Forked Thread: Is ENWorld an accurate cross section of gamers?

[Hawklord]

DM on Sunday. Player on Thursday.

And for the first time in years, both roles are equally fun!




That said, I'm the only one out of the 10 or so gamers I roll with who has any interest in ENWorld (or any gaming forum).

Hey!
I GM Thursdays and play Sundays ... whaddaya know...
And both are fun too,
A few other guys in the group browse enworld, but none of the girls.

 

[Umbran]

How we are "unlike" doesn't matter in a poll here any more than it does in any other poll. Everyone is not "like" each other to some degree in every poll ever made. What matters in this poll is that we are RPGers who have given 3e and 4e a look.

My point is that this may not be all that matters. We are demonstrably different from other gamers. Those differences may mean that we, collectively, will tend to opinions different from those of other gamers. Thus, if you ask a question of us, and in a more broad mailing, there is good reason to believe that you'll get different results.

As to your second point of also being the type to come to ENWorld, so what? How do you think that invalidates our opinions? IT doesn't.

It does not invalidate our opinions - it invalidates use of our opinions as a gauge of what the wider audience thinks.

 

[Samuel Leming]

In the last two years, other than playing to try out 4e, I've only been the DM/GM. The twelve years before that I mostly played, only running games a handful of times. Before that I was usually the DM except when I first started.

Sam

 

[Dragon Snack]

If you look at the entire history of the RPG industry, you'll see the same, long, sad story: a mountain of conventional wisdom, usually backed by selective listening, that leads to a long chain of failed games and bad ideas.

Interesting...

 

[Samuel Leming]

IME, absent the ability to read minds, the best way to get a fuzzy, maybe useful picture is to rely on as many data sources as possible. However, the most important data sources - especially for games, movies, and other forms of entertainment - are usually those that involve observing what people are doing rather than asking them what they want or what they're doing.

It occurs to me that if you go by what you can observe you may have a very small sample to work with. Unless you were to base your observations on organized play such as the RPGA. I hope that's not what happened, since what they do is very far from the typical tabletop game.

Sam

 

[Umbran]

However, the most important data sources - especially for games, movies, and other forms of entertainment - are usually those that involve observing what people are doing rather than asking them what they want or what they're doing.

Yah. This is a standard requirements gathering practice.

If you ask someone what they want, they will tell you their preferred solutions. What they often won't do is tell you clearly (or accurately) what problems those solutions are intended to solve. For those, you do have to watch them at their work, and see what the issues are as they are at it.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

It's easy to listen to a subset of people, particularly when they are saying what you want to hear, and use that as the basis for business decisions.

You are qualified for Upper Management.