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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Vayden" data-source="post: 4441216" data-attributes="member: 57791">(ENworlders on the European side of the pond, feel free to re-interpret this as 3e:Cricket:<img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/dd.jpg"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":4e:" title="D&D 4th Edition    :4e:" data-shortname=":4e:" />Soccer or whatever the analogy is over there)Quick and dirty analogy - just throwing it up to see if it feels accurate to both sides. 3e and Baseball are both very popular, but both have a demographic that skews older, and is behind 4e/Football and steadily losing ground. This is not to say that 3e/Baseball are not very good and popular games - just the fact that they are 2nd in the market, and their demograpic is being slowly reduced even further, because the preponderance towards 4e/Football is even heavier in the younger generations. In addition, Baseball has a reputation as a thinking man's game, where moves are plotted out carefully in advance and countered by time honored strategies (Managers = GMs). The legions of stat-geeks in Baseball would correspond to the regulars on CharOp. Team chemistry is important, but it is fundamentally an individual game - your OPS and WHIP are largely independent of what your teammates do. Certain players only exist for specialized roles and wait patiently for the moment when suddenly the whole game hangs on them (closer attempting a save = rogue disarming a particularly deadly trap). Certain sections of baseball fans love nothing more than a suicide-squeeze bunt (casting a brilliant spell that wins the fight without bothering with silly things like hp damage). There is an entire "Hot Stove" league during the offseason, and the sport invented fantasy sports (relentless character builders who only get to actually play about 5% of their builds). The game has a rich tapestry and connection to America's past and wreathes itself in various traditional values (viewed as a logical continuance from 2e, part of the great D&D tradition). Football also has many similarities to 4e - it's regarded as a simpler, more brutish game, but its fans are outraged at any attempt to call it mindless, citing the massive playbooks and tactics involved. Everything is dependent on the team functioning as a single well-oiled machine - the linemen defend, the wide receivers strike, the QB "leads", etc. No matter how tricky or devious a play is, it always comes down to several people hitting each other in the face (everything does hp damage). Individual stats (building characters) is much less important than team performance (at table play tactics/options/teamwork). Though it, like Baseball, is uniquely American, Football prefers to drape itself in timeless war terminology, referring to the players as warriors, field generals, and gladiators at every conceivable opportunity (no reliance on specific traditions because they're traditions, but "has that 1e dungeon-crawlin' feel"). White Wolf = NBA, GURPS = NHL - develop this further if you wish.</blockquote>

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