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<blockquote data-quote="Treebore" data-source="post: 1411363" data-attributes="member: 10177">Born in 66, first played in 1985.As for any poll on the internet being representative of anything. It is representative of people who own computers and have internet access, of people who work at places that give them internet access so they can sneak to boards like these, and of people who own/have access to computers with internet who actually bother to come to boards such as these.Most players I have met do not come to these boards, even when they have the access. Like in my current group, only 3 out of 7 of us come to ENworld and we all have internet access. The DM has a hard time getting all of us to even go to his website that is directly related to our game.So any internet poll, on any subject, is not representative of any &quot;group&quot;. Unless it is completely about access and use of the internet.When I see CNN and other news agencies using their internet polls as true indicatios of what the public opinion is I want to get ill. Never believe such polls. Also remember any poll has at least a 5% chance of being totally wrong, usually 10% or higher. I mean totally and completely wrong, not just a +/- 3 to 10% error. Most people don't take 15 hours of probability and statisitcs in college. The biggest thing i learned was that polls are not worth a whole lot more than a well informed opinion, yet people treat them as a whole lot more than that. The other thing I learned is how easily such data can be manipulated to support whatever view you want it to. So my advice to you is: never, ever, believe statistics, just go with your instincts. They have gotten you this far.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Treebore, post: 1411363, member: 10177"] Born in 66, first played in 1985. As for any poll on the internet being representative of anything. It is representative of people who own computers and have internet access, of people who work at places that give them internet access so they can sneak to boards like these, and of people who own/have access to computers with internet who actually bother to come to boards such as these. Most players I have met do not come to these boards, even when they have the access. Like in my current group, only 3 out of 7 of us come to ENworld and we all have internet access. The DM has a hard time getting all of us to even go to his website that is directly related to our game. So any internet poll, on any subject, is not representative of any "group". Unless it is completely about access and use of the internet. When I see CNN and other news agencies using their internet polls as true indicatios of what the public opinion is I want to get ill. Never believe such polls. Also remember any poll has at least a 5% chance of being totally wrong, usually 10% or higher. I mean totally and completely wrong, not just a +/- 3 to 10% error. Most people don't take 15 hours of probability and statisitcs in college. The biggest thing i learned was that polls are not worth a whole lot more than a well informed opinion, yet people treat them as a whole lot more than that. The other thing I learned is how easily such data can be manipulated to support whatever view you want it to. So my advice to you is: never, ever, believe statistics, just go with your instincts. They have gotten you this far. [/QUOTE]

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