Aldarc
Legend
Of course, I can't force anyone to do anything, but I wanted to be transparent and fair about my framing here. You are welcome to assume bad faith on my part by calling it "antagonistic positioning," but my intent was to essentially remove the "don't know," "neutral," or "middle option" from the Likert Scale in the hopes of getting something more than "nothing."While I feel this is the question folks should be asking, I feel a need to remind you that you don't get to demand or force anyone to do anything. This is a fundamentally antagonistic positioning, which really isn't appropriate to the situation, or particularly constructive.
If you aren't willing to accept answers you don't like, do not ask the question.
A difference that I see is that the upcoming One D&D DMG is being rewritten so it is a more friendly and helpful guide for new DMs rather than those who want to go from being their spouse's "sort of sous chef" to a professional line cook. So the area of improvement or "contact with reality" that WotC is looking to rectify or address appears to be at a more basic, fundamental level rather than for someone at your caliber.With all due respect, your guess at the motivation does not stand as evidence of an actual problem.
In my house, I often work as a sort of sous chef for my wife - I do a lot of the most basic food preparation tasks - the chopping, slicing, peeling, rinsing and draining, minding of the rice or pasta, and so on. I am good enough at making things seamless for my wife when she's cooking that people watching us prepare Thanksgiving have used the word "dance " to describe it. There is no problem, no "symptom" here. We work really well in the kitchen.
But, can I do better? Of course! I am not a restaurant-quality sous chef. My knife work could be more precise, and definitely faster, for example. Do I need to be better, for what I am doing? Not in the least! Might I still want to be? Sure.
There does not have to be a problem for one to wish to improve.
Now I admit that I tend to see this more in terms of being a "problem," if only, because a lot of times I see issues with GM retention, struggles, burnout, etc., it tends to be more pronounced at the beginning level rather than those who have decades of experience GMing past editions or other TTRPGs, like I suspect that you do. As I said, I think that trying to improve the DMG so it is more helpful to newcomer or even struggling GMs will go a long way at WotC addressing the survivor bias issue. Sure, many DMs make it, but IME there are also many who don't and then drop it.
And that delves nicely into my question. How would you improve the DMG so it is more helpful for new or struggling GMs who want to improve their own gamemastering?Most things can be improved, the DMG is no exception.