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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CleverNickName" data-source="post: 8164086" data-attributes="member: 50987">Updated Survey Results, January 2021Forward:  I'm a data and statistics nerd.  Brace yourself.For most of the past year, I've been collecting everyone's stories about the older editions of D&D.  I've compiled (and now updated) the results, and I present them below for your viewing pleasure.The SurveyI came up with some basic survey questions to measure everyone's experiences on the past/present/future axis and the liked/neutral/disliked axis.  I encouraged everyone to add detail in the comments and discussions.  And then away we went.Results were collected and compiled at 8:00 a.m. PST on Monday, January 4th, 2021.[SPOILER=Survey Results, by Vote Count]The number of votes for each category, for each edition, are shown on this table.  This information is useful for counting the people in certain categories (the number of voters who still play the edition, for example.)[ATTACH=full]130904[/ATTACH] [/SPOILER][SPOILER=Survey Results, by Percentage]The number of votes for each category, divided by the total number of voted in each survey, are shown on this table.  This information is useful for comparing the results against other surveys, because it weighs the results with the number of responses.  Not every survey had the same number of voters, after all.[ATTACH=full]130905[/ATTACH][/SPOILER][SPOILER=Survey Results, Combined]Across all 8 surveys, over a thousand votes were collected (and counting....the polls are still open).  The table below gives the percentage that each edition scored, out of the total number of votes in all categories.  This information is less-useful for comparing overall results from all surveys, since some voters could have voted more than once (meaning: some people might have voted in only one survey, others might have voted in all eight, and most fall somewhere in between.)  It might not be as useful, but it's still interesting to look at.[ATTACH=full]130906[/ATTACH][/SPOILER][SPOILER=Survey Conclusions]The categories can be grouped into six different groups, by adding across the columns.  This gives us the number of people who have played a certain edition, the number of people who haven't played it, and the number of people still playing it.  We can also group all of the favorable, unfavorable, and neutral results to get a raw count of how "favorable" each edition was perceived.[ATTACH=full]130907[/ATTACH]The edition that most people have played:  AD&D 2E (87.9%, down from 88.5% in April 2020)The edition that most people are still playing:  B/X (13.7%, down from 13.8%)The edition that most people didn't play: OD&D (63.9%, up from 62.4%)The edition that was most favorably regarded:  AD&D 1E (85.1%, down from 87.0%)The edition that was most neutrally-regarded: B/X (17.8%, down from 19.0% and very nearly tied with Basic D&D, at 17.7%.)The edition that was most unfavorably regarded: D&D 4E (36.1%, unchanged from April 2020)I think it's interesting that the most-neutral edition is also the one that is still being played the most.  But it is very nearly tied with Basic D&D, too, so I worry that there might be a lot of overlap.  It's possible that folks might be voting for B/X when they intended to vote for Basic D&D, and vice-versa.[/SPOILER]The CommentsI wasn't just collecting votes in a poll; I was also tracking the comments for each edition.  Whenever a new comment was posted, I would read it and make a broad judgment about the topic and the author's intent.  Then I'd score it in my spreadsheet.  I ended up with 13 categories of comments:"I remember when...""Let's talk about this other edition...""The rules in this edition were...""You're wrong, I'm right, let's argue, etc.""So about this survey/I predict that...""I didn't play this edition because...""You made an error," "thanks I fixed it."Me, subtly (or not so subtly) bumping the postComment deleted by userUnrelated or off-topicModerator warning postLink to another pageIntroduction post (one per survey)So how did your favorite edition do?  And has the conversation continued over the last 10 months?[SPOILER=Comment Results, by Edition]Before I get a lot of angry comments and private messages, let me preface this by saying that this is the least-scientific part of an already not-scientific process.  A single human being (me) read each comment and decided which category to file it into, based on their own biased and untrained judgment.  It was not peer reviewed, there was no oversight, etc.  So take all of this into consideration before, and during, any attempts to draw conclusions.[ATTACH=full]130909[/ATTACH]The edition that still has the most comments overall was 4E D&D, with 322 comments.  