orcishgamer: Well, a common complaint is that it's "WOW-ified", I don't actually know if people mean any one specific thing by this, but it's sort of a mantra. AD&D has always had powers for many classes outside the obvious ones (like Wizard) so if people claim it's "powers with cooldowns" they are woefully ignorant of AD&D. At any rate, they've made rules more consistent, now a Cleric, Fighter, and Wizard will use powers in a consistent way (much like they simplified high/low confusion by reworking so high was always good, instead of sometimes good and sometimes bad). They got rid of THAC0 so it's easier to figure out if you hit your target (you need a 17 or higher, did ya roll it?). Basically they are continually evolving out the clunky parts while refining it. Not all of this happened between 3.5 and 4, I'm just poiting out some evolutions.
Now, clearly some nitpicks are fair and at times AD&D has been changed to address some of said nitpicks. Mostly when I see someone who "hates" 4ed and thinks it's like WOW, if I dig deep enough it's just someone who really, really loves 3.5, can't see any of it's glaring issues and never wants their game to change. That's fine, but it's not a valid criticism, it's just their preference for a different edition.
Another question, what would be a good intro to 4th edition? Would it be the D&D Essentials red box that they advertise as such? Or would there be a better product?
How much cash do you have? If the price of the red box is not too onerous, get it, it's not half bad as an introduction. You could try watching the Penny Arcade video sessions (they have PAX sessions and various other ones) to see where it can go, but it may be confusing.
There's a Player's Handbook (part 1), which will get you going in the main game. You can save money on Amazon.com or support your local game store, they literally close down at the drop of a hat, so if you like a place to play and they're providing it, support them. You're red box character should come right across or you can reroll. At any rate, there's no lack of variety in the first handbook, you should find something fun to play, if a group you're try playing with demands min-maxing then they're probably not that fun or running a really difficult campaign (or both).
All in all, Wizard's has provided some good tools this time, there's also a crap ton of free online tools out there (I can PM you some bookmarks tomorrow or something), if you can't afford a mini, a cardboard chit will do, can't afford the red box? Just buy the Player's Handbook (under 20 bucks). It's role playing so you can spend as much time writing psych profiles and whatever else you'd like to flesh out your character, he/she's not all stats (as sadly is more the case with most CRPGs), some DMs may let you take a small extra bonus in exchange for a voluntary role playing handicap, just avoid ones too annoying to the other players.
Sometimes the DM's guide is a bit enlightening even if you're not going to DM, and the Monster Manual helps know basic critters (who really do run the gamut of odd at times), if you want you can save some bucks by buying the 3 pack, it's this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Core-Rulebook-Gift/dp/0786950633/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1313036309&sr=1-4 though I think I recall paying less for it (and indeed at that price the individual books may be cheaper).
Really the amount of stuff that will help you along the way to AD&D fun is literally staggering. You could read for hours a day, but in the end, we used to drink Mountain Dew, now it's beer, but it's really all about fun. Do whatever leads to that. If no one is joining you locally, play with an online group.
