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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ppaladin123" data-source="post: 5078123" data-attributes="member: 60923">An edition war is what happens when calm, rational discourse about the strengths and weaknesses of a system (mechanics, adaptability to different play styles, flavor, genre and/or literary trope support, etc.) devolves into name-calling (and other ad-hominem attacks), and objective statements about the subjective aspects of the system.For example, any system might statistically tend toward longer/shorter combat, (less) swingy battles, greater/lesser lethality, etc. Posters have a variety of opinions about whether this is a good thing. Also, posters  have (in most cases) only anecdotal evidence to support their theory that the system does in fact have this property. There are two possible paths to edition war:A. "You are wrong, swingy combats are bad and you are stupid for liking them." (An attack on preferences and/or intelligence/sophistication)B. "You are wrong, combats are (not) swingy because in my experience they are (not). You are stupid/wrong and don't understand anything." (An attack on theoretical reasoning skills, bold use of induction).Edition wars are a lot like your standard angry political bickering with the added wrinkle that editions are numbered, and built (or not) on one-another. As a result there are questions of progress or devolution. Does a higher number mean a better system? Does a lower number mean a more pure, "true," experience?It is certainly possible to have discussions that do not devolve in this manner but when passions run deep, people sometimes lose their cool.If you want to discuss the intricacies of a system, its limitations and ways to alter it to fit a particular play-style or theme, you can post in the house rules forums for the appropriate edition. Those forums are populated by people who like the system, and who prefer to use it as a framework for their tinkering projects. Thus there are far fewer occasions for the discussion to degenerate into the sorts of exchanges that characterize an edition war (but it still happens from time to time).</blockquote>

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