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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ThirdWizard" data-source="post: 4367615" data-attributes="member: 12037">I think there is an underlying problem to this whole edition war thing. It seems to me that ENWorld itself is in an identity crisis, split down the middle between 3e and 4e players who are both worried about being marginalized as far as the community is concerned. ENWorld has a great community, and people who have chosen one edition of D&D over the other are, I think, rightly worried that the other edition is going to push them away from the community base.The people sticking with 3e are worried that ENWorld will leave them with nowhere to really go to discuss their favorite edition. It is called Murrus' 4th Edition D&D now after all. ENWorld has been a 3e haven on the internet for intelligent discussion for about a decade now, the premiere 3e site. If it suddenly jumps into 4e head first, where does that leave them? They've put a lot of work and effort into ENWorld, building the community that makes this site so great, and to be summarily tossed, well, that's not fair at all.The people moving to 4e are worried about ENWorld's 3e base, many of whom are long time respected members of this community, pushing them out of the site. They're already making a big leap with the new edition, and its becoming more and more obvious that despite what anyone may debate or argue about the majority of D&D's player base sticking with 3e or moving to 4e, there are a lot of ENWorlders sticking with 3e and very vocal about it. It leaves them wonderingn if, while ENWorld the site appears to be embracing 4e, the community is going to end up pushing them out.Now this is just the people who have either switched completely or not at all. I think the majority of people haven't really made that kind of mental commitment. I also think that while both viewpoints are valid, that acting on these fears only worsens the situation. If you think you're being marginalized or pushed away, you want to push back, you want to make sure that you're being heard. But, since both sides are in this mentality, they feel that they're being attacked.But, most people aren't really attacking. They're responding to perceived threats. I make this claim because both sides seem to be posting under the assumption that the other side is out to get them. They see offenses where none are meant, but when you see things like that everywhere its only a matter of time before things get real, people start fighting, and edition wars erupt, even if its contained not to look like it. Add to that that people here just like debate, and things I don't know if I'm right, but I feel right. The atmosphere here feels different. On high alert. The more I think about it, the more I worry that the problem isn't really edition wars, but the perceptions of people regarding the future of the community. This itself isn't really something the moderators can solve themselves. We have to either make a conscious decision to allow 3e and 4e to both go unmolested or one group or the other will eventually run the other off. We don't want that, do we? I don't.</blockquote>

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