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Emotional Attachment

It's what you grow up on. For me, I'm attached to a style much more than a rule-set. When I started playing (way back in 5th grade), we were super rules-light and pretty much all results were decided by the rule of cool. I still like rules-light games, probably because of that.
 

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Let's take a logical approach to it.

Anybody who has a product preference usually has a thought out chain of reasoning that compares the percieved benefits and advantages of their choice to the alternative. There aren't too many people adamantly shouting "Apple Rules!" who don't have a list they can rattle off of why they think it is so.

If you listen to that person, it all makes sense and is very logical and isn't an emotional decision to them. Even if we know they're totally wrong and being emotional about it.

I suspect that a mental groove gets worn into the brain about the topic, that as one internally contemplates the reasons for the decision, it adds an emotional weight to it.

Another interesting effect going on in the brain, is that the emotional part of the brain fires off to make a decision before the rationalizing part. People quite literally make a choice willy-nilly and then their brain rationalizes why that choice makes sense.

This effect is probably reinforced by my first concept, that the more you reflect on your decision and justify it to yourself, the more you reinforce the emotional response.

Couple all this with the way people tend to talk about decisions, it almost always tends to trigger a defensive justification response, rather than a calm "let me self-audit that decision and determine if that was a choice worth repeating"
 

Investment of time and money? Seems to be the same with phone selection, operating systems, &c.

And related to this, product volume.

I bought so much stuff for 3.x/d20 that I want to use, but simply haven't had time yet! I don't need a new edition to come along that's not compatible with all of it.
 

Money spent. Ownership of books. System mastery. Works well for me. Helps me to have inspiration. That's why I mostly play 3.x, read magical items from editions of earlier editions. Sometimes read some thing from elder books of white wolf, some stuff from gurps, some stuff from rolemaster and taboo lists from immortal and some ideas from Talislanta and Warhammer. And run it mostly under 3.x. system that I know/remember best.
 

I'm also thinking the amount of money spent on 3.5 will make sure, we'll be playing that for a looooong while. But it's also the case of "If I were a rich man..."

I wouldn't necessarily stick to a certain system which I invested heavily in if I had the funds to invest in (and try out) another system.
 

It's a mix of emotional and rational responses. I may weigh how much time and effort I've invested in a rational sense, but I probably wouldn't have invested that if there wasn't an emotional response in the first place. Sometimes the product (or company) just really grab you and you have to say, "Yes, this is what feels right for me."
 

For me, it's not about the money or the company or the support or the advertising. I'm a rules guy, so it's about the rules for me. I play my favored edition because it's the first one where the devs seem to have thought about the rules and how they work.

I like to think I have no emotional attachment to my favorite game, but that's not strictly true. I'm hoping that I hate 5e, so that I'm not tempted to buy it when it comes. (I guess it's also a little about the money. I'm a broke college student. :))
 


But not beyond, say, sports teams. People will riot in the streets over sports teams.

Not even cars when you consider the way racing fans and even car buyers behave with their brand loyalties.
 

But not beyond, say, sports teams. People will riot in the streets over sports teams.

Which brings us right to the topic: the team wins, you win, the team losses, you lose.

So, your edition is somehow seen as inferior, and that makes you a looser, or your edition is seen as better, so you are a winner.

This may be the issue.
 

Into the Woods

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