D&D 5E So... what happened during the playtests?

[Shasarak]

In my opinion, the only thing that influenced the game designers' decisions were the survey results. I don't think any of the discussions we had online ever made them change their minds, and to the best of my knowledge, none of the ideas posted in their forums ever made it to the playtest.

The surveys never covered the final playtests that were used by the alpha testers to create the rules, right?

 

[thalmin]

The alpha testers final playtest feedback was sort of in the form of the surveys.

 

[ChrisCarlson]

You don't seem to understand what I'm saying. I can use simpler words or translate what I said in Spanish or French if that can help

Someone who speaks two languages is called bilingual. Someone who speaks many languages is called a polyglot. Someone who speaks only one language is called an American.

I'm one of those last ones. So your translations would do me little good. Smaller words maybe?

So if you could just please reconcile what you said in posts #7, #12, #15, and #19 with what you later said in posts #41 and in particular #47 for example, that would be swell. Thanks.

 

[Azzy]

Someone who speaks two languages is called bilingual. Someone who speaks many languages is called a polyglot. Someone who speaks only one language is called an American.

I'm one of those last ones. So your translations would do me little good. Smaller words maybe?

So if you could just please reconcile what you said in posts #7, #12, #15, and #19 with what you later said in posts #41 and in particular #47 for example, that would be swell. Thanks.

 

[Gnarl45]

Someone who speaks two languages is called bilingual. Someone who speaks many languages is called a polyglot. Someone who speaks only one language is called an American.

I'm one of those last ones. So your translations would do me little good. Smaller words maybe?

I'll try one last time and then I'll give up .

It's not that difficult really.

I never said or implied that the designers didn't listen to what we had to say. I said that if we wanted to give our opinion, we had to do it in the surveys.

I never said or implied that the opinion of people participating in online discussions didn't matter. I said that voicing this opinion in the forums or a blog was useless. Why would the game designers give special attention to a small subset of the 175,000 registered play-testers anyways? If 100% of the bloggers hate "Option A" but 80% of the play-testers like it, they should listen to the play-testers.

What I don't really understand is why they didn't use the forums as a source of inspiration. For example, Orzel's ranger might have had a higher approval rating than the 5th edition ranger. The only way to know would have been with a survey. I was a very active forum member during the playtest and I don't remember seeing any of the ideas posted in the forums in any of the playtest packets.

Do you think the online discussions influenced the game designers' decisions?

 

[ChrisCarlson]

Double posty-post-post

 

[ChrisCarlson]

I'll try one last time and then I'll give up .

I find that hard to believe, actually.

It's not that difficult really.

One would have thought.

I never said...

I never said...

I beg to differ. As I've taken the painstaking time to point out repeatedly, the first handful of post contributions from you in this thread made it very clear what you said. Again, I'm glad you've stepped away from such obvious folly in later posts and are now taking a much more reasonable stance.

What I don't really understand is why they didn't use the forums as a source of inspiration. For example, Orzel's ranger might have had a higher approval rating than the 5th edition ranger. The only way to know would have been with a survey. I was a very active forum member during the playtest and I don't remember seeing any of the ideas posted in the forums in any of the playtest packets.

Unless you had WotC insider access, I don't see how you could know that the ideas people posted on internet forums did not also find inclusion in feedback survey submissions.

Do you think the online discussions influenced the game designers' decisions?

That's an odd way to phrase a question you already know is not what you want an answer to. How about this instead:

You: "Do you think anything posted in online discussions made it into the feedback surveys to subsequently influence the game designers' decisions?"

Me: "Yes. Most assuredly."

Better? Yeah, I think definitely better.

 

[Ancalagon]

So how do you get from there to the part where you say that the internet voices were ignored? If you believe the vast majority of howler monkeys were also involved in the surveys, that's where their voices were counted.

Indeed

Or are you saying some people should have been given more than one vote, by participating in the survey and by posting opinions on forum discussions?

Well as someone who didn't participate in the play test, surveys or online discussions at the time, I'm particularly miffed that my opinion wasn't given the most weight of all!

 

[jayoungr]

DoaM? Remember, it got it's own discussion forum?

DoaM? *searches* Dudes on a Map? Does that mean "mandatory minis and grids"?

 

[Ancalagon]

DoaM? *searches* Dudes on a Map? Does that mean "mandatory minis and grids"?

I too had to look it up, I think it's damage on a miss