Changeover Poll

[Edena_of_Neith]

Roughly:

1 out of 3 of those polled switched over to entirely 4E, or switched over to mostly 4E.
1 out of 3 of those polled tried 4E, then stopped and returned to earlier editions.
Somewhere between 1 out of 4, and 1 out of 3, have not yet tried 4E or have refused to try 4E.

A minority, 1 out of 10, are playing 4E and earlier editions simultaneously.

EDIT:

If this poll is, somehow, relevant to the larger picture, then those choosing Option 6 (tried 4E, returned to earlier editions) have made an enormous diference.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

If this poll is, somehow, relevant to the larger picture, then those choosing Option 6 (tried 4E, returned to earlier editions) have made an enormous diference.

Ehh, it's not like ENworlders are the target market-- bunch of older DMs with disposable income who buy multiple books per month, invest their time heavily into the hobby, and actively recruit players.

No relevance to the big picture.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

Ehh, it's not like ENworlders are the target market-- bunch of older DMs with disposable income who buy multiple books per month, invest their time heavily into the hobby, and actively recruit players.

No relevance to the big picture.

LOL! Heh. But ... are we, indeed, the Old Hands? Is that the majority of ENWorld?
I really do not know. (That's a question for Morrus.)

-

(off-topic)

Concerning Star Fleet Battles, thanks for the info.
I'll skip #3. I prefer the complexity.

A favorite of mine was ECM, or Electronic Counter Measures. And ECCM, or Electronic Counter Counter Measures.

How would they have appeared in Star Trek, had it been depicted there?

Federation Captain: Range?
Helmsman: 90,000 kilometers.
Captain: At 80,000, fire all weapons.
Science Officer: Captain, they are using ECM.
Captain: Fire anyways.
Helmsman: Yes sir.

(But the Klingon ship had deployed 6 points of power (the equivalent of a fifth of it's total warp output) to ECM, jamming the Federation ship's sensors and downgrading it's lock-on.
The 4 overloaded photon torpedoes, are fired. 3 would have hit, but only 1 does now. The phaser fire from the heavy Phaser-Is is badly degraded, and does far less damage.)

Science officer: Enemy front shield still at 20% (Shield 1), enemy ship weapons at full, all our weapons fired. The enemy ship is launching drones (thermonuclear missiles that travel at translight speed.)

Captain: We are in trouble.

(on the Klingon ship, where there is general cheering.)

Klingon Captain: They are in trouble. When we achieve our victory, our science officer is in for a decoration and a promotion. (As am I ...)

 

[Yair]

I am surprised at the high numbers rejecting 4e - about two thirds, really, half after an experience with it. That's a lot. Considering that many older-D&D players probably don't frequent this forum, I think those numbers are underrepresenting the people who did not adopt 4e in the original (pre-4E) ENWorld community, too.

I don't think they represent the general public at all, but still it's an interesting data point to bear in mind.

I'm one of those who voted they left 4e for 'earlier versions', although in truth I left for other games. It was the closest option available.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

916 votes, and we have another adjustment in the results:

Changeover: 32%
No Changeover: 58%
Partial Changeover: 10%

Option 6: 31%

I sincerely hope the results of this poll are not accurate, because if they are, I'm afraid Hasbro will take the rights to D&D, lock them up, and thus we'll see D&D go the way of Dragon and Dungeon Magazines. Obviously, I do not want that.

But there it is.

Only 1 out of 3 of the poll respondants are entirely or mostly going with 4E.
2 out of 3 either are not, have tried 4E and gone back to earlier editions, or are playing both 4E and earlier editions.

Notably, this last group, those playing both 4E and earlier editions, is small. It is only 10% of poll respondents.
It would appear that people either play 4E or earlier editions. There really isn't much of a 'let's play both' attitude. At least, not in this poll.
For 9 out of 10, it's one of the other, but not both 4E and earlier editions.

If 2 out of 3 people are refusing to go with 4E, if this poll is accurate, then Hasbro has suffered a colossal loss of it's base from the game it supports. I cannot see them taking no action, not with results of this magnitude.

Just my opinion. I hope my poll is inaccurate.

(And yes, some people have left the hobby since the inception of 4E. I am aware of that. Somewhere, it would seem, between 1% and 5% of all polled ... that is, had that option been in this poll, somewhere between 1% and 5% would have voted for it.
This aggravates things further. You have to add that to the No Changeover vote, since obviously they did not change over to 4E. They no longer play D&D at all.)

(sighs)

 

[DaveMage]

I sincerely hope the results of this poll are not accurate, because if they are, I'm afraid Hasbro will take the rights to D&D, lock them up, and thus we'll see D&D go the way of Dragon and Dungeon Magazines. Obviously, I do not want that.

They'd probably license it out rather than lock it up. Some income is better than no income from the brand, eh?

It's Hasbro. It's about the money.

 

[Aeolius]

If 2 out of 3 people are refusing to go with 4E, if this poll is accurate, then Hasbro has suffered a colossal loss of it's base from the game it supports. I cannot see them taking no action, not with results of this magnitude.

It was my impression that WotC didn't care about the established fan base. They chose to "fire" their former customers, in the process of looking for a fresh market.

 

[garyh]

It was my impression that WotC didn't care about the established fan base. They chose to "fire" their former customers, in the process of looking for a fresh market.

I don't think that's quite the case. I think it's more that they realized ANY change was going to result in some folks not changing along with them, so they focused on maximizing new players as oppossed to minimizing old players who refuse to convert. It's not like it was ever going to be possible to release a new edition that completely won over the existing player base.

 

[Scribble]

I wonder what a changover poll from 1e - 2e would have looked like in a similar time frame?

 

[bouncyhead]

916 votes, and we have another adjustment in the results:

Changeover: 32%
No Changeover: 58%
Partial Changeover: 10%

Option 6: 31%

I sincerely hope the results of this poll are not accurate, because if they are, I'm afraid Hasbro will take the rights to D&D, lock them up, and thus we'll see D&D go the way of Dragon and Dungeon Magazines. Obviously, I do not want that.

But there it is.

Only 1 out of 3 of the poll respondants are entirely or mostly going with 4E.
2 out of 3 either are not, have tried 4E and gone back to earlier editions, or are playing both 4E and earlier editions.

Notably, this last group, those playing both 4E and earlier editions, is small. It is only 10% of poll respondents.
It would appear that people either play 4E or earlier editions. There really isn't much of a 'let's play both' attitude. At least, not in this poll.
For 9 out of 10, it's one of the other, but not both 4E and earlier editions.

If 2 out of 3 people are refusing to go with 4E, if this poll is accurate, then Hasbro has suffered a colossal loss of it's base from the game it supports. I cannot see them taking no action, not with results of this magnitude.

Just my opinion. I hope my poll is inaccurate.

(And yes, some people have left the hobby since the inception of 4E. I am aware of that. Somewhere, it would seem, between 1% and 5% of all polled ... that is, had that option been in this poll, somewhere between 1% and 5% would have voted for it.
This aggravates things further. You have to add that to the No Changeover vote, since obviously they did not change over to 4E. They no longer play D&D at all.)

(sighs)

It's quite scary. I guess the clincher for WotC/Hasbro will be sales of the second round of core books.

This could be a tragedy for D&D. Its viability depended on a large, unified base. They are paying the price for making the system open with 3.x. Hitherto there had been no real alternative (if one wanted to stay on the train) to switching editions but 4E had to be BETTER to make people switch, not just newer.