Changeover Poll

[Wisdom Penalty]

Now I'm picturing Jack or Wisdom Penalty doing this when they opened 4e:

YouTube - Wii Scream - Just the Scream

Heh heh heh. I'm a bit older than that kid, but my reaction was largely similar.

Praise Kord that WotC "lowered the bar" enough to create a game I thoroughly enjoy.

Happy New Year -
The 4E Avenger

 

[Campbell]

You aren't talking about my PbP are you?

Because there's a good chance it could get downright combative over the run.

But being who I am (see my Robin Laws style breakdown in sig), there's always going to be a story behind it.

I was actually talking about my current face to face game. I actually prefer 3e for PbP games (I think 3e's flaws are less of a problem in PbP games, and what 4e offers to face to face games doesn't translate over as well to the PbP medium).

Despite our differences in edition preferences, I'd say our gaming styles are pretty congruent. I like to have combative elements (100% Tactician as well as Storyteller). I just need more than combat to hang my hat on.

 

[Merlin's Shadow]

This is probably the smartest thing I have read on these boards for a while.

What WotC is thinking, though, is that since more people play than DM, it is smart to put out books that target players. The audience is bigger. Whatever you think about the ramifications of the strategy, it is hard to argue with their financial incentives for their actions.

 

[Jack99]

What WotC is thinking, though, is that since more people play than DM, it is smart to put out books that target players. The audience is bigger. Whatever you think about the ramifications of the strategy, it is hard to argue with their financial incentives for their actions.

Of course. And I do not expect WotC to produce anything less than they do. I just think we might have a better game, if there wasn't a gazillion books coming out every year. On the other hand, I do like them, and buy them.

 

[DaveMage]

One of the reasons I'm staying 3.5 though, is that because of all the rules options in 3.5, I feel that 4E came out too soon. I have not had an opportunity to try anywhere near the number of the options that 3.5 has to offer, and I'm looking forward to exploring that before I move on. I have a hunch that others feel the same way.

Now, the options in 3.5 are nearly infinite, so there's no way I will be able to try them all, but because I did buy so much stuff, I feel it would be (for me) irresponsible in some ways to switch editions at this time (unless, of course, all the 3.5 stuff I bought could still be used with the new edition pretty much as is).

Therefore, the problem may continue for those that buy-in to 4E. Since the new-edition-every-few-years model is what has been embraced, those that fall in love with and buy all of the 4E supplements might have an equally difficult time with a 5th edition, and thus the market continues to fracture.

Hence, it's bad for the game long term. If WotC embraces the "squeeze all the $$ out of 'em we can now" philosophy, we will indeed see this again when (if) 5E is released, unless 4E books can easily be used with 5E.

 

[Jhaelen]

Still playing 3E without having given 4E a try.

The only thing that has changed since the previous poll is that the three core rulebooks are now available in German.

However,
- my 3E campaign is still not over (and probably won't be for another year)
- there's still no psionic classes available
- there's still no good campaign setting available (Eberron or Earthdawn [aka Age of Legend])

As an additional complication the German rulebooks will only be available until end of March (because the publisher decided not to refresh the D&D license), so the chance of me changing over has actually decreased.

Ah, well, having just bought a ton of the DCC adventures, I could probably continue playing 3E for about 50 years...

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

600 votes.

Changeover: 33%
No Changeover: 56%
Partial Changeover: 11%

30% choosing Option 6 (tried 4E, went back to earlier editions)

 

[Treebore]

Only if the 1k who vote are representative of the boards as a whole. See my example from WoW. It ain't always true.



It's possible, I can't deny that. Or perhaps it would just be some other people arguing.

Happy New Year!

Polls most often use only about 1,000 respondents. Such polls accurately reflected how 230 million people voted last November. Within their +/-3 of error.
That is why statistics is so powerful, you can ask only a few people about a specific question, or set of questions, and it will accurately reflect the opinions/choices of a much larger number.

So 1,000 respondents on ENWorld, who are gamers from across the country, from every demographic that likely exists within the RPG community as a whole, will give worthwhile results.

Even if most of them are DM's, those DM's do have a good feeling for what their groups feelings are.

So this poll is a solid indicator. Could a better one be formulated? Definitely. However this information does reflect the general RPG gamer population, its accuracy may be high or low, but it will have a degree of accuracy, and that accuracy is identifiable once the formula's are applied.

So even if the accuracy is only +/- 10% it is still meaningful, just less so than polls where accuracy of +/- 3% are achievable.

So if I was to go for a better poll I would like better demographic information, such as age, income levels, marital status, etc... However, that data would be for things beyond the question of this poll, such as possible financial implications on purchasing habits.

This poll is a very good indicator of the base question, how many gamers play 4E D&D in comparison to some other form of D&D. WOTC would like to have everyone voting in this poll to vote for 4E, the fact that so many don't does tell them something meaningful, they aren't grabbing the hard core long term buying gamers like they would like too. The "serious gamer" is the group that the vast majority of their long term purchases come from, not the casual gaming community. ENWorld is definitely reflective of the serious portion of the RPG community as a whole.

No, this poll would not be as valid on the WOTC boards. Presumably everyone there are fans of 4E, or the vast majority is. Same situation at PAizo, 3E fans are likely predominant on the Paizo boards. Here, and at other boards like RPG.net, you have gamers of all types, who don't play only "X" game or edition. So this board is the best place to get as broad a range of respondents as possible.

The only way we will get better data is if WOTC sends questionaires to every mailing address they ever had for Dungeon and Dragon magazine, to reach players of every edition of D&D. Putting it in their 4E books won't work, you'll only get responses from people who play/like 4E or hate it. Hardly anything in between.

So ENWorld is a very good pool of people to poll.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

We need another 400 votes if this poll is to acquire the same number of votes as the first Changeover poll received.

 

[Lord Ipplepop]

I didn't read all 15 pages of responses, so someone has more than likely mentioned this response; however, when 4ed came out, I went to my local B&N and sat there reading the Players Handboook. As soon as I turned the final page, I walked up to the counter, handed the book to the cashier (who happened to be the manager) and told her to send it back and not order any more of them. Her response was to laugh and ask why she had been getting that same response all week.

To be fair, there are a few of the new rules that I would more than likely give a try were it the consensus of my group; however, there were not that many, and certainly not enough to make me switch.