The State of ENWorld (too important to go to Meta)
- Thread starter RangerWickett
- Start date
Rel
Liquid Awesome
Henry said:We ARE, however, thinking about a new rule that every New Thread must start on the topic of how great the mods are; they can diverge from there, of course, but the first post must be a paean of supplication to the mods in order to post.
Oh great and mighty Henry, Lord of the month of August: Do you think I might could get a dispensation from this rule if I kiss your butt enough in person at the NC Game Days? Sort of a "pre-paid bulk discount"?
I've found throughout life that I tend (by accident or preference) to have my humiliation doled out in large chunks instead of little tiny doses each and every day. I just want to stay consistant.
Henry
Autoexreginated
Rel said:I've found throughout life that I tend (by accident or preference) to have my humiliation doled out in large chunks instead of little tiny doses each and every day. I just want to stay consistant.
Humiliation... er, humility is a virtue, I've always said. We'll discuss terms at the Gameday.
I have not around as much mostly because I am playing other game systems. Also because I am moving from Mrayland to Flordia in 6 weeks, this has taken a big chunk of my time.
My main issue is the board though, it is slow! I am still laid-off and can check it at any time, but the page loading times are horrendous. So I have been spending most of my time at rpg.net. Sigh.
My main issue is the board though, it is slow! I am still laid-off and can check it at any time, but the page loading times are horrendous. So I have been spending most of my time at rpg.net. Sigh.
Panthanas
Explorer
From my extended lurking here, I can say that ENWorld is one of my favorite internet hang outs. I usually visit at least once a day, and I wouldn't do so if I didn't enjoy reading the posts, or the overall friendly attitudes of everyone here. And even though I haven't been here as long as a good number of members, or post that often, I can say that I have not seen any major changes in people’s attitudes in my time here.
I think it's intersting that nobody has pointed to the roots of this place...having something to really scoop. What's been coming out that was really new? We had a tiny "rush" from 3.5 Ed. Every "Eberron" related thread in General takes off like wild fire, but the info is really being released in very measured doses.
Further, not only is there less "new stuff" buzz. I think we're really starting to see a shift in the market. There is some real differentiation between the "top tier" publishers and everyone else. Therefore, significantly less "buzz and excitement" around each product, and new d20 publisher. Point of saturation is definitely getting reached. I just "re-sorted" my bookshelves, and I can't believe the depth of resources I've got on basically every topic. To the point where it's getting out of control. Reference the value and relevance of a number of posters asking for reference lists. I know in our gaming group we're "scaling back" on prestige classes, feats, that we're putting in the game.
The only thing I'm missing that I'd like to see from a product perspective is some support for epic game play. Again, thank you to ENWorld for carrying me through much of what I needed to get my campaign off the ground.
I definitely agree with Darrin's comments. On all points. The ONLY thing I hate about ENWorld are threads stating they "hated" or "wasted money" on whatever. I also really miss the cool diversity of excellent dialogue you could see in General before they split. I really don't have time to hit more than one or two pages on the boards. And I'm lucky to do that on a daily basis. There's no way I'm hitting four of five different boards. I loved being able to glance over here and see something posted on General EVERY TIME I looked, that I WANTED to read. It happens pretty rarely these days (once a week or two).
I also miss Shark's posts.
Further, not only is there less "new stuff" buzz. I think we're really starting to see a shift in the market. There is some real differentiation between the "top tier" publishers and everyone else. Therefore, significantly less "buzz and excitement" around each product, and new d20 publisher. Point of saturation is definitely getting reached. I just "re-sorted" my bookshelves, and I can't believe the depth of resources I've got on basically every topic. To the point where it's getting out of control. Reference the value and relevance of a number of posters asking for reference lists. I know in our gaming group we're "scaling back" on prestige classes, feats, that we're putting in the game.
The only thing I'm missing that I'd like to see from a product perspective is some support for epic game play. Again, thank you to ENWorld for carrying me through much of what I needed to get my campaign off the ground.
I definitely agree with Darrin's comments. On all points. The ONLY thing I hate about ENWorld are threads stating they "hated" or "wasted money" on whatever. I also really miss the cool diversity of excellent dialogue you could see in General before they split. I really don't have time to hit more than one or two pages on the boards. And I'm lucky to do that on a daily basis. There's no way I'm hitting four of five different boards. I loved being able to glance over here and see something posted on General EVERY TIME I looked, that I WANTED to read. It happens pretty rarely these days (once a week or two).
I also miss Shark's posts.
Pramas
Explorer
I think what your seeing is the result of a few different things. First, 3.5 and the d20 glut in general are starting to thin out the market somewhat, which means less companies talking about their stuff. Others have scaled back their schedules, so they have less stuff to talk about. Second, I think some companies probably figured they had saturated these boards and couldn't derive much value from them anymore (this ties in with previous comments about companies moving off to their own boards). Third, after four years, everyone is more jaded about new books. It takes a lot more to impress people these days and even more to motivate them to write reviews. Few books these days ever get five reviews, for instance.
Despite all that, I still spend way too much time cruising these boards.
