Monte Cook - Pros

[Mokona]

See Legends & Lore.

Poll: When it comes to D&D, rate the following on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being "not at all important" and 5 being "vital to the game."

Q: Professional game designers providing what they think works best

Answers:
1 - Not at all important
2
3
4
5 - Vital to the game

 

[Sunseeker]

Moderate. I mean they do quite literally, know best....for the game "code", that however, does not mean they know best for every iteration of the game put together by the players.

They should do what they think is best for the structure and foundation of the game, but they shouldn't do "what they think is best" for players and DMs.

 

[Traken]

What happens if everyone votes 1? Do they just give up and go home?

To inject my own opinion, I believe it important for them to go ahead and give us their best. However, they should also give us their second best and maybe even mention the third best.

 

[Kynn]

I'd rather have them doing their best job to provide a quality game, than to have D&D Next become entirely about "crowdsourcing" and producing a bland and inoffensive game-for-everyone that nobody really wants to play.

 

[Mark CMG]

When it comes to D&D as a roleplaying game? I think it is important for designers to provide the best roleplaying game they can design.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Honestly, I don't think the opinions of the designers are all that important (2).

The rpg industry is still new. There is not a lot of rigorously gathered information on how the game is played. There is no academic or legal backing to being a game designer, no licensure, certification, or anything of the sort.

That isn't to say that the people who have experience in the industry and get their names on book covers don't deserve to be where they are and aren't the best available people to be writing game books. I just don't think that even the best is all that good, given the nature of the hobby.

Frankly, I think 4e was the consequence of a small number of game writers putting out a product that met their needs but ignored the perspectives of the majority of their audience, some of whom coped but many of whom chose not to. And now we are where we are.

No, I think the opinion of a few game designers is far less important than the opinions of the fanbase at large, which is something that I think is fairly unique to the rpg hobby.

 

[Consonant Dude]

The rpg industry is still new. There is not a lot of rigorously gathered information on how the game is played. There is no academic or legal backing to being a game designer, no licensure, certification, or anything of the sort.

This is a fair point.

One of the most interesting thing about the OGL is that it really highlighted a phenomenon that's been going on forever in this hobby:

There are lots of smart fans with brilliant ideas and loads of talent who will, given the opportunity and motivation "graduate" to professionals. And I think a lot of very talented folks doing awesome maps and adventures and systems simply aren't interested because they have jobs they love, families they can't move and so on.

I do think however that full-time professionals work under optimal conditions to create roleplaying content. If you work full-time for WotC, then your work day is about roleplaying. Your coworkers are the ultimate playtest group, you can run ideas by people and you also have access to tons of pertinent data only WotC is privy to.

It doesn't guarantee you'll build an awesome game but it's something.

Myself, I've always been the kind of person who judges the food on my plate and not what's the chef's resume. I couldn't care less if a game is designed in a basement part time or the labor of thousand of hours of work by an army of professionals. I'll go by what the game has to offer.

 

[Number48]

Gah! Another poll with the "right" answer in the question. Should the designers provide what they think works best? As opposed to WHAT? Do I think the designers should provide what they think is lousy? Or that I want the game to not be designed by professionals? This question means nothing without context!

 

[howandwhy99]

Vital to the hobby. I'm not sure if it's really vital to the game.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Gah! Another poll with the "right" answer in the question. Should the designers provide what they think works best? As opposed to WHAT?

Well, as opposed to popular opinion. What about all these other polls they've been running on game style? What if the audience demands story focus, a complex skill system, and changes to the health system and the designers think to themselves "No, I don't think that'll work." Should they try to make it work, or simply ignore the feedback they've been given, that's how I read the thread topic.

If you go through the series of polls as a whole, it's likely that any group of designers would answer those polls differently from the gaming community as a whole.