D&D 5E What is Quality?

[Ovinomancer]

What version of Microsoft Word are y'all running where popular is a synonym for quality?

5.e for workgroups.

 

[FrogReaver]

What version of Microsoft Word are y'all running where popular is a synonym for quality?

This is 2022. Words mean whatever we want them to.

 

[soviet]

What version of Microsoft Word are y'all running where popular is a synonym for quality?

I'm running an indie word processing package that I published myself. It only sold six hundred copies so it must be terrible. ;-)

 

[payn]

This is 2022. Words mean whatever we want them to.

Though, regardless of how you mean it, every word is quality because it means something to somebody.

 

[Maxperson]

Is a Ferrari or a Kia a more quality automobile?

Yes.

Depending on what you are looking at, either one is better quality than the other.

Warrantywise reveals most and least reliable cars in the UK

Warrantywise has published its reliability index, which reveals the Top 10 most and least reliable used car brands. It uses data compiled from over 131,000

www.motortrader.com

As you can see, Kia is number 8 on the most reliable brands, while Ferrari is number 1 on the least reliable brands. Looking at reliability, Kia blows Ferrari out of the water in a quality comparison. Looking at sports cars, though, Ferrari wins quality hands down since Kia doesn't even make the list. Or if you want to compare top speeds, Ferrari wins quality again.

I see a lot more Kia’s around than Ferrari’s. Does that mean Kia is better quality than Ferrari?

Popularity is not a quality of something. Price is, though. Start selling Ferrari's for $17,000, the price of a Kia Spectra, and you will see the number of Ferraris on the road skyrocket, despite it's unreliability rating.

 

[Maxperson]

Do you know what they used to say about MG midgets? Fantastic little car, but be sure to get a trailer hitch for a trailer because you'll need that trailer for the money you'll spend keeping the car repaired.

There are relatively objective ways of comparing vehicles that don't apply to products designed to entertain. But ... yet once more ... it's not just about popularity it's about year after year growth that we would not see if 5E was not doing a good job at it's target purpose of entertainment.

Growth = becoming more popular. You're still talking about popularity and not a quality or qualities of the product. That growth might be because of a number of high quality aspects of 5e, or it might be because 5e is just gaining popularity since it's the first edition to be accepted into the main stream rather than just being the province of gamer geeks, which has nothing to do with quality at all.

 

[Maxperson]

This isn't about relative quality. Depending on criteria and preference I'm sure there are higher quality TTRPGs, at least for some people that have just never taken off for one reason or another. Multiple things can be quality products.

Yes multiple things can be quality products, but since popularity and growth are not qualities of something, on what are you basing D&D 5e's quality?

 

[Umbran]

An image is not an argument. It is an implication of an argument that you then don't have to defend, because technically you didn't make it. It may make you feel good, but makes your point unfalsifiable - nobody can argue against you, because you haven't actually said anything. Poor rhetorical form, that.

 

[Umbran]

Yes multiple things can be quality products, but since popularity and growth are not qualities of something, on what are you basing D&D 5e's quality?

It is legitimate to speak of "the game's popularity" - which admits that the popularity belongs to the game, and is therefore a quality of the game. It isn't an intrinsic quality, but nobody here has made a cogent argument that only intrinsic qualities are valid for discussion.

The thing that is D&D does not merely exist within a rulebook. D&D is explicitly a social activity. You cannot fully consider the qualities of a thing outside the context in which is is actually used - that would be like trying to judge quality of a car without considering the terrain over which the car is to be driven. The social aspects of the game, including its popularity, should be open to consideration.

Why? Because, when you are standing in the store trying to decide which rulebook to buy, the question, "How hard will it be to get people to play this?" is a legitimate factor in one's decision.

 

[Umbran]

Is a Ferrari or a Kia a more quality automobile? I see a lot more Kia’s around than Ferrari’s. Does that mean Kia is better quality than Ferrari?

The question is poorly formed. I have more drinking glasses in my home than frying pans - does that mean I don't have a good frying pan?

Quality cannot be considered free of the context of purpose.