D&D General ENWorld is better that the pundits…change my mind

[Zardnaar]

The internet has mostly lost the value of well-moderated forums and actually informed news.

EN World is an oasis of excellence in a desert of internet mediocrity.

Depends. Its fairly bad at optimization and mechanics. A lot of theory crafting, lack of experience in real games, lack of active players and left over baggage from previous editions.

Theres maybe 6 people who are good at it.

Reddit and discord groups are better for that sort of thing.

If you want an example start a thread about Conjure Minor Elemental and seeing it used in a real game.

 

[darjr]

ENWorld? ENWorld’s just this place, you know?

 

[overgeeked]

I prefer pundits to social media, and yes, ENWorld is social media.

With pundits I can go to their site or blog or YouTube channel and get what they think about a topic without all the noise of social media. I can also simply not engage with the pundits I disagree with, unlike on social media.

The trouble with social media is that it's a firehose of nonsense. People you don't want to hear from opining endlessly about their pet topics. People you do want to hear from inevitably get sucked into long, exhausting exchanges with people you don't want to hear from, etc.

That is to say, the trolls drag everything down. Thread after thread of the same 6-7 posters screaming past each other isn't information. Reading a blog post or watching a video, even one you disagree with, is far more likely to actually contain information.

Also, consensus is overrated. Not that gamers can agree on things. Start a thread trying to define what RPGs even are and you'll see just how useless even the attempt at consensus is.

Basically, the signal to noise ratio of pundits is infinitely higher than that of social media.

 

[SteveC]

Also, consensus is overrated. Not that gamers can agree on things. Start a thread trying to define what RPGs even are and you'll see just how useless even the attempt at consensus is.

I love conversations here, but this is a good point: you will get a huge variety of opinions on what exactly a particular topic in RPGs is. I've been in the hobby long enough to know that the fundamentals of RPG topics have been widely debated for decades (I started seeing them in the 70s! when I was very young).

Many discussions are really just people talking past each other when they have fundamental definitional issues.

The question for me is: is one voice more useful than a group of voices? I think both can be but I hear different opinions on EnWorld every day and I find that I learn something in many cases.