I'm not sure I agree. I mean, players absolutely can be just as much edition warriors as any DM; but the emphasis is definitely on can. Realistically, the vast majority of D&D players out there are casual players. They don't have the same commitment to the hobby that us forumites have - they probably don't have much if any experience with any tabletop game other than D&D, and might not even be aware of the differences between editions if they haven't undergone a transition between them under their DM. They might have preferences for one edition or another if they have played multiple editions, and sure, some might feel strongly enough about it that they won't play a particular edition, but the average player? The average player shows up to hang out, drink and eat table snacks while make-believing that they're dragon-slaying elves with friends, and will likely acquiesce to their DM when it comes to such unimportant things as the rules of the game.
Do you have access to a study showing that most players are casual? Or is that just your belief?
Because that has not been my experience. But for the newest players- like people I was instrumental in teaching to play- more than 75% of he players I have personally encountered since 1977 have been anything but casual players. My current group of buddies can be divided into gamers, non-gamers, and one casual player.
Now, you can argue that it's not the average player who's participating in the playtest, that it's those of us who do care about stuff like the rules... but honestly, at this point, I think if you're still participating in the playtest after everything we've seen so far, it's because you're onboard with - or want to be onboard with - the central conceit of Next, which is that this is the Unity Edition.
...and our group is not participating. The gamers in the group- @11 guys, all with more than a decade and a half in the hobby- are not interested in the playtest precisely because they're largely NOT interested in what has been said about 5Ed.
(Personally, I'm treating it like I have all the previous editions. I'll buy the core rules and decide from there.)
Next will rise or fall on the grounds of how many DMs it will convince to transition their groups. As the DM goes, so go the casual players.
Again, my personal experience says otherwise. Unless you can get 5+ of the gamers in our group on board, you can just forget about running a game.
That room contains several dozen boardgames, wargames, CCGs, CMGs and @65 RPGs. Since 1998, the only RPG campaigns it has hosted were run in D&D, M&M, and RIFTS. I have not even been able to run a single night of gaming in my favorite RPG system.
My prior group- in another city- ran games a greater variety of systems. But in that group, the "social contract" was that
everybody ran a game, and
everybody had a PC in everyone's campaign. If you didn't like a particular system, a bit of polite patience & participation would be rewarded when the other players respectfully reciprocated.
So I say again, it is not necessarily the DMs who decide- the players can have just as much of a say. If the players simply acquiesce to the DM, that only means they don't have a strong preference.
"
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice. ~ Rush"
