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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WizarDru" data-source="post: 5714361" data-attributes="member: 151">It's been said many times, but often bears repeating: "The plural of anecdote is not data."  My experiences are my own and sometimes mirror wingandswords.  And sometimes they don't.  I've been playing since I started with Basic D&D in 1979.  My experience matches SOME of what w&s describes...but some of it is different.  Self selection bias is a factor.  Both The Shaman and wingandsword describe their experiences and they are correct for them.  They are not necessarily correct for me...and there's no reason they should be.The core idea that online forums don't match real-world experience is, IMHO, self-selective.  ENWorld is not the only place on the web to discuss D&D.  It's not even the only place to discuss ENWorld! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  Online communities, like their offline counterparts....that is just plain communities...adhere to all sorts of variation.  The mood at one gameshop is totally different than another, for example.  When I bought my first AD&D book, I bought it a non-gaming bookshop in a strip-mall.  I bought my second at a store that was (honestly) half gameshop-half pet store.  My third book was at a waldenbooks.  My fourth at a hobby store that sold all kinds of games.  They were all different stores and all had different communities and feels to them.The Compleat Strategist I used to frequent at college was a home to grognards of the old order.  They were hardcore into D&D.  My group AT college was more experimental; we ran GURPS and Runequest.  My group at home ran everything.  As a frequent DM, I often shaped what we played...so I was transformative for some of my group.  My future-wife had never played an RPG before.  Many things I hear discussed here I have discussed in 'meatspace'.  Many problems reported herein I have experienced.  Likewise, many I have not.What really seems under discussion is the assumption of a core universal gamer standard of some sort and how the online community (also assumed as some sort of core standard) relates to it.  But those are illusory, IMHO.  As Umbran points out, there are multiple communities both online and off.  The idea of their being a disconnect between the experiences is really no different than the arguments in Dragon's 'Forum' column back in the day.  I'm sure it exists...I'm just not sure it matters.</blockquote>

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