D&D General Edition Experience - Updated Survey Results, Jan 2021 (All Surveys)

[Stormonu]

They play it, but they aren't really playing it? That's a trap.

Remember that the intent of these surveys was to measure that "nostalgia gaming." We already know that most hobby gamers are playing the 5th Edition; we have other (more reliable) surveys from Roll20, WotC, D&D Beyond; no need to go there. I wanted to look at the older editions: see who played them (or might still be playing them) and how folks felt about them.

Also, there may be several cases (as I did for the duration of 4E) who put aside their edition of choice for a time, or played another version before settling back to that older version. As much as I appreciated 2E now, I got burnt out on the game for quite some time and it was a while before I picked it up and played it again (for a Halloween romp in Ravenloft), as an example. (I do only play 5E at the moment).

 

[CleverNickName]

Updated Survey Results, January 2021

Forward: I'm a data and statistics nerd. Brace yourself.

For most of the past year, I've been collecting everyone's stories about the older editions of D&D. I've compiled (and now updated) the results, and I present them below for your viewing pleasure.

The Survey
I came up with some basic survey questions to measure everyone's experiences on the past/present/future axis and the liked/neutral/disliked axis. I encouraged everyone to add detail in the comments and discussions. And then away we went.

Results were collected and compiled at 8:00 a.m. PST on Monday, January 4th, 2021.

Spoiler: Survey Results, by Vote Count

The number of votes for each category, for each edition, are shown on this table. This information is useful for counting the people in certain categories (the number of voters who still play the edition, for example.)

Spoiler: Survey Results, by Percentage

The number of votes for each category, divided by the total number of voted in each survey, are shown on this table. This information is useful for comparing the results against other surveys, because it weighs the results with the number of responses. Not every survey had the same number of voters, after all.

Spoiler: Survey Results, Combined

Across all 8 surveys, over a thousand votes were collected (and counting....the polls are still open). The table below gives the percentage that each edition scored, out of the total number of votes in all categories. This information is less-useful for comparing overall results from all surveys, since some voters could have voted more than once (meaning: some people might have voted in only one survey, others might have voted in all eight, and most fall somewhere in between.) It might not be as useful, but it's still interesting to look at.

Spoiler: Survey Conclusions

The categories can be grouped into six different groups, by adding across the columns. This gives us the number of people who have played a certain edition, the number of people who haven't played it, and the number of people still playing it. We can also group all of the favorable, unfavorable, and neutral results to get a raw count of how "favorable" each edition was perceived.

The edition that most people have played: AD&D 2E (87.9%, down from 88.5% in April 2020)
The edition that most people are still playing: B/X (13.7%, down from 13.8%)
The edition that most people didn't play: OD&D (63.9%, up from 62.4%)

The edition that was most favorably regarded: AD&D 1E (85.1%, down from 87.0%)
The edition that was most neutrally-regarded: B/X (17.8%, down from 19.0% and very nearly tied with Basic D&D, at 17.7%.)
The edition that was most unfavorably regarded: D&D 4E (36.1%, unchanged from April 2020)

I think it's interesting that the most-neutral edition is also the one that is still being played the most. But it is very nearly tied with Basic D&D, too, so I worry that there might be a lot of overlap. It's possible that folks might be voting for B/X when they intended to vote for Basic D&D, and vice-versa.

The Comments
I wasn't just collecting votes in a poll; I was also tracking the comments for each edition. Whenever a new comment was posted, I would read it and make a broad judgment about the topic and the author's intent. Then I'd score it in my spreadsheet. I ended up with 13 categories of comments:
"I remember when..."
"Let's talk about this other edition..."
"The rules in this edition were..."
"You're wrong, I'm right, let's argue, etc."
"So about this survey/I predict that..."
"I didn't play this edition because..."
"You made an error," "thanks I fixed it."
Me, subtly (or not so subtly) bumping the post
Comment deleted by user
Unrelated or off-topic
Moderator warning post
Link to another page
Introduction post (one per survey)

So how did your favorite edition do? And has the conversation continued over the last 10 months?

