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Arcane/Divine/Primal Spell Lists: Are the Benefits Real?
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<blockquote data-quote="Benjamin Olson" data-source="post: 8804738" data-attributes="member: 6988941"><p>Look, I'm a classroom teacher. Every barrier to entry you accept on learning something is a few more people who will never bother learning it. Yeah new players can read, but that doesn't mean they want to read more before they play. Yes they can take notes, but few of them will. Nothing is an insurmountable barrier to the most dedicated learners, everything is a barrier to the disinterested. There is a vast group in between who will put in substantial effort but will feel overwhelmed at some point, and a game that doesn't hook them before it frustrates them into giving up is not a game they are ever going to learn.</p><p></p><p>I don't think the changes I'm complaining about are a "nobody could ever learn this impossible game" situation, but I think they are a "maybe 2% of the people who try the game who would have followed through on learning it and joining the hobby under 5e rules will feel overwhelmed and loose interest under 5.5 rules" situation. I'm offended not because the changes are major, but because they are in the wrong direction.</p><p></p><p>Game design is, in some ways unfortunately, dominated by the type of people who succeeded at learning games, just as teaching tends to be dominated by people who thrived in school. This creates a lot of blind spots. New teachers are almost always terrible on this front (though they often make up for it by having passion and enthusiasm the veterans have lost), but gradually as they have to actually teach they get a far better sense on how learning works for the kids who struggle. Game designers start with the comparable blind spot, but generally have a lot less interaction with the people who struggle to learn their games. I wouldn't be on WotC's case about it if they were a few indie designers doing their best, but they are the leaders in the field working on a comparatively giant and well-funded redesign project. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask that, along with incorporating the input of the legal, marketing, cultural-sensitivity, etc. teams should, also be incorporating the input of someone with a firm grasp on educational theory and practice so that they optimize the game for actually being learned. So far 5.5 seems to be heading in the direction of less learning accessibility than 5e, and even if it's just "a little bit" less, that's still a worrying sign.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Benjamin Olson, post: 8804738, member: 6988941"] Look, I'm a classroom teacher. Every barrier to entry you accept on learning something is a few more people who will never bother learning it. Yeah new players can read, but that doesn't mean they want to read more before they play. Yes they can take notes, but few of them will. Nothing is an insurmountable barrier to the most dedicated learners, everything is a barrier to the disinterested. There is a vast group in between who will put in substantial effort but will feel overwhelmed at some point, and a game that doesn't hook them before it frustrates them into giving up is not a game they are ever going to learn. I don't think the changes I'm complaining about are a "nobody could ever learn this impossible game" situation, but I think they are a "maybe 2% of the people who try the game who would have followed through on learning it and joining the hobby under 5e rules will feel overwhelmed and loose interest under 5.5 rules" situation. I'm offended not because the changes are major, but because they are in the wrong direction. Game design is, in some ways unfortunately, dominated by the type of people who succeeded at learning games, just as teaching tends to be dominated by people who thrived in school. This creates a lot of blind spots. New teachers are almost always terrible on this front (though they often make up for it by having passion and enthusiasm the veterans have lost), but gradually as they have to actually teach they get a far better sense on how learning works for the kids who struggle. Game designers start with the comparable blind spot, but generally have a lot less interaction with the people who struggle to learn their games. I wouldn't be on WotC's case about it if they were a few indie designers doing their best, but they are the leaders in the field working on a comparatively giant and well-funded redesign project. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask that, along with incorporating the input of the legal, marketing, cultural-sensitivity, etc. teams should, also be incorporating the input of someone with a firm grasp on educational theory and practice so that they optimize the game for actually being learned. So far 5.5 seems to be heading in the direction of less learning accessibility than 5e, and even if it's just "a little bit" less, that's still a worrying sign. [/QUOTE]
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Arcane/Divine/Primal Spell Lists: Are the Benefits Real?
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