Ruin Explorer
Legend
This is the issue though, they're not. Or rather, some significant number of them are significantly LESS happy than they SHOULD be.if I’m happy?
People stick to certain classes even when they're not very happy with them. Even when they're bored or annoyed. Maybe they shouldn't, but they absolutely do, and not just in TT RPGs, also in any kind of RPG.
Part of it is like, for a lot of people, just playing a TT RPG is huge fun, and that obscures issues mechanical issues that aren't crippling.
You do. You absolutely do. And that's actually a good example! If cat people (esp. kemonomimi - i.e. human-ish face, but catlike ears/tail, rather than straight-up furry-ish cat people like Tabaxi) are in the game, there is a certain kind of player who is going to play them come hell or high water (Tieflings also show this, but luckily have been pretty good for a long time, only in 3E were they a disaster because they had +1 LA and bad stat mods - a penalty to Charisma! On Tieflings! The devil not known for his charm to 3E writers, I guess). And yeah I know from personal experience there are people who play Rogues because they play Rogues.Perhaps I underestimate the determination of people to play “cat person rogues” in the face of grinding disappointment.
But its like when you pile bonuses and penalties, if people are getting +10 happiness from "Playing D&D", and +2 from "Getting to roleplay a Cat person" and +2 from "Getting to roleplay a Rogue", even if they're getting -6 happiness from "My character sucks mechanically", they're still on +8 happiness.
Compare that maybe to the wizard who only gets +8 happiness from "Playing D&D", doesn't gain any particular thrill from roleplaying a specific class/race (so +0), but gets +4 happiness "being able to push the hell out of Wizard mechanics" and he's clearly happier.
Both are still in the positive and it's not like one is weeping at the table. It's just that, if their class didn't suck, they'd be a lot happier. This isn't theoretical for me, I've played with the same people, many of whom stuck to the same classes for decades, and seen it happen.
The reason I feel it's not is because a lot of the boredom/unhappiness comes from the lack of pillar utility, in my experience anywaPillar utility seems like a whole nother thing though.