I'm Done with "I'm Done "Threads

[RFisher]

You know, any community I've been a part of--online or offline--has always spent time bashing their common interest. When you love something, you know the warts as intimately as the rest. & conversations about areas of consensus don't tend to last very long by their very nature.

In my view, EN World has become the place where EN Worlders talk about their home games, keeping it clean, keeping it civil, and keeping it on topic. Most of those games were some incarnation of D&D at some point.

It's for anyone who has ever played at least one session of d20 D&D. (^_^) & anyone who wants to.

Any really great online community has always have a general or off-topic board where members discuss things vaguely or completely unrelated to the original subject. From the first post I read, I never expected ENWorld to be any different.

If you got all this from a recent I'm done thread, good for you. I just see D&D bashing with no real basis for a good discussion.

I saw a lot of defending 3.5, often without any attempt to really understand the original posters point. If you look beyond the bashing & the knee-jerk defending, there's some worthwhile things being written.

 

[billd91]

So you are advocating that "I'm done" threads be banned from the forum? Or perhaps, any thread critical of D&D? Where do you draw the line?

I find the very idea bizarre and disagree with the OP.

I think maybe the point of the public "I'm done with" threads is that people are trying to sound alarm bells. There was a big problem with D&D in the 2E days, clearly (most of us) can see that in retrospect. Maybe 3E has gone off the rails, maybe it hasn't. I think the pepole who are posting those threads like the game, like role playing games in general and D&D in particular, but feel the current rules or culture or whatever have gone in a direction that they can't follow, and they are simply making us aware of that fact.

Would it be better if people dropped out silently?

M

I wouldn't ban them, but I do find them tedious and, considering they usually start with some dramatic phrase "I'm done with 3.5" or "I'm done with D&D", narcissistic. They positively crave attention and validation. If they started with a title like "Looking for alternative games" or "Seeking advice on other games" or even "Not so keen on x going on in D&D" that would be a different matter.

If the only option is to have the dramatic sounding "I'm done with D&D" thread, then I think we would be better if they dropped out silently.

 

[paradox42]

In the spirit of Lampooning what is becoming a regular occurrence, I am going to reveal loudly, publicly, and with great fanfare a feeling of the most personal relevance....I am sick of " I am sick of" threads...

I approve of this message. Two snaps up in a circle. I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

In short, I agree.

 

[Frostmarrow]

I can't quit this thread!

I'm gonna write to Wizards and demand this thread gets added to the OGL!!!

Let's sticky this thread!

I'm so gonna print this thread out and use it for a coffe table pile of loose sheets.

I'm gonna pickle my head to preserve this thread. NO JOKE!

 

[Edgewood]

In the spirit of Lampooning what is becoming a regular occurrence, I am going to reveal loudly, publicly, and with great fanfare a feeling of the most personal relevance....I am sick of " I am sick of" threads...

You know what? I'm done with being done with 3.5. I'm going back!!

 

[Ry]

You know what? I'm done with being done with 3.5. I'm going back!!

Danceyite.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

"I'm done" threads actually have a purpose though. Some people have limited time and limited money. They don't have the time/resources to invest in several game products, and have chosen D&D as the game to go with. In my case, I've probably got over $1000 invested in D&D books and thousands of hours of my personal time. Recently I came to the realization that D&D isn't the system for me, and I made the switch. In my case, it was to GURPS, but that isn't the point.

The point is that when you have so much time and money wrapped up into something, quitting it cold turkey can be distressing. It may sound silly to some, but I imagine "I'm done." threads serve the same purpose as "We broke up" threads. People just want to talk about it to help them deal with it.

It seems mildly hysterical to me to compare deciding that you don't want to play a game - even a game in which you've invested a thousand dollars or more - to breaking up a romantic relationship serious enough to warrant a "support thread".

If nothing else, people completely fail to rationally consider the cost-benefit ratio. If a movie ticket cost $10, you could see 100 movies of 2 hours (on average) each. 200 hours' worth of entertainment for $1000 sounds like a good deal to me - and I suspect that anyone who's spent $1000 on D&D books has had more than 200 hours' worth of fun reading, playing with, and discussing those books over even the four years since the revision, much less the seven years since Third Edition came along.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I think maybe the point of the public "I'm done with" threads is that people are trying to sound alarm bells.

Anyone who believes that their own, or their group's, or their friends' dissatisfaction with the current shape of D&D is indicative of deep flaws in the game itself is filled with self-importance to the bursting point.

I don't believe that my satisfaction with D&D means that it's perfect. Why would anyone believe that their current lack of interest in the game means there's something wrong with it? People like different things, and people change over time.

 

[ssampier]

My armchair pop psychology says to me, "They want to be helped! They can't quit D&D yet."

These threads are so yesterday.

Yes, but what are the threads of tommmmmmmmmmmmooooorrrrrrrrowwwwwwwww?
<said in a echoing, campy-pulp voice>

 

[Ry]

Anyone who believes that their own, or their group's, or their friends' dissatisfaction with the current shape of D&D is indicative of deep flaws in the game itself is filled with self-importance to the bursting point.

Come on, mang... I thought we were trying not to antagonize, or generalize about other people.

How about a friendly analogy?

Lets say me and my roleplaying group always order pizza from Pizza Ditch. If I, and my friends, and my group all consistently get stomach cramps eating (admittedly delicious) Pizza Ditch pizza, I'd conclude that there's something wrong with that pizza.

Now, to take it a step further, imagine there's a place online, a forum for those who enjoy Pizza in your town, where Pizza Ditch is clearly the dominant franchise. You're going to of course have lots of discussion about pizza - both likes and dislikes. But most of those discussions will come back to the first, and still the biggest, pizza place in town - Pizza Ditch.

Some will love Pizza Ditch pizza just as it is - among those you'll see people who bear their stomach cramps with pride, others of a hardier constitution will report never having them. Still others will hearken back to the Pizza Ditch of yesteryear, claiming that there were no cramps, better toppings, and the delivery girl was smoking hot.

But at the end of the day, if someone came to this forum and said "That's it, I'm done with Pizza Ditch. I can't stand the cramping. I want delicious pizza but this is just too high a price." I'd say that they're just venting a very natural frustration in the appropriate place.

As a pizza-lover in the same town, I welcome their discussion. On the one hand, they might just need to eat slower, and I could point that out. On the other, the discussion might hit topics of baking that allow me to enjoy my own pizza designed exactly to my personal culinary and gastro-intestinal ideal.

Thus endeth the analogy.