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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 4729013" data-attributes="member: 22779">Disclaimer - I've been gaming pretty much exclusively online through virtual tabletop for about six years now and this is one of my evangelistic topics - <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=":)" />IMO, I think that the internet has had one massively huge effect on gaming - the ability to connect to other gamers outside of your circle.  Pre-internet, other than maybe some Forum letters in Dragon or some other gaming magazine, it was extremely difficult for the vast majority of gamers to talk about anything related to gaming outside of their group of gamers.  SO, groups developed their own playstyles and preferences pretty much in a vacuum distinct from everyone else.Now, you have sites like this one with tens of thousands of members, probably hundreds of thousands of hits and readers per day, certainly per week, all discussing "the game".  That has an enormous impact.  Rules are discussed, dissected, gone over, folded, spindled and mauled on a daily basis.  That right there has a huge effect on someone's personal game.  People read these threads, then apply whatever they take away to their own game.But, then there are the higher level discussions outside of specifics - all the sensawunda threads, edition wars, discussions on higher altitude issues like campaign design or "what is a role playing game?"  and things like that.  All those things get batted back and forth as well.I would say that the average gamer is likely a heck of a lot more informed about the game (whatever game he or she actually plays) than they ever were.  If you want to run a game, it's not like you're stumbling around in the dark out of ignorance, you can find a wealth of information on how to run a game that suits your style in minutes.And I think the Internet has become ubiquitous enough in recent years that the average 14 year old just getting into the hobby would have no real problems hopping on, reading forums like EN World or WOTC, or listening to a podcast or on and on and on.  So, coming back to your question, I would say that the game designers have to be a lot more aware of what they are doing.  If you pump out a crap game, you will find out about it pretty much instantly, and so will everyone else.  Gone are the days when you could publish a D&D clone, garner a decent sized following and then never update your rules for twenty years.  It just won't work anymore.</blockquote>

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