MERGED - "About Edition Wars" threads x9

[Rel]

Yeah I just don't see this thread going anywhere good. *Klunk*

 

[Azgulor]

Can the General Forum be used for General Topics instead of Edition Wars?

With the recent resurgence in Edition War posts/threads & my recent longing for the "good 'ole days" of EN World, it occurred to me that I spend the majority of my EN World time in either the General Forum or the PF Forum. I very rarely read, let alone post in the 4e forum.

This led me to take a closer look at the description of the General Forum:

General RPG Discussion Discussion of non-system-specific topics. DM/GM/player issues, etc. Specific game discussion belongs in one the forums below

Given that description, is it unreasonable to ask that we see some stronger enforcement of moving system-specific threads into their appropriate forum? Specifically, if it's got 4e, PF, or some other name in the title it should probably be in a different forum. I know "D&D" is a bit trickier but reading the original post should be enough of a clue as to where it's proper home lies.

A lot of people post in this forum b/c it gets more traffic. However, more and more it seems like it's the Civil War and the General Forum is a bar where Union & Confederate soldiers are both invited to drink but are allowed to bring weapons. Is it any wonder that it's fertile ground for Edition War threads?

Just a thought. It'd be nice if the General forum could once again be used for discussing, y'know, non-system-specific topics.

 

[Doug McCrae]

This should be in Meta, not the General forum.

Hah!

 

[Derulbaskul]

No we need a penal colony.

I firmly believe that participating in an edition war should be cause for banning. It's boring. It's frustrating. There is never anything new said. The only thing it is good for is generating new content for the asshat thread over at circvsmaximvs.com.

 

[dm4hire]

Editions wars aside I've often been puzzled by some of the threads that have sprung up, but then I've on occassion made a thread or two that could easily fit elsewhere. If it has a general subtext to it I don't see a problem with it being here and most of the mods seem to do a pretty good job of moving really specific threads to the proper place.

 

[the Jester]

No we need a penal colony.

I firmly believe that participating in an edition war should be cause for banning. It's boring. It's frustrating. There is never anything new said. The only thing it is good for is generating new content for the asshat thread over at circvsmaximvs.com.

There are two problems with this IMHO.

The first is- Where do you draw the line? For every "Yur edtioin suxxorz" post, there are five "I prefer this to that because of the other" posts. Now, some of those are outrageous and clear examples of edition warring, or worse yet, passive-aggressive edition warring. But a lot of them are borderline; many are reasoned discussions about the differences between (say) od&d and 3.5. Discussion and debate certainly have a place here, and the line is extremely blurry. Not only that, there are some mods here that tend to jump the gun and shut down discussions before they have gone off the rails; if the definition of "off the rails" widens too much, the gun-jumping can only get worse.

The other problem is that, without edition wars, CM will have a harder time finding asshattery to fill the Asshattery Afoot threads... although I freely admit that is hardly a problem worth considering in this debate.

 

[Azgulor]

Editions wars aside I've often been puzzled by some of the threads that have sprung up, but then I've on occassion made a thread or two that could easily fit elsewhere. If it has a general subtext to it I don't see a problem with it being here and most of the mods seem to do a pretty good job of moving really specific threads to the proper place.

Ok, but then the General description ought to be changed to "Really specific game discussion belongs in..." and general gets opened up to everything else.

If it's clearly a system-specific thread, I don't see why it shouldn't reside in its proper forum, subtext or no subtext.

YMMV.

 

[jaerdaph]

No we need a penal colony.

We have one - it's called the Ignore List.

Seriously though, there are only about a dozen people who actively participate in the edition "wars" on both "sides". Add them to your ignore list, and the problem goes away!

 

[Tortoise]

No, what's really needed is maturity. People need to remove their heads from their edition biased backsides and stop waging the war.

We're all here because we enjoy gaming. We may have different favorites, but there's no point in trashing anything that is not your favorite except to annoy other users. Maybe the mods can start giving users 3 day vacations when they do so and that might encourage cooler heads.

 

[Serra]

We're all here because we enjoy gaming.

(Above is Quoted for Truth)

I don't know about this edition or that edition as far as which one is better. I played 2e on and have played 3.0 and 3.5 and I play NWN.

Everyone has their own reason for playing. For me, I care about the gaming group as long as the DM is competent I am rather happy. I like having rules in general as it gives more believability for me with the game world.

Truthfully though, I play D&D/NWN in general to make friends etc. I want to be challenged as a player and I want the DM to bring the world to life and I want to interact with that world. I want to be able to have combat and adventure, but I want be moved. I want the story to be compelling and to move me. I want the story RP to bring me to tears anger etc like any good book or movie would.

That's what I want when I game.

I know I am new, so I hope my simplistic view isn't offensive to anyone. The Edition Wars seem like a controversial topic here.