When did WotC D&D "Jump the Shark"?

[TheUltramark]

I am so lucky.

There are 8 at my table. Three of us have been together for going on 30 years, five of the eight for 10+ years. If I were in a position to have to "find a game" I'm not sure I could - or even would want to do it. This doesn't include any pbmb games, which are (or at least were when I was playing on-line) a dime a dozen.

So, about shark-jumping, I guess D&D is so ingrained into me, that I would be considered one of the people who kept watching after Fonzie traded the harley for water skis.

I do still think the novels jumped the shark with the 100 year leap.

 

[amerigoV]

From an historical perspective, when did 3.5E D&D jump the shark?

Probably when they introduced that vampiric werebadger gnome in the Shining South FR supplement. Crazy times, crazy times.

 

[Windjammer]

When did WotC jump the shark?

PHB 4, no question.

 

[Jor-El]

Magic of Incarnum. Followed by Tome of Battle, and the second round of "Complete" books. Although the Race books were pretty "meh".

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Is it the highest concentration? Really? What do you base that on?

IME, there are more gamers among university students, for example.

Of course, 9/10ths of all statistics are just made up. 7/8ths of all people know that.

Seriously, the US Army is a giant hive of gaming activity. Certainly was back in the late 70's and early 80's. From 78-80 I lived down the road from the main gate of Fort Hood. You had 2 divisions full of young guys living in barracks with nothing they needed to spend their money on. Sure, there were 8 bajillion bars, 12 bajillion pawn shops, and surprisingly enough MANY gaming stores. Seriously, Copperas Cove is a town of maybe 10k people, at most, and the locals weren't exactly rolling in it. There were at one point THREE gaming stores in this one town, all large and well-stocked. Down the road in the bigger town, Killeen IIRC, there were another 2-3 large gaming stores.

It was enough of a hotbed that we were constantly doing playtest groups for Steve Jackson, Metagaming, ADB (later Star Fleet Battles), etc. There would easily be 50 people in the store all weekend and there were 12 large gaming tables. I can attest to having played with the most prototypical versions of GURPS, many of the more well-known mini-games, all the TFT stuff (before GURPS), and several other games that never saw the light of day.

So yeah, if you're in the Army and you can't find a game it is like Las Vegas and you can't find a hussie. Just doesn't happen. May be different nowadays I suppose, but I expect not. If I were going to run a game store I'd very definitely look closely at plopping it right near a nice big Army base.

 

[Raven Crowking]

SO, personal anecdote based on one post, then?

Without any information about the concentration anywhere else?

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

SO, personal anecdote based on one post, then?

Without any information about the concentration anywhere else?

Are you saying my anecdotes aren't PROOF!

Yeah, I know. Things could be totally different nowadays too.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Well, like I said, I had no problems finding players when I was in the US Army, but I didn't find that the overall % was higher than in, say, college and university campuses.

It isn't "There are lots of gamers in the military" that I dispute; it is "There is a larger concentration than elsewhere".


RC

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Seriously, the US Army is a giant hive of gaming activity. Certainly was back in the late 70's and early 80's.

That matches my experience on and around bases in Aurora, CO, Manhattan, KS and reading gaming publications during that time period. I especially remember seeing frequent contributions to Starfleet Battles rules by servicemembers. (I could be wrong, but AIR, the "Kaufman" in Kaufman Retrograde was a US serviceman gamer.)

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Well, like I said, I had no problems finding players when I was in the US Army, but I didn't find that the overall % was higher than in, say, college and university campuses.

It isn't "There are lots of gamers in the military" that I dispute; it is "There is a larger concentration than elsewhere".


RC

Eh, hard to say. I think the demographics were at least that gamers were mostly young and male and when you have Army you have a lot of young guys around. College campuses, I think the thing is there you have mostly people with other open-ended demands on their time and less money to spend on things like games. Army pay might not be awesome but single guys living on base didn't NEED to spend a lot of money on necessities.

I remember there was this space wargame that was played on table top back around 1979. The models were not cheap, they were all cast metal and pretty large. Some of these guys had 3-4 hundred of these $10-20 models, and there were a LOT of people playing it. They would buy stupid amounts of stuff. It was amazing.