[forked thread] What constitutes an edition war?

[Redbadge]

Don't kid yourself in thinking it is just D&D (not that you are I'm just using your post as a springboard to this point). Vampire, Paranoia, Shadowrun... it seems that almost any game that issues a new edition causes some kind a strife among the fans.

Not limited to RPGs either.

I'm a huge NBA fan (see my pictures in the edition picture thread, also grats Mavs), and you can see it here as well. I've heard things like they don't have the heart they used to, they're all thugs now, Lebron will never be Jordan, etc. Actually, it kinda hurts the sport as a whole, when we should really just appreciate the game for what it is. Now that I'm getting my dad to watch again, I feel that things are changing for the better, although it might have also been helped by the irresistible drama created by Lebron and the Heat.

Maybe that's why we shouldn't encourage edition wars. Because all it does is hurt this hobby that we all love so much. The more we can be civil and respective of each other and different systems/playstyles, the more we can do what really matters, game.

 

[AeroDm]

An edition war begins when the statements describe people instead of rule systems.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I think editions usually begin when people go beyond personal preferences and speak in absolute terms. But I don't think they are true edition wars until you get some fire going back and forth. When people start taking things personally, equating peoples value with the edition they play, etc. And I think edition wars go both ways. It is both the person defending his own edition, and telling the other person that his edition is the wrong one.

 

[DragonLancer]

Since people can't seem to leave it alone in this thread:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/307167-d-d-edition-into-single-picture.html

Is that thread an edition war?

Nope, that's not an edition war. It's an intelligent, clever and quite cool way to try and describe editions.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

For me, it becomes an edition war when the same half-dozen people engage in the same slap-fest, and everyone else wanders off to do something more interesting.

 

[Aberzanzorax]

I agree with just about everything everyone's said here.

The one thing I don't agree with is that any discussion of editions is an edition war. I think that "edition war" involves taking sides and, well, warring.

Part of the reason I posted the OP is that several people were calling that other thread an edition war, and I think that the term "edition war" is becoming a pejorative term (that thread being more of a case study of a larger phenomenon that I wanted to point out) and an alarmist way of shutting down discussion...if anything I think it creates a hot button that derails threads that aren't edition wars into discussions as to whether or not they are...and that in turn escalates tension and attitude and actually CAUSES a thread to turn into an edition war.



I especially agree with Crothian that it is much more helpful to report a post for edition warring and stay silent in a thread than it is to state within the thread "you're edition warring!"


Because, in the end "you're edition warring" is threadcrapping, even if it's true. It's not like there's no mechanism to alert the moderators to a potentially harmful thread....and there's ALWAYS the option not to read a thread rather than threadcrap.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Not sure about "edition war," but this is my general rule of conversation:

​

Admittedly, this might not fly with the "you don't need rules for conversation!" crowd.

I don't find the thread in question obviously edition warry at all, and I think there is sometimes a race to declare something an edition war that isn't, just to turn it into one.

Advice is always: don't feed the trolls.

 

[nedjer]

Edition Wars are the inevitable result of the tyranny of the RPG Tome. In a digital age there is no need for top-down, arbitrary design.

I vote for the democratisation of RPG design, i.e. a move to co-design.

 

[Nebten]

A prodrome to an edition war is when somebody starts a thread that says:

"I'm not trying to start an edition war, but . . ."

That and when people start pulling out falsity arguments that they haven't been able to use since college Psych.

 

[diaglo]

the thread in question has the potential to be an edition war.

any poster can post any picture they want to the thread. the intent behind their post can be misinterpreted or can be deliberately offensive.

it takes others to keep it in line by reporting what they find offensive to the mods.