ClaytonCross
Kinder reader Inflection wanted
A few thoughts.
1. "Subclass Distribution (Active Characters)" = "The distribution of subclasses of active characters". "No subclass" is a valid part of the "distribution of subclasses of active characters" and for such a title it needed to be included in the graph for the title to actually match the graph. So I really don't buy your claim that the title of the graph was ambiguous about whether all active characters or just those with subclasses were included in the graph. It was clear IMO.
It not ambiguous and I never said it was. It is exact and concise. Any "ambiguity" was created my desire for something they had no intent on providing. That's not actually ambiguity, its me ignoring their intent and over riding it with my own. My mistake not theirs.
2. The "Subclass Distribution (Active Characters)" graph was not shown in isolation. It was shown alongside a "Class Distribution (Active Characters)" graph. When 2 graphs are shown back to back with the same (Active Characters) or (whatever) designation that's supposed to mean that they are showing different breakdowns of the same population. As we now know, that's not the case for these 2 graphs.
That's an inference your manufacturing. It is not a stated intent by them and not possible based off the pure fact that not all characters have subclasses. Measuring something with a delimiter means not needing to mention those without it. If you post "number of wood houses on the block" it is automatic that the number of brick houses are not listed since they don't fit the parameter of the delimiter. The classes and races slide are a total population measurement because they apply to all characters but asking the "Rogue Subclass Distribution (Active Characters)" would only apply to rogues as the delimiter was specified. Your not going to count paladins in that number any more than you would count characters without subclasses in a "Subclass Distribution" since subclass is the delimiter is stated.
3. A better name would have been "Subclass Distribution (Active Characters with a subclass)". If that was deemed to long for the title then near the bottom of the graphic I would have at least included a fine print disclaimer about only classes with a subclass being included.
That is redundant. Subclass it the delimiter so characters without subclass are automatically disqualified. If they had included characters without subclass it would make the numbers inaccurate as you are protesting and require further explanation because it is set out side their stated delimiter.
"Subclass Distribution (Active Characters including those without subclass)"
4. There are various subclass distributions they could have shown. I think they chose the least useful distribution to show. However, you are correct that this point doesn't make the graph inaccurate of misleading. That part of what you are trying to say I agree with.
I agree, they could have broken down each class only show players with access to all the classes and it would be better information. They did disclaimer that this was a high level view and do every week during those videos. So it is what we got not what we wanted.
I've tried to understand this part most of the day and I don't really understand what you are saying enough to make a productive comment. Maybe you can dumb it down for me?
Part of your problem with multiclass representation was that you applied a scope out side the delimiter of characters with subclasses looking for a personal goal of all characters being represented in a 1 to 1 ratio to determine what is the most preferred subclass. Multi-classing breaks this because they are counted twice, which is why posted this:
A quick example of the multiclass problem: 2 Characters, A Fighter 10 And a Cleric 1/Wizard 9. Making a class chart as they did would give the following percentages:
Fighter 33%
Cleric 33%
Wizard 33%
Hopefully that makes it apparent just how egregious treating multiclassing like that can be. Not one person is going to breakdown the classes of those 2 characters as shown above... Not one person, but that is how D&D Beyond breaks that down in their class circle graph.
But that only matters if your trying to achieve a total popularity vote of a favorite subclass. Which is what you are concerned about and or looking for here:
This phenomenon of people quoting D&D Beyond stats to prove points happens the most right after they post some of their data. Those posts and threads are months old at this point and so I'm not going to dig them up. However, there's been comments about their data in more recent threads, but it's not important enough to go digging through pages and pages of comments looking for the proverbial needle in the haystick that I know is there (because I've recently read it) just to prove you wrong. Instead I'll give you one current example.
The example: @Morrus did. It's still on the front page of this forum and shows in the thread title: "90% of D&D Games Stop By Level 10; Wizards More Popular At Higher Levels"
By the way, why the heck does someone with 762 posts in the last 4 years think he has any grasp on the variety of points and justifications for those points that people actually post on this forum?
But if your only looking to say if a player picks Class A the most commonly Picked Subclass is B. That is not relevant to the slide. So their intent by title and the scope of the delimiter is not the pool of all character comparison that you want. That does make them wrong. It just means your desire/expectation is not what they are offering. They didn't miss lead you. You just tried to make "Subclass Distribution (Active Characters)" into "Most Popular Class/Subclass combinations (Active single class characters including those without subclass, only from players with access to all classes and subclasses)" which is different poll.
Your agreement of what this poll sells itself as is not what it sells itself as but what you want from it that it doesn't provide.