Help me with my MA thesis...on D&D!

[robberbaron]

Until 6 months ago I ran a heavily modified AD&D1 campaign, which had been going for 15 years.

The main reasons for not changing system were:
1 - CBA (Couldn't be ar*ed). Basically, I would rather spend my time working on the world than changing all the rules to suit the latest version of the game.
When I say "heavily modified", I mean it.
2 - The players didn't want to change. They had invested so much time and effort into their characters that they didn't want the hassle of re-creating them with skills and feats.
3 - I couldn't promise that it would be any better for the effort.

That game ended at a natural point and I have started anew in 3.5. The game is well received but I am not sure that it has the long-term potential of the other game, though only time will tell.

 

[MonsterMash]

I'd agree with those who've said that message boards are not a particuarly good way to find representative samples of groups (except message board users).

Like a lot of people who started way back when I've got a mix of nostalgia and familiarity as a reason for liking older sets of rules. Personally I started with OD&D(iaglo) in 1977, and played mostly that, but also some 1e for a few years then moved on to mainly playing Runequest2 and Call of Cthulhu (both BRP games at that time) and Paranoia 2e, until about '87 when I left home to go to university and really dropped out of gaming. Until about 1990 when I played a bit, some Traveller, Champions, CoC, dropped out again from about 94 to 2003, when I started playing 3e D&D and bought 3.5. Currently mainly playing 3.5 D&D, but will also soon be playing D20 Conan.

robberbaron, were there many or any players in the campaign for the whole 15 years?

 

[Vindicator]

As much as I love gaming, as a fellow social science researcher i'd urge you to focus on a more serious topic than D&D. Not only would accurate data be very difficult to obtain, it wouldn't be a very effective career booster.

This is the kind of attitude that really turned me off when I did an MA (years ago) in Literature. This snooty "My thing is more important than your thing" nonsense.

Woody Allen said it best, "The only problem with intellectuals is that they have absolutely no idea what's going on."

Graduate students: a bunch of pretentious circle-jerkers sitting around dropping names of intellectuals they haven't even read...bah.

To actually *answer Bio's question*:

My own experience has been that most gamers who grew up loving 1e and/or 2e (or OD&D or RCD&D, etc.) ended up loving 3.0 as well. I would argue that the extremely low traffic on mortality, dragonsfoot, and planetadnd speak for itself--those who cling to earlier editions are a very small minority.

I agree with some of the other posters, however, that getting hard figures will be tough. But no tougher than any other "data" in the social sciences, most of which is naughty word anyway.

 

[d20Dwarf]

This is the kind of attitude that really turned me off when I did an MA (years ago) in Literature. This snooty "My thing is more important than your thing" nonsense.

Look, I'm as anti-intellectual as the next guy, but I have to agree with the Knoxville poster. If we're going to continue to prop up these silly "social sciences" the very least they could do is expect research with *some* relevance to society. Now, I'm not discounting the possibility that the original poster has a more well-defined thesis that will be of general benefit. If he just wants to use college money to find out about D&D players, then I'd definitely advise him to find a more useful and acceptable academic subject. We've all dreamed of making D&D a college course, but in general it's probably not a good idea.

 

[Vindicator]

Look, I'm as anti-intellectual as the next guy, but I have to agree with the Knoxville poster. If we're going to continue to prop up these silly "social sciences" the very least they could do is expect research with *some* relevance to society. Now, I'm not discounting the possibility that the original poster has a more well-defined thesis that will be of general benefit. If he just wants to use college money to find out about D&D players, then I'd definitely advise him to find a more useful and acceptable academic subject. We've all dreamed of making D&D a college course, but in general it's probably not a good idea.

Have you ever been to graduate school? 99% of the work done in all the disciplines is utter naughty word with no application to society.

I agree with you, by the way, that D&D is hardly a subject that merits scholarly attention. But then again, most of the stuff done in grad school is hardly worthy of scholarly attention. [Shrug] That's the nature of graduate studies: you find some obscure piece of naughty word that you enjoy, so that you can make (ahem) "an original contribution to knowledge", and you type it out and it ends up bound in the library stacks collecting dust.

What a stupid, frigging game.

By the way, I don't resent having been to grad school. On the contrary, I'm *glad* I got my MA--I get paid more.

 

[d20Dwarf]

Have you ever been to graduate school? 99% of the work done in all the disciplines is utter naughty word with no application to society.

Thus my exhortation to the original poster to "rise above it."

 

[kigmatzomat]

Actually, I think this would be a relevant study because it is an evaluation of psychological preference towards change when the only real incentive for change is societal.

Without much effort I can find D&D red boxes around town right now so there's no real fiscal limitation. Most every supplement can be retrofitted with only minor effort and virtually every supplement requires *some* retrofit for your compaign.

Compare to software where the OS won't install on newer hardware or the apps won't run on a newer/older OS. Hardware wears out, forcing upgrades at a reasonable price point.

This is the only subject I can think of that would have a wide enough user base to provide a reasonable sampling and yet be freed of external constraints.

 

[Johnnie Freedom!]

Have you ever been to graduate school? 99% of the work done in all the disciplines is utter naughty word with no application to society.

My buddy did an M.Sc. on toe fungus. Whether or not that contributes to society, I suppose, depends on your view of toe fungus.

 

[Knoxgamer]

Sociology is an important discipline, understanding how and why people do what they do is intrinsic to understanding how we can better our society. Biohazard, i'm glad you've chosen a field that focuses so much on how we can better ourselves. Too many people chase money above philosophy, and I have great respect for those that want to work in a discipline that is often misunderstood, poorly funded, but greatly needed.

I appreciate that many scholars come off as being snobbish. It frequently bothers me that those around me place more worth on their position and degrees than on their ideas and contributions to the world. Unfortunately, we must all pay attention to appearance in order to give our ideas wings. If the writer is not credible, if the subject matter is not viewed as important, then it is unlikely the thesis will ever be read beyond the student's advisors. If you want to be able to turn your thesis into a book, or have it published in a scholarly journal, i'd recommend writing with those intents in mind.

If, however, this is the end of your educational road then it doesn't particularly matter. I'd still urge you to study a subject you consider sociologically important, and if that's D&D then great! I am aware that a M.A. in Sociology doesn't open up a great many career doors, and that many people obtain an M.A. by happenstance in their pursuit of a P.H.D. If you are intending to continue your education beyond a M.A., then please consider what you need to do in order to do the most good for yourself down the road.

(Oh, and I like all systems. I've never cared what system i'm roleplaying so long as i'm roleplaying. I like 3.x least as it has shifted D&D away from roleplaying and towards wargaming. I play previous versions because they're easier for me to run.)

 

[Slife]

Have you ever been to graduate school? 99% of the work done in all the disciplines is utter naughty word with no application to society.

It starts even earlier than graduate school.

The muffin films website was somebody's thesis. I think this project may be too relevant to humanity to survive .

I currently use ADD, just because the books were cheap as free. Too bad there aren't too many other people playing...