Everyone has their own favorite version of Shadowrun, or at least a place along the "progression" from one version to another where they came to rest. For my group, it was SR3. [Specifically, I stopped purchasing products and following the metaplot after Renraku Arcology: Shutdown, I believe.] This thread is much less about the reasons people chose to stay with a given version, than it is about my curiosity as to which version people still play, but since I can't stop you, please, feel free to share your reasoning, as well.

SR4. It is the first time I have run multiple campaigns in SR with brief interludes, vis a game or two followed by reading the books. In other words I used to like the crunch and dislike the system. Now I still enjoy the fluff, but the mechanics have become more consistent, simpler to use, quicker to implement, and above all easier for me to teach to new players. Of course I house rule some things like hard caps being a little higher, mostly so there is real room for improvement and a real difference between characters.

3278 on dumpshock? Well that's a turn up for the books.

I actually tried first to log in as abortion_engine. Apparently, that got deprecated before 2002.

SR1 hooked me on the game. I don't think I could go back to that system, but it holds a special place in the memories of my "good ol' days."

I greatly enjoyed SR2. Given the chance to play it, I would do so as quickly as I could clear my schedule. I don't know anyone who'd GM it though, so that'll probably never happen.

I recently ran a short SR3 game (about 6 sessions), the only time I've played or GM'd it. Unless someone I knew was really intent on GMing and want me, specifically, for the game, I'd definitely give it a pass.

I'm just starting up an SR4 game and so far, I'm happy with the system. I'm planning to run SRM Denver for the next year or so, barring anything strange happening.

-paws

SR4, just starting in, and it seems to be the best that I've seen so far. I like that the Matrix Rules are very streamlined so that it isn't a separate game altogether and doesn't alienate the rest of the group.

thirded
i will stay with 3rd ed for as long as possible . . if i get to play AT ALL . .

SR4. I come from a D20 D&D background so it's easy to play and it's easy to teach. Combat in v.1-v.3 was a monster and I never got a solid grasp on it.

My SR is a mishmash..

I played a bit with SR1 when it came out [which zonked me with the possibilities], right about the time I was writing up my own Near Future sci-fi/fantasy system...
...Then moved onto SR2 - and added elements of CoC, CP2020, Kromosome, TORG, 2300, Cthulhupunk, Castle Falkenstein - and that was where most of my fun was had...
...Then I noticed Aeon Trinity, and the rules were so good I just swapped over to those [those are basically the same rules that SR4 now uses, but this was in '97].

The setting has moved on, but has much more of the SR2 ["Classic Cyberpunk"] feel than SR3 or SR4...
...But it's not any SR you'll get from the SR Devs.

Christ that brings back some memories.

As for the original question I'm a Third Edition man myself.

I've played tons of 1st ed. some 2nd ed, hardly any third, and have played and am Gm in 4th ed.

I really love SR4. As a gm, its easy to keep track of things and focus on the story and the characters.

I get a little nostalgic when thinking of SR1. We had some great times playing that one. (sigh)

SR4. I was always fascinated by the setting and story of Shadowrun, but the mechanics were simply impenetrable to me. I read through the SR4 BBB once, and the entire system just clicked.

4. The other editions (of which I've only played 2nd and read 3rd) are mechanically sucktastic by comparison, except for the matrix which is just universally sucktastic and poorly conceived. A trait it shares with CP2020.

I play 4th, it is the superiour version.
All the world info and feel of the game is fairly consistant throughout and is subjective anyway, so I'm only considering the rules aspect of the game and 4th has many VAST improvements over all other previous editions. It's easy to learn, easy to play, easy to gm, more consistant, more easily adapted to group style and much more cohesive. It still suffers from terminalogy issues, different terms are used for extremly similar rules (from matris to vehiacle and meat body) which can sometimes be confusing but becuase the system is so well designed in 4th those things are easy to ignore.

We played a lot of games with 1st Ed, 2nd Ed, and 3rd Ed. My group has just recently begun 4th Ed. They are all fun to me.

I began in 2nd, and was hooked. But now I only do 4th. I got rid of all my old product to make room on my bookshelves for old AD&D stuff. Kudos to the devs, whomever they were in those days. Outside of authors like Lovecraft, Tierney, et al, I've never seen such an intricate and convincing psuedo world populated with such interesting characters. The shadow chatter was also quite good, almost like a mini novel inside the sourcebooks.

