Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 6055213" data-attributes="member: 7006">You make a strong thesis statement.  The only problem I have with it though, is that I think it's flawed.Personally... I think 95% of potential "new players" are not ignorant to the world of gaming.  Whether that is board games, war games, video games, etc. etc. etc.  Even if they've never played a tabletop RPG, they have played enough other games that they are not unsophisticated.  They know the concepts of what game playing entails.  They know there is strategy involved.  They know there is potentially math involved.  They know there is player interaction involved.  They know there is "having fun" involved.We live in a world where playing games is really the norm for almost all of the pool of potential D&D players.  If you might play D&D, it's because you already play other types of games, or you're being introduced to it by a parent, friend or family member (and thus being led into it under supervision).  As a result... those players come into it with knowledge and expectations of game play (or careful instruction from an excited teacher anxious to pass on his/her love of the game).So the idea that the game can't have some modicum of complexity I believe is a fallacy.  Potential D&D players are not idiots who have to start with Basic D&D otherwise they're lost forever.  In fact... with our sophisticated gameplaying pool of players, having things TOO BASIC is a potential turnoff.  They're currently playing games with quite sophisticated game play.  It's the expectation nowadays.  Ticket To Ride isn't Sorry.  World of Warcraft isn't Pitfall.  Hell... even something like Angry Birds requires a sophisticated knowledge of in-game physics and strategy in order to advance in it.I think we REALLY need to stop treating the potential player pool like they are precious snowflakes whose egos are so fragile that if they can't pick the game up in 30 seconds that we've lost them forever.  Players really aren't like that.  Why don't we start giving them the benefit of the doubt and just rely on the idea that giving them a good game will get them to play it and potentially stick around?Good games create long-time players.  Let's stick with that.</blockquote>

Verification