Changeover Poll

[Echohawk]

I don't get this high percentage of those who've tried 4e and changed right back. It boggles my mind. I always thought the so called Edition Wars were merely fought by vocal minorities.

I suspect that a number of the "No Change: Tried 4E, went back to earlier edition play" respondents may have chosen "No Change: I am currently only playing an earlier version, but have tried 4E" if that subtly different option was available.

 

[DaveMage]

I don't get this high percentage of those who've tried 4e and changed right back. It boggles my mind. I always thought the so called Edition Wars were merely fought by vocal minorities.

If all you have run is Keep on the Shadowfell, then you haven't played the game for a real shakedown period yet (IMO). (It's likely still new and shiny to you.) Some people, after playing it a while, have found 4E to be lacking for various reasons. On the other hand, there are those who have fallen in love with it, so the reason you don't understand might be simply a lack of experience with the game.

Many of the frustrations/complaints I have seen from people that have played it are:

1) Sameness of classes
2) Combats are repetitive (same actions by the same PCs each time)
3) Combat grinds (combat outcome is known long before the end of it)
4) Wizards lack the appeal of the wizards of past editions
5) Not all that was core in 3.x is core in 4E ("Core" being defined as the PH, DMG, and MM)

Of course, there are those which have played and have no problems with any of the above, but for those who are not playing anymore, these are some of the reasons often mentioned.

 

[Jack99]

I don't get this high percentage of those who've tried 4e and changed right back. It boggles my mind. I always thought the so called Edition Wars were merely fought by vocal minorities.

It could still very well be vocal minorities. They just happen to hang out here. After all, the Interweb is a great place if you want to express your feelings on a certain subject.

 

[Korgoth]

I bought KotSF and the 4E starter set and have wasted hours of my life reading EN World regarding 4E. I have never been interested enough to try it... I disagree with practically every design decision in the game.

I voted No Change: All earlier edition play (I play Classic and run EPT-1975).

 

[howandwhy99]

No change. The only good changes in 4th Edition were ones we had already been using in our D&D games.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

Anectdotal evidence shows that polls that mark who voted, preventing ballot stuffing by logging out favor 4E, and polls that don't prevent it disfavor 4e. Note the search cloud spamming that goes on too.

 

[DaveyJones]

I suspect that a number of the "No Change: Tried 4E, went back to earlier edition play" respondents may have chosen "No Change: I am currently only playing an earlier version, but have tried 4E" if that subtly different option was available.

this would have been me.

 

[Treebore]

Not even close to viable. At least, not if polls in the US are made by anywhere the same rules as we use over here.


Internet polls are by and large fairly useless. Not only is it easy to cheat, but when you have no control over who you ask and who they are, it might as well be random numbers.


Not only highly doubtful, but not at all.

It gives us a good idea about how the "regular" posters of ENworld feel. Because lets face it, those who post are those who vote. Question is, are we a good representation of those who play D&D (whatever version) - I doubt it.

Oh please! Your just showing why people don't understand statistics.

This poll is no different than going to a convention of gamers and asking them to participate in a poll. Its no different than calling registered voters and asking them to participate in a poll. Meaningless? Nope.

Internet polling useless? Well thats news to a number of marketing outlets.

This poll is just as viable as going onto a college and asking students there what they think of the college, or going to a mall and asking what people think of the mall, or going to a city and asking what people think of living in that city. This poll is very viable.

 

[Imaro]

Anectdotal evidence shows that polls that mark who voted, preventing ballot stuffing by logging out favor 4E, and polls that don't prevent it disfavor 4e. Note the search cloud spamming that goes on too.

Uhm, do you have any proof of this...because if not, all I'm hearing is... "If the poll doesn't agree with the game I like the most, then it must be being filled out by liars and frauds...but when it does agree with what I feel, yeah it's honest folk filling out that poll now." I mean this is a pretty big (though subtle) accusation, and I'd like to see anything that backs it up.

 

[Treebore]

Uhm, do you have any proof of this...because if not, all I'm hearing is... "If the poll doesn't agree with the game I like the most, then it must be being filled out by liars and frauds...but when it does agree with what I feel, yeah it's honest folk filling out that poll now." I mean this is a pretty big (though subtle) accusation, and I'd like to see anything that backs it up.

Plus, like I pointed out before, there are formula's you apply when possible voting multiple times is a possibility. Like the phone polls of registered voters, people were getting called at their "contact" numbers which included home numbers and cell phones. Pretty much any confounding factor can be accounted for in statistical data and get within a 3% of accuracy, just like the registered voter polls were. You just have to be aware of the problem and apply the right adjusting formula.