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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 5078565" data-attributes="member: 177">The key here is "sound logic and rhetoric".  The basic characteristic of what we call "edition wars" is that the combatants have left sound logic and rhetoric behind.  Dialectic processes are useful (not essential - there are other modes of exploration that work well), but not when those involved become more invested in being right than they are in exploring reality. As one of those moderators, I think we have more than just a 'feeling" that warring is not productive, and not adding thing to the community.  I think we have sufficient experience to claim they are outright destructive to our community.The moderating staff here take that very seriously.  We would love nothing more to see real, civil discourse on the topics.  We would all like to take part in it.  We feel it's loss. With respect, not as often as you might think.  Let me ask you - are the rules of American football superior to the rules of baseball?  Well, surely, if you are trying to play a game with a pitcher and a batter, yes.  But in general, it is a meaningless statement.  Apples and oranges.  So, let's instead focus down a bit - pick a specific measure.  You can then say that Ruleset A is superior to Ruleset B in terms of that measure, in theory.  In practice, however, we don't have good data sets - most of our data is highly anecdotal, based on individual experience, rather than properly conducted testing.  Different people in the discussion have different experiences, and thus will not agree on which is superior.And, then you hit the question about whether being superior in a given measure is actually superior for particular users, or people in general.  Here's where subjectivity really enters the fray - different people want different things from a game, and cannot necessarily agree that being better in a particular measure actually makes the game more fun.If everyone wanted the same thing from a game, then, yes, you might be able to crown one winner.  But just as we all like different genres of literature, and different authors within a genre, we are going to find different games fitting our needs.Failure to recognize that fact (sometimes referred to as "One True Wayism", has been a major source of friction in discussing editions.  People conflate "I like this better" to "This is objectively better", which is simply poor reasoning.</blockquote>

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