Dungeons, Dragons, and Demographics

[FireLance]

I did a quick Excel numbers crunch based on the current votes (225).

Overall: 77.33% like

Started with 1e: 70.54% like
Started with 2e: 85.92% like
Started with 3e: 88.00% like

Age 12-25: 84.44% like
Age 26-35: 78.23% like
Age 35+: 69.64% like

Methinks I detect a trend here.

 

[Kavon]

23 years old, started with 2nd edition, and I like where things are going. :B

 

[ivocaliban]

I'm 31 and although I technically started with the Rules Cyclopedia, virtually everything else that shaped my game was 2e, so that's what I chose. I'm negatively inclined towards 4e based on the information available and have no intentions of purchasing any 4e products in 2008.

 

[FireLance]

Here's how the numbers stand after 258 votes. Numbers in parentheses are the number of people falling into each category, e.g. there are 147 people who started with 1e:

Overall (258): 77.91% like

Started with 1e (147): 71.43% like
Started with 2e (81): 85.19% like
Started with 3e (30): 90.00% like

Age 12-25 (51): 84.31% like
Age 26-35 (141): 78.01% like
Age 35+ (66): 72.73% like

Other interesting information from the poll is that of the 66 people who are age 35+, 65 started with 1e or earlier and only 1 started with 2e.

Of the 141 people who are age 26-35, 75 started with 1e or earlier, 58 started with 2e, and only 8 started with 3e.

Of the 51 people who are age 12-25, only 7 started with 1e or earlier, 22 started with 2e and 22 started with 3e.

Most people (147) started with 1e or earlier, a smaller number (80) started with 2e, and only a few people (30) started with 3e.

The bulk of people (141) are between 26-35, with 51 younger and 66 older.

 

[Zweischneid]

Aged 26-35, 3e was the first edition I played, and I don’t like the look of 4e

29 years old and started with 3.0 (and still play it).

It is not that I do not like the look of 4e as much as that like 3.5 at it's time, 4ed, seems to make some decent improvements, though (so far) nothing spectacular or inspiring enough to make it worthwhile paying for new core-books as long as my 3.0 collection isn't falling appart (quality books those, btw.).

If I treat those 3.0 books nicely, they'll serve me another 4 to 5 years easily and I'll use the spare money to buy me novels, comics and adventure modules in order to keep the stories coming (they also read themselves alot better after a hard days work than crunch-heavy rulebooks).

 

[kennew142]

I'm 41 years old and started playing in 1979 with the brown books in the white box. I love what I've seen of 4e so far. My gaming group consists of three AD&D 1e players (51, 41 and 38) all of whom are very positive towards what we've seen, and three who began with AD&D 2e (40-something, 31 and 20) all of whom are positive about it. We have another 50 something guy who plays with us occasionally and is also very positive.

In my immediate circle of gaming friends, no one has expressed any negative feelings towards any of the preview materials (including SWSE and Bo9S) - with the exception of a few bizarre feat names.

 

[Kwalish Kid]

I am over 35, can't read the poll, but I suspect it doesn't matter. This sample is biased because who would hang out in a 4E forum except people who despise the idea?

 

[Bluenose]

I am 43, started with Chainmail and the Greyhawk supplement, and like most of what I've seen about 4th edition. The players I play with range from a couple of my contemporaries who I played with when we got the first set of rules to the 15 year-old daughter of one of them. We're all interested in seeing what we can do with the 4th eidtion rules. Considering the number of rules/settings changes we've been through with various games (D&D, Traveller, Runequest, GURPS, etc.) we're rather blase about the potential problems, and new mechanics aren't a problem.

One thing I have found amusing is the people claiming the 4th edition doesn't retain the feel of D&D. Where it gets amusing is where something changes to a form which is closer to how my own homebrew game has things. If I'm not playing D&D, someone needs to tell me what I've been doing wrong for 30+ years.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Age 12-25 (51): 84.31% like
Age 26-35 (141): 78.01% like
Age 35+ (66): 72.73% like

It appears we've discovered a correlation between age and resistance to change.

Someone call Nature.

 

[CleverNickName]

Good thing I picked the right option, then.

For the record, 35+, 1e (Basic set to be exact), like.

Same here. The first version I ever played was the red-box rules (starring Bargle the Evil Magic-User.) I was in 6th grade.

Good times, good times.