D&D 5E I feel like the surveys gaslit WotC about """"Backwards Compatibility""""

[billd91]

So I game with mostly people younger than me, by 10 years or more. What I've found is that there is a mindset, deeply ingrained into younger people, that older things are not as good as newer things. I blame the relentless gears of capitalism for this, as companies are constantly trying to sell you "newer & better"- even when "newer & better" doesn't live up to their hype (I still think Windows NT was superior to the dreck that came pre-installed on my new PC).

So.... the kids today are like us? I mean how many of us older people like current hit music the same way we did with the music we listened to when we were kids? How many of us feel that the version of Scooby Doo we watched as kids was better than later versions?
It's all the same generational differences in environment that helps drive differences in taste and entertainment priorities. I encourage my kids to watch some of the things I watched years ago. Sometimes they do... if it interests them. Otherwise they look at me like I have tentacles growing out of my head and continue to watch their anime shows and K-POP videos that, in turn, I'm not particularly into.

 

[mamba]

WotC wasn't looking for advice, it was looking for smell test.

which is pretty similar to my 'it helps WotC to avoid real duds, but not to improve the game'

 

[Remathilis]

which is pretty similar to my 'it helps WotC to avoid real duds, but not to improve the game'

Essentially.

 

[DEFCON 1]

which is pretty similar to my 'it helps WotC to avoid real duds, but not to improve the game'

I don't trust a single person's opinion here on EN World that they know how to improve Dungeons & Dragons.

They can obviously improve THEIR Dungeons & Dragons... but D&D in general? Not a chance.

 

[Parmandur]

of course they did not take the survey, which is one part of why the emphasis on backwards compatibility is overrepresented in the polls.

I wasn't talking about representation in the polls, I was talking about how forumites are more likely than players in general to be itching for change, IMO.

 

[GreyLord]

I find 2024 pretty compatible with 2014 5e. If you think these are incompatible you'd have a nightmare between AD&D 1e and 2e, BECMI and BX, or 3e and 3.5 versions of D&D. Each one of those were highly compatible for those who could tweak small things, but there were some who found them extremely incompatible...even though at the core the changes between those two versions (1e and 2e for example, or 3e and 3.5) were to the branches (spell effects for example not being exactly the same and tweaked) while the core of the system stayed mostly the same.

It's the core of the system staying the same which I think is the most important part of compatibility, so while I'd argue AD&D and 3e really weren't compatible, 3e and 3.5 really were compatible if one wanted to do a few tweaks to make it so.

 

[mamba]

I don't trust a single person's opinion here on EN World that they know how to improve Dungeons & Dragons.

They can obviously improve THEIR Dungeons & Dragons... but D&D in general? Not a chance.

WotC did not ask a single person though. Heck, I would not trust a single person with identifying the duds either

 

[Yaarel]

Regarding the biases of ENWorld forumers, last time I looked into it some years ago, the survey responses from here resemembled DnDBeyond stats, strongly and in detail. (Reddit and elsewhere were quite different.)

When DnDBeyond is a model for future D&D goals, ENWorld seems a useful place to get a sense of where D&D players are at.

 

[James Gasik]

So.... the kids today are like us? I mean how many of us older people like current hit music the same way we did with the music we listened to when we were kids? How many of us feel that the version of Scooby Doo we watched as kids was better than later versions?
It's all the same generational differences in environment that helps drive differences in taste and entertainment priorities. I encourage my kids to watch some of the things I watched years ago. Sometimes they do... if it interests them. Otherwise they look at me like I have tentacles growing out of my head and continue to watch their anime shows and K-POP videos that, in turn, I'm not particularly into.

I suppose that's a not unfair assessment, though I myself like a lot of new things as well. I dislike repackaging old things to make them "new" but I know it's unfortunately necessary to garner a new audience. OTOH, if the new update actually does something neat and interesting with the source material, there's a good chance I'll appreciate it more for what it is, than what it isn't. But not everyone thinks like me, of course.

If they did, we'd all be playing 4e. Or Earthdawn, lol.

 

[Nightfly]

This alone makes any backwards compatibility worthless.

This is talk radio levels of absolutism. ANY compatibility? COMPLETELY worthless? Come on. Go to Startplaying right now and you'll see literally hundreds of 2014 adventures being run under 2024 rules. I myself am splicing monsters from the new Monster Manual into my 2014-rules campaign that started last summer and it couldn't be easier. Now, when I ran a 3e adventure in 5e a few years ago, that required a lot of conversion. And when I ran a 3e adventure in 4e, I literally had to rebuild every encounter from scratch. That is what a lack of backwards compatibility actually looks like.

Yes, 5.5e characters are generally more powerful than 5e ones, no question. But you can fix that easily by swapping in 5.5e monsters. Or just ignore it and don't "fix" it at all.