Changeover Poll

[Dragonblade]

What I can tell you is that the demographic seems to have changed from 3.x to 4e, according to the owner of my FLGS. Around here, 3.x was bought mostly by older males (25+). 4e has a much higher proportion of women and kids buying it than did 3.x, as well as gamers who lapsed and are coming back. I do know the D&D Delve Night for January (part of which I'm running) is booked solid, but during 3.x's reign similar events had virtually no attendance. Make of that what you will.

You make some interesting observations here. My circle of people I game with actually enlarged with 4e due to 2 lapsed players who quit D&D during the 3e era coming back, and one of my friend's wives was going to quit playing altogether. She is a casual gamer who has no concept of the rules, but she really likes the RP stuff. She hated 3e, but is much happier with the 4e powers system and her enthusiasm for playing has dramatically increased.

 

[Dragonblade]

It seems reasonable that folks who visit ENWorld, and particularly those who post and respond to polls, are likely to be more serious about D&D (and RPGs in general) than more casual gamers. From that, I don't think it is too much of a leap to guess that folks here are probably also more invested (financially and emotionally) in 3ed than the average gamer. So I'd be surprised if the boards did not reflect more of a bias towards older editions of the game than the "average" gamer.

I agree. I think that is a very good observation.

 

[Echohawk]

IF this poll gets 1,000 responses it will be as viable as the polls you saw on CNN and FOX about who would lead the US next.

No, I don't think that's true. This is a self-selecting poll, with participants drawn from the category "people who are serious enough about gaming to have an account on a hobby-specific message board". Which means it measures something very different to media polls that have randomly selected participants. (That doesn't make it less interesting, just different.)

 

[Dragonblade]

The misconception is that a tiny geographical area like one city would represent the rest of the country. The reality of this poll is that it is nationwide, and to a point, world wide. IF this poll gets 1,000 responses it will be as viable as the polls you saw on CNN and FOX about who would lead the US next.

Its been a while since I have taken a statistics class, but not even close. A self-selecting internet poll on one D&D fansite is going to be representative of the buying habits of tens of thousands of gamers? Highly doubtful.

Out of all those 30 people I mentioned before, less than half are even aware of EN World, and of those people I'm the ONLY one who posts here or frequents the site with any regularity.

EN World is a great community, but it is nowhere near representative of all D&D gamers. The WotC boards dwarf EN World and at this point are probably like 90% 4e players if not higher.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

I am merely curious.
I do hope, that people will vote, and we'll have the thousand votes the first poll had. I hope for interest in the poll.

What would scare me is if nobody answered the poll, because nobody came to ENWorld, and/or nobody cared or gamed anymore. That would be, what would be sad.

The various editions of D&D? The more the merrier. The very fact a thousand might reply to this poll is heartening, because it means people still care, people still game, people still want to game. And that's good enough for me.

(So, those who have answered Other: Changeover Irrelevant - I no longer play D&D or a D&D type game, face to face or on the computer or otherwise ... a few of the earlier posts in this thread ... those are the poll answers that are the sad answers. Those are the answers I would hope would not dominate this poll.)

 

[Drowbane]

Tried 4e, sticking with D&D (3.5 + house rules)

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

226 votes, and there has been a considerable shift in these last few votes:

Changeover: 31%
No Changeover: 56%
Partial Changeover: 14%

Notable uptick in the Changeover numbers, and a notable drop in the No Changeover numbers (after all, a 4% change in both categories from just 26 votes is considerable.)

 

[FireLance]

On the issue of drawing possibly unsubstantiated conclusions from ENWorld polls, I've noticed on occasion (caveat: observer bias, selective memory, etc.) that polls related to the popularity of 4E tend to get more "pro-4E" responses from the late morning to the late evening where I am (Singapore). This translates to something like GMT 0200 to GMT 1400 (I think).

I wonder if this means, at least among ENWorld members, that 4E is more popular in Europe and Asia than it is in the US?

 

[Thanee]

Definitely "Partial". Some 4E but mostly it's 3.5 still.

Bye
Thanee

 

[meomwt]

Still all 3.5e. No interest in trying 4e.