Spoiler: Comment Results, by Edition

Before I get a lot of angry comments and private messages, let me preface this by saying that this is the least-scientific part of an already not-scientific process. A single human being (me) read each comment and decided which category to file it into, based on their own biased and untrained judgment. It was not peer reviewed, there was no oversight, etc. So take all of this into consideration before, and during, any attempts to draw conclusions.

The edition that still has the most comments overall was 4E D&D, with 322 comments. This is impressive for two three reasons: one, it got almost 130 more votes than the runner-up (3E D&D, with 193 comments); and two, it accomplished this in about 2 days... @Umbran had to lock the thread after just 54 hours; and three, it is still has the most comments despite the thread being closed for almost a year.

The edition with the fewest comments overall was Basic D&D ("Holmes Basic"), with just 38 comments (and only one new comment for the whole year). The runner up was B/X, with 58 posts (up from 40, back in April 2020).

Most of the comments in each survey were what I asked for: stories and memories about playing the game: things that you liked, things you didn't like, things you missed or didn't miss, all that.

Spoiler: Breakdown of Commentary

Because this part of the "survey" is so unreliable, I didn't attempt to draw very many conclusions. But I'll hit the high parts.

"I remember when..."
The edition with the most comments of this nature were in AD&D 2E, with 82.1% (down from 88.4% in April 2020).

"Let's talk about this other edition..."
The edition with the most comments of this nature were Basic D&D, at 16.2% (unchanged from April 2020). As before, I think this was largely due to confusion: a lot of different game editions get called "basic dee and dee" on ENWorld, and a lot of clarification was needed.)

"The rules in this edition were..."
The one with the most comments about rules and mechanics was OD&D, at 25.9% (down from 26.9%). There was quite an uptick in AD&D 1E conversation in this category across the year, however.

"You're wrong, I'm right, let's argue, etc."
The edition that had the most caustic conversation was 4E D&D, at 24.7% (unchanged).

"So about this survey/I predict that..."
Speculation or commentary on the survey itself was most popular with D&D 3E, at 9.5% (down significantly, from 12.4%.)

"I didn't play this edition because..."
Some folks wanted to clarify why they didn't play an edition. And most of them were saying it about Basic D&D, at 8.1% (unchanged). This is related to the clarification issues on which "basic" edition was being surveyed.

"You made an error," "thanks I fixed it."
I'm not perfect. I made the most mistakes and corrections in the Basic D&D survey, which ended up accounting for 5.4% of the total comments.

Me, subtly (or not subtly) bumping the post
Sometimes interest would flag, and I would feel the need to kick the survey up to the top of the stack to generate some more interaction. This happened most often with Basic D&D, at 5.4% (previously OD&D, at 3.8%.)

Comment deleted by user
The survey that had the highest number of deleted comments was AD&D 1E, at 9.2% (unchanged).

Unrelated or off-topic post
By and large, these were pretty rare. But the edition with the most of them was AD&D 1E, at 9.9% (up from 7.1%.)

Moderator warning posts
Also very rare; only two editions required moderator intervention: 4E D&D with 0.9%, and D&D 3E with 0.5% (both unchanged).

Links to other pages
The edition that has the most shared links was BECMI/RC D&D, at 9.6% (down from 10.3%.) This was mostly people linking the survey to other online communities where they can meet other players of the edition. This was so awesome, please do more of this. In all editions.

Introductory post
Every survey had exactly 1 of these.

Conclusions
I'm not sure if I'm any closer to answering my questions, but I really appreciate everyone's input. If nothing else, you all gave me something to occupy my time (and my brain) with, while I'm under self-quarantine in the Pacific Northwest.

I hope you enjoy the update. I'll keep checking in every month or so, and if there's significant activity in one or more of these threads, I'll post an update.

Happy New Year, everyone!

The Surveys
OD&D
Basic D&D
B/X D&D
AD&D 1E
BECMI / Rules Cyclopedia
AD&D 2E
D&D 3E
D&D 4E

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Good stuff!

