Difference From 10 Years Ago?

[Ahnehnois]

You were obviously not frequenting the same establishments I was.

Clearly not. I wasn't around for the 1e/2e transition. My FLGS was a WotC store.

The 2e/3e shift went down smoothly in my community. I didn't see anyone have any trouble, for example, acknowledging that the Baldur's Gate games were better than Neverwinter Nights, or that kits were really cool, or that CRs were stupid. In general, most people seemed to think that 3e was better, but these opinions were not unilateral, were not uncivil, and did not have the same kind of absurd rationalizations that seem to be de rigeur now.

But it's fair to suggest that my local community ten years ago might have been more harmonious than others and my eyes are not and were not all-seeing.

The internet is simply a lot bigger these days, with more people using it so we see "more" people's discourse, especially if we were with fairly insular groups back then. . There was data presented on another board that the entire number of internet users IN THE WORLD (business, government and everything) when 3E came out is about 2/3 of the Facebook users today.

True. That is definitely one thing that's changed in the last ten years.

And I wonder if perhaps, through some mechanism, this saturation of information has lowered the level of discourse in other areas besides gaming, which to me it often seems it has.

 

[Herschel]

Discourse in the Edition Wars is no different than in sports, politics, music, etc. Go to any comments section on internet stories (ex: Yahoo articles) and one really starts to doubt the intellect and usefulness of the human race. Political talk radio thrives on people uniting behind misinformation as it drives ratings.

What's funny is the scads of people why tried to be insulted by WotC's tongue-in-cheek and hyped up 4E intro seemed to forget that even way back in 2E TSR compared 2E and 1E to a Porshe and a model T, respectively.
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/2ebook.pdf

 

[Ahnehnois]

What's funny is the scads of people why tried to be insulted by WotC's tongue-in-cheek and hyped up 4E intro seemed to forget that even way back in 2E TSR compared 2E and 1E to a Porshe and a model T, respectively.
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/2ebook.pdf

Given the life cycle of 2e, I imagine a lot of things have been forgotten.

 

[Herschel]

Yeah, and rose-colored views of yesteryear are nothing new to humanity in general.

Heck, I remember when I was a kid hearing about how much better it was for everyone back in the day from my grandparents' generation (and even my parents')and asking "Sure, because mom not being allowed to have a job unless no man wanted it or wanted to work for less money and Jack (one of the few persons of color I knew) shouldn't be allowed to vote or buy a house where he wants was somehow "better" how?"

Some laughed, others, not so much. At least now a lot of this severe discourse seems to revolve around relatively trivial stuff.

 

[Weather Report]

Player entitlement:

"...what do you mean I can't play a pixie samurai in your classical Greek campaign?! You are a control-freak DM, wah, wah."

 

[S'mon]

And I've found your analysis and examples to have made forge-thought much more relatable to me than the original articles and discussions.

Seconded!

 

[pemerton]

Ten years ago was actually a very interesting time in RPGs - but few realised it at the time.

Nice recap.

the Forge was objecting to Storyteller not D&D - people forget that

Not all people!