Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7252582" data-attributes="member: 4937">I don't think the data reveals enough to make that degree of firm assessment about what it means.In particular, the players making the selections do not have a single traceable motive, so it could be true - and I would say very likely is true - that different character types are chosen for different reasons.&nbsp;&nbsp; Or to put it another way, you don't know whether elf wizards are being chosen because the type &quot;elf wizard&quot; is what the player wants to play, or whether elf wizard are being chosen because the game rules make them mechanically optimally and thereby encouraging the type on to the player if they want to play a wizard or an elf in isolation.&nbsp;&nbsp; That is to say, I could want to explore what it means to be an elf, and have no attachment specifically to the class - only that I wanted to play an effective character.&nbsp;&nbsp; Or I could want to be a wizard, and have no attachment to the idea of being an elf - only that I wanted to be the most effective wizard I could make.&nbsp;&nbsp; Or there could be other things influencing the motivation, such as not caring particularly about the character I made, but believing that someone needs to be the wizard (or the cleric, or the rogue) because that's how parties are 'supposed' to be composited and Joe always plays the fighter.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7252582, member: 4937"] I don't think the data reveals enough to make that degree of firm assessment about what it means. In particular, the players making the selections do not have a single traceable motive, so it could be true - and I would say very likely is true - that different character types are chosen for different reasons. Or to put it another way, you don't know whether elf wizards are being chosen because the type "elf wizard" is what the player wants to play, or whether elf wizard are being chosen because the game rules make them mechanically optimally and thereby encouraging the type on to the player if they want to play a wizard or an elf in isolation. That is to say, I could want to explore what it means to be an elf, and have no attachment specifically to the class - only that I wanted to play an effective character. Or I could want to be a wizard, and have no attachment to the idea of being an elf - only that I wanted to be the most effective wizard I could make. Or there could be other things influencing the motivation, such as not caring particularly about the character I made, but believing that someone needs to be the wizard (or the cleric, or the rogue) because that's how parties are 'supposed' to be composited and Joe always plays the fighter. [/QUOTE]

Verification