I'm getting Edition War fatigue

[ProfessorCirno]

Head over to rpg.net's D&D forum. Seriously. You don't have to live in edition war land. I rarely come by here anymore because of the endless trolling and bile that creeps into a lot of general rpg threads (and I don't blame the ENWorld moderators - the communities are simply different, it seems). Not that rpg.net is D&D paradise, but the negativity doesn't bleed into everything.

Also, there's a very high signal to noise ratio for useful 4e advice and brainstorming there, IMO. It just feels like the most active posters here prefer arguing about taste rather than actually discussing running the game.

Bolded section: Hah hah what.

This is great advice if you like 4e and really hate everything else. Otherwise? No.

EN World, for all the edition war snippiness, has the least problems with it. By all means go to rpg.net and talk about how you enjoy Pathfinder and dislike 4e. Or go to the Paizo forums and do the opposite.

No, for all the complaints, EN World is probably the best off for edition war issues. The 3.5 forums and the 4e forums are, to my understanding, pretty nice.

The issue in EN World is this bizarre struggle on trying to dominate General Discussions. If you want 4e news, then go to the 4e forums and enjoy it! If you want 3.5 discussion, go to the 3.5 forums and discuss!

 

[JohnSnow]

No to be snippy, but isn't that what the 4e boards are for?

Ummm...no.

In point of fact, the only game that has its own "general" EN World forum is...Pathfinder. So, I guess they're the ones who should actually go elsewhere. Not that I'm being snippy. [This is a bit of snarky sarcasm, btw]

By contrast, the 4e-specific boards are specifically tagged as being for discussing either the rules as written or discussions of proposed houserules. That's also true of the 3e boards.

In both cases, general campaign-related topics are strongly encouraged to move to the general forums - i.e. here. So I guess we all just have to figure out how to get along enough to discuss non-system specific issues.

Personally, I think "Stop belittling someone else's game of choice" sounds like a great place to start. It might even be enough, all by itself.

 

[thecasualoblivion]

Personally, I think "Stop belittling someone else's game of choice" sounds like a great place to start. It might even be enough, all by itself.

It sounds good, but belittling other people's games isn't the issue, its a symptom. The issue is that two groups with different definitions of D&D want theirs to be legitimate.

 

[Umbran]

No to be snippy, but isn't that what the 4e boards are for?

No you aren't getting snippy. You have a point. There's a large amount of discussion going on in General that ought to go into a 4e specific forum. A bug currently prevents us from moving those threads. Our other choice is to close the threads entirely, and ask people to start them again - and if we find them too late, after the conversation really gets going, that's kind of harsh.

You want to have a discussion specifically about 4e that's less likely to attract rancor? Take it to one of the 4e forums. Don't put it in General.

 

[The Ghost]

I actually prefer ENWorld's boards to either WotC or RPGNow precisely because the quality of discussion here is better than over there. Even the threads that are (or descend into) an edition war tend to be more civilized. The moderators here do a great job of keeping the level of bile to a minimum.

 

[Harlekin]

No you aren't getting snippy. You have a point. There's a large amount of discussion going on in General that ought to go into a 4e specific forum. A bug currently prevents us from moving those threads. Our other choice is to close the threads entirely, and ask people to start them again - and if we find them too late, after the conversation really gets going, that's kind of harsh.

You want to have a discussion specifically about 4e that's less likely to attract rancor? Take it to one of the 4e forums. Don't put it in General.

Can we get a 4e general for such threads? I would love to have a board to talk about 4e, so that I can ignore General RPG Discussion but presently all we have are 4e rules boards.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'm just wondering if it is so necessary to have so much negativity surrounding 4e. Especially after this long. I took a break from ENWorld for a while due to the amount of new threads created that were all essentially "I hate 4e, let me tell you why".

On just the first page of this board I currently see:

4e Buyers remorse
4e increased my DM prep time...
What does Videogamey mean to you?
What's really at stake in the Edition Wars
The Truth About 4th Edition.
Where is my Freaking Mule?!