The Surveys
OD&D
Basic D&D
B/X D&D
AD&D 1E
BECMI / Rules Cyclopedia
AD&D 2E
D&D 3E
D&D 4E

FYI... Looks like the D&D 4E survey is "not open to further replies"...

 

[Charlaquin]

FYI... Looks like the D&D 4E survey is "not open to further replies"...

That figures. The hate for 4e is unreal.

 

[CleverNickName]

Good stuff!



FYI... Looks like the D&D 4E survey is "not open to further replies"...

Yeah, I'm aware. Unfortunately, the 4E thread got closed by moderators after discussions there began to devolve into an(other) edition war. I was disappointed, but not surprised--as @Charlaquin suggested, the 4the Edition always evokes strong emotions. Sorting through hundreds of posts of arguments and snide remarks wasn't very much fun.

I don't know if moderators can unlock threads after everyone has had a few months to cool down...but if such a thing is possible, perhaps @Umbran could be persuaded to do so? Send a PM; it doesn't hurt to ask.

I wanna caution folks not to challenge moderation in this thread, though.

 

[billd91]

That figures. The hate for 4e is unreal.

As is the defensiveness. Traffic moves in two directions on that road.

 

[CleverNickName]

Traffic moves in two directions on that road.

I try to group both directions of travel into a single unifying term...I'll write "strong emotions" instead of specifying "love" or "hate," for example. It's more polite, and it reinforces a sense of unity.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Good work on this.

Here's the problem when I read what people had to say-

The 4e thread was a hot mess and then got shut down.
The 1e thread is unreadable because of deleted comments.
The Basic/B/X/BECMI threads have so few comments. If you combined B/X and BECMI you might get a decent thread.

Maybe re-run them with different categories that are basically the same (combine OD&D and Basic, combine B/X and BECMI, combine 1e and 2e). Not sure what to do about 4e. Seems to attract more heat than light.

 

[CleverNickName]

Good work on this.

Here's the problem when I read what people had to say-

The 4e thread was a hot mess and then got shut down.
The 1e thread is unreadable because of deleted comments.
The Basic/B/X/BECMI threads have so few comments. If you combined B/X and BECMI you might get a decent thread.

Maybe re-run them with different categories that are basically the same (combine OD&D and Basic, combine B/X and BECMI, combine 1e and 2e). Not sure what to do about 4e. Seems to attract more heat than light.

Reading through hundreds of comments is a chore, isn't it? I really don't envy the moderators.

I don't think I'll re-run these surveys. I wanted to get people to share their memories and experiences of playing the older editions of the game, and I think I've accomplished that pretty well. I'm less interested in comparisons or popularity contests between editions since they quickly decay into arguments and edition wars. But if someone else wants to redo them in the future, please do so with my blessing.

I thought about combining certain editions together, but decided against it in the end. I think the history of the game is very interesting, and it's fun to see how many times it changed over time (and the reasons for the changes). And I wanted to give each edition a fair shake, no matter its release date. I'm sure it came at the cost of high post-counts and voter participation--but even so, I gathered almost 1100 votes and 1200 comments. Not too shabby.

And yeah, 4E is always a problem on the forums...I knew that it was going to get shut down eventually despite my pleas in the original post, but I was thinking more in terms of weeks not hours. It's disappointing that it's still so divisive even after all these years. (I really like your "more heat than light" metaphor...I'm stealing that.) Hopefully there will be a day when we can discuss the things we liked and didn't like about 4th Edition, without strangers on the internet saying we're wrong.

 

[Helldritch]

From now on, we'll call 4ed: "The Edition that must not be named or thread"! or TEtmnbNoT! Or just the Voldemort edition...

But I never had any hate for that edition in my area. It was different. But it was still fun to play.

As for the survey themselves.
I am still surprised that 2nd edition got that much popular. It was not so in my area but 3E really got the spot light. I think it is linked to the fact that 2E was so close to first that many did not bother. Many just bought a few adventures or settings. Everything else was "optional" as the old guard were telling us. Strange, I am now among the old guard...