Dungeons, Dragons, and Demographics

[Angel Tarragon]

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

Someone call Nature.

Lack of open mindedness. One of two things happen as people get older: they get stubburn or they expand their mind (an increases in wisdom and/or itellect).

 

[Zweischneid]

Lack of open mindedness. One of two things happen as people get older: they get stubburn or they expand their mind (an increases in wisdom and/or itellect).

So embracing 4e is wisdom and/or intellect, while favoring an older edition is age-related obstinacy?

Interesting definition of open mindedness.

 

[Transit]

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

Someone call Nature.

Or, I suppose it could be that young people are more easily infatuated with products that are marketed as the "cool shiny new thing" and embrace it simply because everyone else is embracing it. (i.e. young people camping out overnight so they can be first in line to get an iPhone.)

As people mature they become less and less vulnerable to hype and the herd mentality, and make decisions based on their own wisdom and experience, rather than worrying about fitting in with the crowd and doing what all the "cool kids" are doing. (i.e. older people NOT camping out overnight so they can be first in line to get an iPhone.)

In this poll we're seeing a skew because the mature gamers have actual experience with other versions of D&D, and so can make valid comparisions, whereas the younger gamers simply think "well, the new version MUST be better than all that old stuff that I've never seen or played because the new version is NEW."

 

[Sunderstone]

So embracing 4e is wisdom and/or intellect, while favoring an older edition is age-related obstinacy?

Interesting definition of open mindedness.

qft

btw, 38 here, started with the Basic box and B2, I "embraced wisdom" for AD&D, 2E, and 3E and loved every minute of it.
Im intelligent and wise enough to make my own decision as to 4E, that decision is a simple No .

 

[Angel Tarragon]

So embracing 4e is wisdom and/or intellect, while favoring an older edition is age-related obstinacy?

Interesting definition of open mindedness.

No, not entirely what I meant.

I only meant ait as an observation to the quote that was in my post in broad terms, not simple [gaming] terms. And I don't mean this in a belittling way.

 

[JDJblatherings]

Where is the staretd with clasic D&D? Started with the Holmes edit of Basic, Started with Moldvay edit of Basic, Started with mentzer edit of basic. 90% of the folks in my age group that I know in the real world started play with Holmes or Moldvay edited basic.

 

[Orryn Emrys]

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

About the same for me... though I think I was in 4th or 5th grade. It would have been about 1984 and I'm 32 now. Interestingly enough, I was one of those people who refused to entertain the idea of a 2nd Edition game after years of painstaking acquisition of the 1st Edition (orange-spined) books. I resisted the switch until about 1990, when I hooked up with a new group in a new town that played 2E. Even then, I was moving into a DMing role with the group in pretty short order and I ended up simply bastardizing the rule systems for the elements I wanted from both editions, with a healthy dose of house rules to fill in the gaps. It was, as it turned out, an unbalanced nightmare, so I eventually went 2E all the way.

Learning from that experience, and being one of those who was aware that things seemed to be slowing down at TSR in the very late 90s... particularly as my DRAGON subscription began to get erratic... I was quick to examine every detail regarding the impending release of 3E as it approached. I was an early lurker on Eric Noah's site, checking in almost daily to get details. And, frankly, the open-mindedness paid off and I was blown away.

That being said, I am intending to be just as open-minded for the coming change. Many of the mechanical alterations I've read about, and particularly the design philosophies behind them, I am very interested in. I've decided that, despite how much I enjoy 3.5, the advancements they're touting seem to be well thought out and I have every confidence that the execution will live up to the needs that have been cited. I am not as excited about some of the secondary details... their racial selections for the core rules, their unilateral demolition of the "classic" D&D cosmology and mythology, their approach to the implied setting in the core rules... but I have a good deal of confidence in my own ability to examine their ideas and their implentation and determine how much of it to use in my game and how excluding some portion of their core "fluff" will effect the balance, presentation and feel of the campaign(s) I continue to present to my players.

So, even as I frown at some of the details I've read about in the forthcoming system, I find that I am anxious to get my hands on the books this summer.

 

[architect.zero]

What's interesting is that, regardless of apparent correlation between age and obstinance, the overall attitude toward the game is positive. Even for the oldest demographic.

Sure, maybe that only speaks for ENWorld, but I have a hunch that it's generally applicable. A D&D player of any age with little to no knowledge of 4e's imminent arrival (as if that's even possible in this day and age), given all of the information that has been accumulated to date, would very likely be largely, or at the very least cautiously, optimistic about the new edition.

 

[Rechan]

24. I started with 3e (but have been interested in D&D since 2e, just never had many real opportunities to play), I am positive about 4e.

 

[Rechan]

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?

It's an internet poll, and thus by nature biased and invalid.