Almost 400 votes in the first 24 hours. A very quick, strong response to the poll. (375 votes, to be precise, as I write this.)
We have:
Complete Changeover: 30.38%
No Change: 57.53%
Partial Changeover: 12.09%
A comment, if I may:
I did not specify whether games like Pathfinder, Castles and Crusades, computer games like World of Warcraft, or other online games, counted as 'earlier editions' of D&D, or if they did not.
I left that up to those polled to decide. I am guessing (but just guessing, only) that the majority of those polled do not consider any of these to be any edition of D&D (except, perhaps, Pathfinder, but again I don't know.)
The point is, most of these people, I am guessing, also play some form of D&D, be it editions OD&D, 1st, 2nd, 3.0, 3.5, or 4th.
They may play 'pure' D&D, only once a year, but that still counts. Even if they spend 99% of their time playing something else, and 1% D&D, it still counts. I can't create a poll that grants greater weight for those who play D&D more - it is beyond the capacity of any poll I could create to do that.
So, as someone above said, take this poll for what it's worth (not much.)
It's just a poll. An incomplete, shallow, poll.
Remember something.
There is more gaming material available now, than at any time in the history of the Hobby.
This is partially due to the simple fact that more material is always being produced, and partially due to the fact that older material has been heavily put online and made available to the public (with the notable exception of items under heavy copyright where the copyright problems haven't yet been worked out, such as with Dragon Magazine ... and even there, large parts of these publications have been made available.)
And there are more alternate games than ever before. Same reason.
There are more computer alternatives than ever before.
There are more card alternatives than ever before.
All the games that preceeded D&D are still around.
Yes, I realize that officially, Hasbro only supports 4E, and Paizo supports Pathfinder, and so on, but ... all this great stuff is out there, and you can get most of it at bargain basement prices, or download it for a small fee online.
It's a veritable Paradise of gaming products for the gamer out there.
I once tried to type (yes, type) down all the spells, from all the gaming supplements that were 'official AD&D' products (I had to type a lot of spells repeatedly, as they came in enough flavors to be comparible to Friendly's Ice Cream - Dragon Magazine versions, 1E versions, 2E versions, a 2nd or 3rd 2E version, the version from the 2E Complete Wizard's Spell Compendium version ...)
I couldn't hope to try that stunt now. Take Magic Missile. Dragon, OD&D, 1E, 2E (and there are so many variants of Magic Missile in 2E, I couldn't shake a stick at them all), 3E, 3.5, and 4E (there is an equivalent there.)
And that's just the so called official stuff. There are spells from supplements ranging from Gaming Aids (those very ancient supplements) to the modern internet updates. And a huge load of spells from the works of Monte Cook and others. And different approaches to spells (so if you use a spell from this system in that system, you must adapt it accordingly - for example, the 2E Mantle spell (very complicated spell) into 3.0 format, or Magic Missile from 3.5 into 4th Edition.
What goes for spells, goes for everything else. Stats, classes, special classes (from the Witch of Dragon #43 - I think that was it) to the Loresraat Student (White Dwarf, early magazine) to the Bladesinger (2E or 3E version) to the Dwarven Battlerager (compliments, really, of Salvatore) to the Frenzied Berserker (someone at the company remembered the Death Master, and decided it was time for a long overdue revenge!), to the Initiate of the Seven Veils (wasn't it the dream of every wizard to, ultimately, have their own personal Prismatic Armor?) to all the new classes of 4E.
And we have more items, more skills (to use the items with), or the 4E system where you don't need either (you can just do it - you're competent enough to handle a 10 foot pole!), or if you would really like, very detailed skill sets ala ICE or D&D systems similar to that (some calculus required here ...)
We have feats, more feats, yet *more* feats, special feats, exalted feats, vile feats, Arcana Unearthed feats, Kalamar feats, Dragonlance feats, a ton of feats from magazines, feats made up by players and submitted online, feats galore (heck, we even have a Feat Master, and probably, several variations of *that* monstrosity as well!)
We have a veritable Niagra Falls of stuff. We have stuff coming out our ears. I have this huge Historical Library of D&D items, and it doesn't come close to being complete (I'd have to be a millionaire, to buy everything! Maybe a multi-millionaire. But with the new downloads, I can buy vast amounts of stuff that otherwise would have been too expensive for me.)
Don't you see, people? We don't have it worse than ever before. We have it BETTER than ever before. We have the most anyone has ever had. I could not have put this poll back up in the 80s (considered the Golden Age of Gaming!) because so little was available back then!
And heck ... regardless of what system you like, you can mix and match.
Love 4E, but want older elements? Create a hybrid. They did this with 3.5 and 3.0 and Arcana Unearthed and other products. They did it with 2E and 1E (they did it, a lot, with 2E and ... 2E ... lol.) They even did it with 1E/2E and OD&D.
If I could somehow create an Everlist - a complete book of every spell available from every edition of D&D, along with every spell from every magazine, every spell from the older supplements (like the Role-Aids supplements), every spell from alternate systems like Arcana Unearthed and Pathfinder, every spell submitted by players ... I think I would have something on the order of the Encyclopedia Brittanica. If it were one book, it would be 6 feet tall, 6 feet wide, 2 feet thick, and in 6 point font (helvetica.)
You know what the greatest thing is? One of these days, they will have *that* book, only online. Weightless, no bulk, and able to use a search engine to find what I'm looking for instantly. Reasonably cheap, too. (Better than an artifact/relic to a D&D wizard, no?)
