interesting NPC, a story or situation, and play it out to the willing players around the table. That was it, simple and clean cut. The only limitation was the DM's imagination. 

Now, though, the DM has a mountain of information to plow through. If a  wishes to make a roleplaying event it has be turned into a skill challenge. When that happens the whole feel of the encounter changes. No longer is it about taking on a character and trying to convince Prince Al'adon to pay for the parties adventure.  Now to do that the player just has to get three successes before five failures and the prince is convinced. 

Assuredly there are players, and DM's,  that will try to add roleplaying into the die rolls, but more often then not the players end up just rolling their dice until they get the required successes. For some players, the ones that never got into the roleplaying part even in 3rd ED, this way of doing things is great. For the players that enjoyed roleplaying, it is not. It's a mystery killer, a story killer. It makes D&D no different them playing WoW; and that is a very sad thing indeed. 

4th ED has taken away the fun and challenge for the roleplaying encounter. It has replaced it with a system, a mechanism that requires no thought. It has taken the feeling out of roleplaying a character and turned it into something bland and boring. 3rd ED allowed all players to play roleplaying encounters how they felt most comfortable. It allowed the thespians to act out with detail and quiet types to roll their dice. 4th ED has taken away that flexibility at the cost of the players. 

So what do I miss about 3rd ED?: True roleplaying and the flexibility to make all players happy in roleplaying encounters.