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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Shaman" data-source="post: 5166783" data-attributes="member: 26473">And the reliable psychological studies you're citing to refute this are found where, exactly?No need to quote them here; just a few links would be fine.First, these aren't "newer game designs."Top Secret had Fame and Fortune points, a 'get-out-of-death-free' rule for a game with a very lethal combat system - that was 1980. Marvel Super Heroes characters could be injured but rarely killed - that was 1984. In both cases these rules were designed to emulate their respective genres, in this instance elite spies and four-color superheroes, respectively.Second, it's not "edition warring" to note that D&D's mechanics changed over the years. It would take some pretty deep denial to say that World's Most Popular Roleplaying Game is the same now as it was in its early days, particularly if we compare it to one of its contemporaries, Call of Cthulhu. "Edition War!" seems as if it's a tag thrown out to dismiss any comparison between editions, now matter how benign or banal.My personal opinion is that the genres D&D was originally designed to emulate have changed, that the speculative fiction sources for the game are different than they were in the Seventies and that D&D has become to some degree its own fantasy genre. Gamers are pushing the genre of D&D away from its more lethal roots and toward something more four-color, from what I've observed over the years. That's not a bad thing - it's just a thing.Third and last, ego-gamers have been around as long as the hobby. I remember guys who'd howl and whine at any setback, who'd lie and cheat to gain an edge, back in 1978. They were a pain in the arse then, and they're a pain in the arse now.Ego-gamers, in my opinion, represent a destructive side of the changing expectations in roleplaying games. I like games which work to emulate genres; Top Secret remains one of my favorite spy games, and I enjoyed a fair amount of MSH back in the day. But I don't want every game to emulate superheroes.Ego-gamers who whinge about how their characters are supposed to be TEH AWSUM! every second of every game are arguing for a vanilla game experience, in my opinion. I don't care for the expectation that tabletop roleplaying games should be about hammering the "WIN!" button, because it turns every game experience into the same thing and genre becomes mere stage-dressing.Ego-gamers are mercifully in the minority in our hobby, but they are vocal, so gamers who want something else from their games need to be just as vocal.</blockquote>

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