This is impressive for <s>two</s> three reasons: one, it got almost 130 more votes than the runner-up (3E D&D, with 193 comments); and two, it accomplished this in about 2 days... [USER=177]@Umbran[/USER] had to lock the thread after just 54 hours; and three, it is still has the most comments despite the thread being closed for almost a year.The edition with the fewest comments overall was Basic D&D ("Holmes Basic"), with just 38 comments (and only one new comment for the whole year).  The runner up was B/X, with 58 posts (up from 40, back in April 2020).Most of the comments in each survey were what I asked for: stories and memories about playing the game: things that you liked, things you didn't like, things you missed or didn't miss, all that.[/SPOILER][SPOILER=Breakdown of Commentary]Because this part of the "survey" is so unreliable, I didn't attempt to draw very many conclusions.  But I'll hit the high parts."I remember when..."The edition with the most comments of this nature were in AD&D 2E, with 82.1% (down from 88.4% in April 2020)."Let's talk about this other edition..."The edition with the most comments of this nature were Basic D&D, at 16.2% (unchanged from April 2020).  As before, I think this was largely due to confusion:  a lot of different game editions get called  "basic dee and dee" on ENWorld, and a lot of clarification was needed.)"The rules in this edition were..."The one with the most comments about rules and mechanics was OD&D, at 25.9% (down from 26.9%).  There was quite an uptick in AD&D 1E conversation in this category across the year, however."You're wrong, I'm right, let's argue, etc."The edition that had the most caustic conversation was 4E D&D, at 24.7% (unchanged)."So about this survey/I predict that..."Speculation or commentary on the survey itself was most popular with D&D 3E, at 9.5% (down significantly, from 12.4%.)"I didn't play this edition because..."Some folks wanted to clarify why they didn't play an edition.  And most of them were saying it about Basic D&D, at 8.1% (unchanged).  This is related to the clarification issues on which "basic" edition was being surveyed."You made an error," "thanks I fixed it."I'm not perfect.  I made the most mistakes and corrections in the Basic D&D survey, which ended up accounting for 5.4% of the total comments.Me, subtly (or not subtly) bumping the postSometimes interest would flag, and I would feel the need to kick the survey up to the top of the stack to generate some more interaction.  This happened most often with Basic D&D, at 5.4% (previously OD&D, at 3.8%.)Comment deleted by userThe survey that had the highest number of deleted comments was AD&D 1E, at 9.2% (unchanged).Unrelated or off-topic postBy and large, these were pretty rare.  But the edition with the most of them was AD&D 1E, at 9.9% (up from 7.1%.)Moderator warning postsAlso very rare; only two editions required moderator intervention: 4E D&D with 0.9%, and D&D 3E with 0.5% (both unchanged).Links to other pagesThe edition that has the most shared links was BECMI/RC D&D, at 9.6% (down from 10.3%.)  This was mostly people linking the survey to other online communities where they can meet other players of the edition.  This was so awesome, please do more of this.  In all editions.Introductory postEvery survey had exactly 1 of these.[/SPOILER]ConclusionsI'm not sure if I'm any closer to answering my questions, but I really appreciate everyone's input.  If nothing else, you all gave me something to occupy my time (and my brain) with, while I'm under self-quarantine in the Pacific Northwest.I hope you enjoy the update.  I'll keep checking in every month or so, and if there's significant activity in one or more of these threads, I'll post an update.Happy New Year, everyone!The Surveys<a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/edition-experience-did-do-you-play-od-d-how-was-is-it.670779/" target="_blank">OD&D</a><a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/edition-experience-did-do-you-play-basic-d-d-how-was-is-it.670870/" target="_blank">Basic D&D</a><a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/editon-experience-did-do-you-play-b-x-how-was-is-it.671105/" target="_blank">B/X D&D</a><a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/edition-experience-did-do-you-play-1e-ad-d-how-was-is-it.670977/" target="_blank">AD&D 1E</a><a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/edition-experience-did-do-you-play-becm-rc-d-d-how-was-is-it.671237/" target="_blank">BECMI / Rules Cyclopedia</a><a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/edition-experience-did-do-you-play-ad-d-2e-how-was-is-it.671382/" target="_blank">AD&D 2E</a><a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/edition-experience-did-do-you-play-3rd-edtion-d-d-how-was-is-it.671476/#post-7963141" target="_blank">D&D 3E</a><a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/edition-experience-did-do-you-play-4th-edition-d-d-how-was-is-it.671597/post-7968258" target="_blank">D&D 4E</a></blockquote>

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