I started with SR1, switched to SR2 and SR3 when they came out, delayed switching to SR4 for 2 years. Now playing with 4E rules, but stopped following the metaplot somewhere in the 50s/60s, with the exception of some stuff that was picked or retconned in (like the wireless matrix).

I first played SR2, but the gaming group split up, so never got past the first half dozen sessions.

About 3 years ago I moved in with one of my old gaming group, and we began playing SR3 for a year or so. When I moved out I had to buy my own books (now thoroughly hooked on the background), rather than pinching my old flat mate's books. SR4 had just come out, so I naturally picked it up, and now I'm running a game and have dragged 2 or 3 new players into the SR fold.

I prefer SR3 because of the dice system (and it refined away most of the really messy parts of 1 and 2). The SR4 dice system is too close to a cleanly predictable success rate for my taste.

This does make me wonder if I'd enjoy a system where dice count, dice sizes, TNs, and threshold are all variable.

I love the world, love/hate 3rd and 4th eds. Both are good for some things and hard to use for others. i am playing 4th, but 3rd holds a special place in my heart.

SR4 here. I played SR1 a ton, although we never liked the magic system, so we never used it. A friends got SR2, but my group of friends were playing DnD more, so never gave it a spin. I kinda lost any SR roots after high school and college and really just got back into it a couple years ago. At that time we had SR4, so I ran a campaign for close to 2 years.

Now that DnD4 is out, the group is shifting back to that. In my two favorite RPGs, I must say, I never played much of either's third edition...interesting.

Started with 2nd edition, which is the version I really cut my Shadowrun teeth with. Still have all my books from 2nd ed.. Got into a little 3rd edition but not as much.. I like 4th edition.. I think it cleans things up quite a bit and streamlines things that were very difficult to play in older versions.. Shadowrun is still one of the best settings out there and that is really what keeps me coming back.. I would love to play SR4 right now but that doesn't look like it is gonna happen unless it is play by post.

Still reluctant to play SR4 seriously as we have a really workable houseruled sr3 system going even tho I keep buying the books like a good little consumer

My favorite version is SR3. However my group's favorite is SR4, and thus I play SR4.
I do not mean this to bash SR4. I like SR4 very much. Personally, I like SR3 slightly more, but I like things that are very complicated.

I play sr4 but I have most of the core books for sr1 and was playing it up into last year or so.

I've sold off all of my v1.-v.3 rule books, like Rigger 3, but hung on to the fluff stuff, like California Free State. I actually pulled apart the glue binding on my Rigger's Black Book for easier scanning of the vehicle images. Heresy, I know!

Not hard, though. I've always felt that it wasn't a real FASA book unless it fell apart at some point.

Actually, all my FASA books are in good shape. Pulling RBB apart took some effort. Maybe I've just been lucky.

I started playing SR1 in mid-1990 (I think), when it was brand new in the local gaming shop. I worked my way through SR2 and SR3, then got out of gaming for a number of years. I am now putting together an SR4 campaign, and have just started looking over the SR4 rules. I like what I see, so far.

...checked 4 as that is what everyone else in my group is playing.

Prefer 3.

Started on 3rd... loved it. Bought 4th, taught it to a group of complete SR newbies... ran a good game with it.

Definitely like 4th.

SR4.

I love Shadowrun overall.
Each new edition has made some things better, some worse.
Extremes in both directions on that.

But I only like to play characters if I intend to play and develop them long-term.
That may entail transporting them from game to game.
And the closer they are to current RAW, the easier that is to do.

So I update with each new edition whether I prefer it as a whole or not.

SR2 for me until I got married that is. I didn't even know there was a 3E much less a 4th until I got bored a couple months ago and found the Shadowrun website. So far, looks like SR4 is worth the money if only I can talk the boss into the purchases.

I told mystelf I'd stay with SR3. I told myself I'd never stray. It was a lie. The SR4 system is just so good. I loved SR3, and thought it was the peak of Shadowrun. I loved the art of the time, and the fluff, and the general atmosphere. Because of this I resisted SR4, because it felt wrong. It still does a little, but I can't look back now.

i have to say that most of the changes to sr4 cacked me off (i hate the imgination of a cyberpunk-hacker using almost NO wires at all), i understand that with developments in the real world (wlan, bluetooth, etc.), pushed the developers to 'match' shadowrun with them, but it just takes away so much of the feel.
its like considering watching some dystopian dark, grindy, fucked up movie and then switching to something like Ultraviolet, with too much light/white colors.
but maybe i just got pissed that some of my cheesy higher-scale-NSC-concepts wont work within sr4 any more.