D&D 3E/3.5 The DMG: A CRITICAL HIT at 93.5%!

The 5th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide is still pulling in rave reviews, and is trending at 93.5%. io9 says its "like a Hacker's Manual for D&D", and Geekdad reports that "this 5e ruleset has completely won me back!" There are dissenters, of course - 5 Minute Workday feels its "a whole lot of appetizers but no real main course" - but these are outweighed by reviews from the likes of boingboing who called it "gorgeous, evocative, hefty, organized, and readable".

So, clearly the Dungeon Master's Guide has garnered critical praise. You can look at the list of critical reviews from outlets around the web. The critics have given it an aggregate score of 85%; but fans have shown more support and weigh in with a whopping 93.5%!

Fun with stats: D&D 5th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide is ranked #3 out of 24 products with 10 or more reviews, placing it in the 92% percentile. It is rated 15.1 points higher than the overall average product rating of 78.4%. With 43 reviews, this is the #3 most reviewed product.

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[wedgeski]

<snip>but I've purchased three books, and I'm already starting to feel burned out on the game.

Care to elaborate?

 

[Agamon]

No, statistically, in a 5 point scale, if it's a statistically standard distribution with σ=1, it should have about 60% of the responses be 3/5, 15% each 2/5 and 4/5, and 5% each 1/5 and 5/5. Almost nothing in the realm of people's opinions is a flat distribution; it's almost always an off-center standard distribution... and the rate of responses indicate a roughly standard distribution with mean 4.5 and mode 5...

...and now I'm flashing back to stats class, lol.

Okay, given, but that wasn't the point of my post, which remains. And while a sample of product reviews by users may produce a bell curve, I still believe it will skew high, as consumers tend to consume products they prefer rather than random selections of products.

 

[SilverfireSage]

I'm not sure if that's a testament to the shallowness of the DMG or 5th Edition. In general, I like 5th edition, but I've purchased three books, and I'm already starting to feel burned out on the game.

This seems.... weird. How can you be burned out on a game you haven't played? The books are just a tool to get you through the stories and adventure with a modicum of framework. If you're getting burnt out on just reading the books, I think you may be getting burned out on RPGs in general.

 

[Morrus]

...and now I'm flashing back to stats class, lol.

Okay, given, but that wasn't the point of my post, which remains. And while a sample of product reviews by users may produce a bell curve, I still believe it will skew high, as consumers tend to consume products they prefer rather than random selections of products.

You're correct. It does, and they do. That's why I put the average product rating on the main reviews index page, and information on how much above or below that a given product is on the product page.

 

[Pauper]

No, statistically, in a 5 point scale, if it's a statistically standard distribution with σ=1, it should have about 60% of the responses be 3/5, 15% each 2/5 and 4/5, and 5% each 1/5 and 5/5. Almost nothing in the realm of people's opinions is a flat distribution; it's almost always an off-center standard distribution... and the rate of responses indicate a roughly standard distribution with mean 4.5 and mode 5...

Disagree, for reasons that should be clear given the following quote:

" The average detective story is probably no worse than the average novel,
but you never see the average novel. It doesn’t get published. The average—or
only slightly above average—detective story does."
(Raymond Chandler, "The Simple Art of Murder")

If everyone around you seems above-average, that may just be
because everyone who would have been below-average is now
dead.

--
Pauper

 

[Umbran]

This seems.... weird. How can you be burned out on a game you haven't played? The books are just a tool to get you through the stories and adventure with a modicum of framework. If you're getting burnt out on just reading the books, I think you may be getting burned out on RPGs in general.

Well, you can certainly get burned out by hype. Too many people shouting, "OMG, this is teh greatest thing evar!!!1!" can begin to weigh on you. Especioally if your personal experience with the thing is okay, but not much better than that.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Well, you can certainly get burned out by hype. Too many people shouting, "OMG, this is teh greatest thing evar!!!1!" can begin to weigh on you. Especioally if your personal experience with the thing is okay, but not much better than that.

Which says a lot about not letting yourself get deluged in hype. I suspect that all of us who frequent boards such as these are probably the folks most susceptible to it, since if we come here every day (or even several times a day), every single thing about a product will be hyped, put down, reviewed, insulted, explained why it works, explain why it doesn't work, and argued over. And if you find this cacophony of information to be too much for you... you need to save your own sanity and take a step away.

It's the same reason why we had folks here on the boards go absolutely ballistic during the playtest, as they saw things they couldn't stand start showing up, and it drove them crazy-- even when there was no indication that anything that was given out in the playtest packets was going to actually be in the game. But just the fact that people were talking about these things that appeared and they hated made them lose it and declare the game dead in the water a full year before it was completed. And we had to just keep saying "If the playtest is driving you this insane... stop following it. Don't download the packets. Don't read the boards. You're killing yourself over things that most likely will never actually be in the game, and you're ruining your own experience."

The fact that you can get oversaturated by 5E in just the four months since release tell us that taking a step back from the highway of information to clear your mind is probably not the worst idea in the world.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

At 94%, that's only 19/20. Without a feat or class feature, it's not a critical hit.

 

[Connorsrpg]

ISn't what I want, my rating? You stated those that rated it so highly are lenient, biased or have a restrictive RPG reading scope. I rate it a 5/5, so I am in your categories.

Funny, I cannot give it a 5/5 and be quick picky with my reviews/ratings, have no preferred edition and have a whole library of RPG books.

Just rate the book, not the people is all I am saying.

If you are really interested in other books I rated highly - we had that very discussion on our boards.http://connorscampaigns.wikidot.com/forum/t-765389/favourite-rpg-books-ever

 

[Argyle King]

This seems.... weird. How can you be burned out on a game you haven't played? The books are just a tool to get you through the stories and adventure with a modicum of framework. If you're getting burnt out on just reading the books, I think you may be getting burned out on RPGs in general.

I have (and have been) playing 5e.

I'm also playing other rpgs.

Upthread, I was asked to elaborate. Once I give it more thought, I will, but -for the moment- I need to give my brain a break from 5e.