All of which were posted either with the premise of "Here's something I don't like about 4e" or "Here is my defense against things said about 4e in the past" or were an unrelated thread that turned into an edition war.

I can't help but feel a little burned about my the constant negativity. Contrast this with some actually helpful threads for both 4e and 3e and I can't help but wonder why we need to argue any longer.

I guess what I'm saying is...can't we all just get along? Or is it actually impossible for people with differing opinions to occupy the same space?

Of those threads, I'd have to say you've either misunderstood or mischaracterized a couple of them, at least in their original poster's intent. (Some Edition Warriors may have pushed the threads in those directions, but that wasn't the OP's intent.)

The "Freaking Mule" thread is just asking about the pros/cons & likelyhood of getting a sourcebook for mundane adventuring gear and items, such as have appeared in previous editions of D&D and other games.

The "Videogamey" thread starts with a disclaimer about how it isn't an EWT, and asks a simple question about how people define the word. I see that as more of a clarification of terminology than a true EWT.

The "What's at stake" thread is, in a sense, a meta-EWT, prompted by an academic question.

It may just be me, but those aren't true EWTs...though they did, at times, get a bit heated (and one got "clunked").

 

[Cyronax]

Can we get a 4e general for such threads? I would love to have a board to talk about 4e, so that I can ignore General RPG Discussion but presently all we have are 4e rules boards.

I wonder what the point of a 'general' board is in that case. Pathfinder is already segmented away, as are the other non-4e D&D (but typically d20) inspired systems. ENWorld would become even more divided....

I've been lurking and posting on ENWorld since 2001. I don't think I have rose-tinted glasses, but the negativity is pretty bad. I remember when older editions were discussed in a nostalgic terms, not vitriolic. I remember some of those awesome BECMI and 1e inspired threads Quaeston (misspelling poster's name) which I think are the model for contrasting old and new.

I pretty much gave up these boards a few times recently because I got sick of the negativity and a few of the pedantic edition war threads. Also some of those 'my sandbox is better than your sandbox' threads got kind of ridiculous a few months back. I learned the value of the 'ignore' function for the first time after that.

But overall 'filtering' is the best method nowadays.

Anyway, I approve of this thread. Complaining to reduce complaining is a great venting exercise.

C.I.D.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I don't understand the whole edition war thing. Just play the edition you like. Who cares what other people like and what they are playing. I miss seeing all the interesting threads on the front page on EN World. Now I often find that there are several threads that I can see will amount to nothing more than "my favourite edition is better than your favourite edition" or something similiar.

Let's see more threads about funny things that happened in your game, fun sessions you've had, dealing with problem players, etc., regardless of what edition you play.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Siberys]

I wouldn't mind a General 4e - though my favored forum (4e House Rules) gets rather little content anyways. There's precious little posted in the 4e section, compared with General. I come here to Gen for my Lazy Fix when the 4e boards seem slow.

My post count would be way higher if I replied to everything I initially wanted to. I try not to post unless I have a VERY clear idea of what I'm trying to say - aside from HRs, I think I reply mostly to rules and fluff Qs with solid, easy answers. I'm a lurker, through and through.

My initial thought when I read the title of this thread was "It took you this long?" I got burned out of EWs a LONG time ago - it's part of the reason I avoid the Paizo boards (aside from the horrendous forum program they use). The company's great. The only game I don't DM in is a PF game. But I can't go there, it seems, without seeing casual, blatant 4e-hate - so I don't. Problem solved.

I only go to the WotC site to talk about Eberron (as with Paizo, I can't stand their forum software), and RPG.net never clicked with me - I just don't get the community there, I guess. ENworld is my haunt - I never see any negativity here, except in some very few threads in General. It might have to do with my forum-going habits - maybe I'm wearing blinders?

Ignore is nice. Oddly enough, the only people I've found sufficiently irritating to ignore are from "my side".

EDIT: Yeah, the warring is nonsensical. I play 4e, PF, and Savage Worlds, and I have material for 1e, 2e, 3e, 3.5, FUDGE, Cortex, d6, and even Traveler and MegaTraveler. What you play doesn't matter - it's that you ARE playing that does.