I still think there's a strong and positive sense of community here and I always feel welcome.
Despite all that, I still spend way too much time cruising these boards.
I still think there's a strong and positive sense of community here and I always feel welcome.My Opinions:
I'm an opinionated person. This is a fact. I can certainly say that, for me, I see fewer posts of interest on ENWorld than I once did. Why, I don't know. Discussions of interest (to me) used to be far more common than they are now.
As for publishers, I haven't noticed a change. Lots of them here, none I've noticed as missing.
(Un)Friendliness of threads? I have seen quite a few, here, that I thought were pretty unfriendly. Some were warned and/or closed by mods, others weren't. I also haven't always found the treatment equal - religion-bashing posts get "overlooked" by the same mod who later closes the thread when someone else jumps in to defend it, for example... Still, overall, ENWorld is one of the friendlier boards I have ever been on, IN GENERAL. (For the rest, there is the Ignore list.)
On cliqueishness, PC, your storyhour thread seems pretty cliqueish, to me... The folks who are/have been in your games are the "cool" people, and the "in crowd". I don't really see how you can claim that they're not... or how it could be otherwise... Yes, there is some cliqeishness, here at ENWorld. Also pretty much anyplace else you go, to be fair...
Darrin, I hear what you're saying/see your point about "I Hate X, Y, Z" posts, but they do seem to have their uses... Seems I recall my own series of "Rants" on why the 3.0 Ranger wasn't being all that he could be, and what was wrong with him... Looking at the 3.5 Ranger, why I'd swear somebody at WotC read those posts, and used most of the ideas therein... right down to making identification of potion types something any magic user could do (a Spellcraft check)... I think there were only about three suggestions in the whole article that didn't get accepted!
Now I can't remember if I offered positive suggestions for change, in most of those posts, but I do remember a lot of negativity! Apparently, somebody (or a lot of somebodies) agreed with me. So I don't know, maybe voicing dissatisfaction with what you don't like can actually have some effect... Then again, I did actually READ 3.0 before I posted, too!...
Anyway, if this post seems negative, ENWorld is still the best board that I know of, for all matters RPG-related, and I don't even bother with WotC or the rest... So I guess the above can be summarized as "I'm opinionated, picky, don't like everything here, but still come here as opposed to anywhere else!" So, consider it a left-handed compliment, if nothing else!
Back to the original point; ENWorld has changed, and become a bit less interesting, to me... No idea why...
I'm an opinionated person. This is a fact. I can certainly say that, for me, I see fewer posts of interest on ENWorld than I once did. Why, I don't know. Discussions of interest (to me) used to be far more common than they are now.
As for publishers, I haven't noticed a change. Lots of them here, none I've noticed as missing.
(Un)Friendliness of threads? I have seen quite a few, here, that I thought were pretty unfriendly. Some were warned and/or closed by mods, others weren't. I also haven't always found the treatment equal - religion-bashing posts get "overlooked" by the same mod who later closes the thread when someone else jumps in to defend it, for example... Still, overall, ENWorld is one of the friendlier boards I have ever been on, IN GENERAL. (For the rest, there is the Ignore list.)
On cliqueishness, PC, your storyhour thread seems pretty cliqueish, to me... The folks who are/have been in your games are the "cool" people, and the "in crowd". I don't really see how you can claim that they're not... or how it could be otherwise... Yes, there is some cliqeishness, here at ENWorld. Also pretty much anyplace else you go, to be fair...
Darrin, I hear what you're saying/see your point about "I Hate X, Y, Z" posts, but they do seem to have their uses... Seems I recall my own series of "Rants" on why the 3.0 Ranger wasn't being all that he could be, and what was wrong with him... Looking at the 3.5 Ranger, why I'd swear somebody at WotC read those posts, and used most of the ideas therein... right down to making identification of potion types something any magic user could do (a Spellcraft check)... I think there were only about three suggestions in the whole article that didn't get accepted!
Now I can't remember if I offered positive suggestions for change, in most of those posts, but I do remember a lot of negativity! Apparently, somebody (or a lot of somebodies) agreed with me. So I don't know, maybe voicing dissatisfaction with what you don't like can actually have some effect... Then again, I did actually READ 3.0 before I posted, too!...
Anyway, if this post seems negative, ENWorld is still the best board that I know of, for all matters RPG-related, and I don't even bother with WotC or the rest... So I guess the above can be summarized as "I'm opinionated, picky, don't like everything here, but still come here as opposed to anywhere else!" So, consider it a left-handed compliment, if nothing else!
Back to the original point; ENWorld has changed, and become a bit less interesting, to me... No idea why...
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haiiro
First Post
alsih2o said:
This is exactly why I haven't posted much in the past 8 months or so, and I couldn't have said it better.
I don't think EN World has changed for the worse -- I still very much enjoy my time here, I just do more of it in lurker mode. One of the things that's changed in my life is having my own campaign again, and running a website to support it. I've found that's left a lot less time for all sorts of things I used to do more often.
Life changes aren't bad, and I'm sure I'll swing back into posting mode at some point in the future.
