Thoughts on Edition Warz
"Edition Wars" are not completely gone from EN World, but they have lessened somewhat. There are some things that I wish posters on the message boards would have learned earlier.
1)No edition of D&D (or any game), past or present, is a damsel in distress that it must be defended or rescued from the big bad Hate Dragons. Many the time it was when folks explained their aggressive behavior by claiming that if they personally did not defend its honor, it would cause some form of catastrophe in the gaming universe. Not a single one of the folks who made such claims ever seemed to grasp the idea that you aren't doing any good in saving the damsel, if your fight with the dragon lays waste to the kingdom - that the aggressive, rude, and general negative feelings spread around the messageboards did more harm to gaming than any good that may have been accomplished by the particular defense. You aren't helping anything if in proving that your particular game is good, you also prove that EN World is full of obnoxious jerks.
2)No, it is not, "TEH TROOF!" And even if it is, that doesn't justify you being a jerk. While occasionally someone in an Edition War would state something about the rules that was factually inaccurate, by and large folks claimed a whole lot more "truth" about gaming than has ever actually been known. The only large-scale survey data we in the general public have about D&D, or gaming in general, predates Third Edition D&D. The amount of over generalization from anecdotal evidence or personal experience, and simple pulling things out of the aether to support one side or another was amazing and disappointing.
3)That the other person likes other facets of gaming is okay. That the other person likes other things about the game does not make their opinion "stupid" anymore than preferring snickerdoodles over chocolate chip cookies reflect on someone's native intelligence. You would think that gamers, who all share the general like for RPGs (which are weird, different, and otherwise non-mainstream) would get the idea that it is okay to have your own individual preference, that going against the crowd was acceptable. Apparently, many folks just couldn't make that leap, and felt the need to attack those who were not of the One True Tribe.
4)You cannot claim the other guy is thin-skinned while at the same time getting riled up by small stuff yourself. And we are talking about a hobby game - so it is all small stuff. Hypocrisy is unbecoming. 'Nuff said.
I find it unfortunately that our collective jerkitude over the past months has driven away a whole bunch of people who had good minds, and good ideas. I hope that at least some of them will come back as things continue to cool down.
1)No edition of D&D (or any game), past or present, is a damsel in distress that it must be defended or rescued from the big bad Hate Dragons. Many the time it was when folks explained their aggressive behavior by claiming that if they personally did not defend its honor, it would cause some form of catastrophe in the gaming universe. Not a single one of the folks who made such claims ever seemed to grasp the idea that you aren't doing any good in saving the damsel, if your fight with the dragon lays waste to the kingdom - that the aggressive, rude, and general negative feelings spread around the messageboards did more harm to gaming than any good that may have been accomplished by the particular defense. You aren't helping anything if in proving that your particular game is good, you also prove that EN World is full of obnoxious jerks.
2)No, it is not, "TEH TROOF!" And even if it is, that doesn't justify you being a jerk. While occasionally someone in an Edition War would state something about the rules that was factually inaccurate, by and large folks claimed a whole lot more "truth" about gaming than has ever actually been known. The only large-scale survey data we in the general public have about D&D, or gaming in general, predates Third Edition D&D. The amount of over generalization from anecdotal evidence or personal experience, and simple pulling things out of the aether to support one side or another was amazing and disappointing.
3)That the other person likes other facets of gaming is okay. That the other person likes other things about the game does not make their opinion "stupid" anymore than preferring snickerdoodles over chocolate chip cookies reflect on someone's native intelligence. You would think that gamers, who all share the general like for RPGs (which are weird, different, and otherwise non-mainstream) would get the idea that it is okay to have your own individual preference, that going against the crowd was acceptable. Apparently, many folks just couldn't make that leap, and felt the need to attack those who were not of the One True Tribe.
4)You cannot claim the other guy is thin-skinned while at the same time getting riled up by small stuff yourself. And we are talking about a hobby game - so it is all small stuff. Hypocrisy is unbecoming. 'Nuff said.
I find it unfortunately that our collective jerkitude over the past months has driven away a whole bunch of people who had good minds, and good ideas. I hope that at least some of them will come back as things continue to cool down.
Total Comments 10
Comments
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Who prefers snickerdoodles over chocolate chip?Posted 16th September 2008 at 10:51 PM by TerraDave
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Well, I do, on occasion. I find a constant diet of one thing isn't nearly as pleasing in the long term as occasional variation on the theme.Posted 17th September 2008 at 04:24 AM by Umbran - I agree with your final statement. I was one of those people almost driven away, while at the same time being one of those people that fanned the flames on occassion. The two are linked, for me anyway: as I found myself doing less idea sharing and more bickering, I found myself liking ENWorld and "Reynard" (confession: not my real name!) less. So I stepped away for a while and have come back more directed at discussing and enjoying D&D -- in whatever form -- than I have in a long time.Posted 17th September 2008 at 04:49 AM by Reynard
- Another problem are the people who honestly seem to believe that everyone will be happy if they'd just see the light and play X Edition, and who can go on and on about ways how to play it "right", all with the best interests of the others in mind.Posted 17th September 2008 at 11:21 AM by Fenes
- Fenes, I think those folks are in the "TEH TROOF!" camp - they know the One True Way, and spreading it is worth a few rhetorical bloody noses.
As if, somehow, they are going to get anyone to listen to them while they're being a jerk. Again - more harm done than good.Posted 17th September 2008 at 03:56 PM by Umbran - I'd not call them jerks. They are usually very polite. It just gets tedious if everything is answered with "in 3E/4E, you can do that/don't have that problem as long as you do/don't..." followed by a laundry list of changes.
I think one solution would be embracing the thought that we're generally not playing an edition, but a house rules system more or less close to our chosen edition.
If we'd be talking about different rules elements and mechanics, and how to combine them and change them for our games we might have less trouble.
But stuff like "I like/prefer X, but don't like Y" is usually seen not as an opportunity of how to incorporate X in the specific game's rules, but an opportunity to defend Y and the edition it stands for.
Like the healing surge discussion - I'd rather discuss how to incorporate a second wind mechanic in my game in a way that suits me, instead of having to explain why I don't like the way it was implemented in one edition over and over again.Posted 17th September 2008 at 05:04 PM by Fenes - In my experience - polite people, no matter how tedious, do not contribute to the "warz" aspect. While they may come off as pedantic or repetitive, they don't make anyone think, "Maybe I don't want to come to En World anymore."Posted 17th September 2008 at 09:28 PM by Umbran
- You're wrong. It does get tedious if one is looking for advice on something, and gets an overdose of "just play this edition" as answer.Posted 17th September 2008 at 10:20 PM by Fenes
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Snickerdoodles are far superior to chocolate chip any day of the week. And yes, that's really my preference. I also prefer 4e to 3.5e. Does that make me a bad person?
:AMN:Posted 19th September 2008 at 05:17 AM by amnuxoll -
Well yes, Fenes, but that doesn't really have to do with Edition Warz as most people use the term.Posted 21st September 2008 at 12:53 AM by Fifth Element
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