Frustrating Gamers- slight rant

[S'mon]

As a proper 'college professor', I know that I and my low-magic all-human campaign are superior to y'all & yours in every way.

Now, if only I could run it in Runequest instead of D&D...

 

[EricNoah]

In my opinion the board moderators would genuinely improve the quality and tone of the boards if they woried as much about the manner in which those who do so speak down to others in their replies and posts.

Well, I think the moderators are going to focus on rule-breaking stuff, breaking up fights, moving threads to appropriate areas, stuff like that. I think we'd be in over our heads if we were go to around second-guessing peoples' intents, trying to make them write or not write a certain way, etc.

If something bugs you about the way you're being addressed, say something about it, politely and in the thread where the problem is occuring. If not, your method (ignoring stuff that doesn't appeal to you) is the way I think most people deal with a huge messageboard community -- you read what you're interested in, ignore stuff that you're not.

I also think people need to be a little less "sensitive." What do I mean by that? Maybe something like being careful to not ascribe motives to a behavior. If someone says "I love low-magic settings and wish D&D had more rules to support that," it doesn't mean you (as a high-magic-loving gamer) are being attacked.

Something to consider, I guess.

 

[EricNoah]

Re: My Thoughts

Terms like....this is a troll (I'm still not 100% sure what a troll is anyway).

If I say "this is a troll" I mean that I think the person who started the thread is posting inflamatory material only to generate discord, not because they have a genuine issue with topic at hand. If someone with 0 posts appears here and posts "D&D 3E is for 3etards" and then never comes back to discuss the issue, that would probably be a troll -- he's just sitting somewhere laughing about our outraged responses.

Calling someone a troll, of course, is ascribing motives and I personally don't like to see it tossed about unless it actually is a troll. Which is sometimes hard to determine. The best way to deal with a troll is to ignore it. Don't call it a troll, just ignore it.

 

[jmucchiello]

Re: My Thoughts

Terms like....this is a troll (I'm still not 100% sure what a troll is anyway).

Troll is not a ENWorld term but a general internet term in use for over 20 years. A troll is a person who posts to a public forum with intention of starting a flamewar. Crude trolls are those who post anti-X positions in a pro-X forum. The original post on this thread, if it is a troll, is a sophistocated troll because it is not immediately obviously a troll. I don't think it was meant as a troll (BelenUmeria did not want to start an falmewar). But it is a normal reaction to those on the other side of the argument to consider the inital post inflammatory (and thus trollish).

Get it?
---
And while I can see the value of low-magic settings, I would like to see someone publish a high-magic setting. Every barmaid is also a Sorcerer-10. The blacksmith makes magic weapons. Heck, the bartender is a dancing sword with telekinetic powers. But that's just me.

Edit: Eric got to the troll definition before me.

 

[Belen]

I agree in part with cptg. Rather than have intelligent discourse on the boards, too many people would rather frag someone. I know that it has happened to me. Not a big deal.

It bugs me that a hobby known for imagination and freedom of expression will find so many that refuse to compromise or accept new ideas. In a game, 3E, meant to provide options for characters, a great many GMs feel the need to nix this and nerf that. In many cases, the "nixing" breaks rules that were never broken.

Heck, in my campaign, I rarely used monsters and usually have humanoid races face the party. I just do not like monsters and too many of my players know the MM by heart. It's much more fun when they have no idea what they're facing. This does not mean that I am biased against the MM, nor am I out to whine about meta-gaming. It's just a fact of life that experienced players know these things and usually have trouble separating PC and player knowledge.

A PC could easily max out their prime stats in my campaign (beginning PCs get 90 points to start). I give a higher number of points to start because I usually do not allow magic items until 6-8 level. However, that it just my style, and I am not going to throw it in anyone's face or force it on them.

That happens routinely on the boards. Nix this, nerf that and why don't you accept that the rule is broken.

Too many people, get too serious about the game. Have fun and leave the snobbery at home.

In the end, we want to encourage new people to pick up the hobby. More ideas, more players and better attitudes will only help the hobby!

 

[S'mon]

I think (thought?) the original post was inflammatory and designed to elicit an annoyed response. I didn't think that it wasn't a sincerely held opinion, though.

 

[Numion]

Original post could've been put more eloquently, but I agree to a certain degree that too many posters base their 'broken' and 'shafted' opinions on quick looks at the class / feat, or some kind of numerical analysis, instead of playtesting. Quite often actual play is different than all these smackdown professors would lecture.

I'm guilty as charged too, though. Keep in mind that the boards would be pretty quiet if everyone only posted actual playtested results. Besides, wild speculation about things no one has seen on actual whole products is fun!

 

[Tiefling]

Re: Re: My Thoughts

Troll is not a ENWorld term but a general internet term in use for over 20 years. A troll is a person who posts to a public forum with intention of starting a flamewar. Crude trolls are those who post anti-X positions in a pro-X forum. The original post on this thread, if it is a troll, is a sophistocated troll because it is not immediately obviously a troll. I don't think it was meant as a troll (BelenUmeria did not want to start an falmewar). But it is a normal reaction to those on the other side of the argument to consider the inital post inflammatory (and thus trollish).

I think the best evidence that this is not a troll - and the best evidence that many threads/posts are not trolls - is that if it is it's relatively skillful, yet the author denied that it's a troll. Any good troll knows that if you deny that your troll is such, it's no longer funny.

 

[EricNoah]

Nix this, nerf that and why don't you accept that the rule is broken.

Too many people, get too serious about the game. Have fun and leave the snobbery at home.

I don't think this attitude is usually from snobbery. I think sometimes it's from boredom but more often it is from a (sometimes unfounded) fear that whatever new rule (Mystic Theurge, I'm looking at you!) is going to make the game less fun or more problematic. It is certainly legit for people to try to find fixes for problems in their games, and one solution is to simply not allow certain options. That's not snobbery. Snobbery is if you know someone else allows the thing you nixed, and you think that somehow makes them inferior.

 

[EricNoah]

Besides, wild speculation about things no one has seen on actual whole products is fun!

You betcha, baby! That's what these boards are all about. Armchair quarterbacking is fun!*

* Or so I hear. I don't watch football because it's beneath me.