D&D 5E What is Quality?

[FrogReaver]

Admitting one's limits is a necessary precursor to wisdom and understanding. If there are some things that are beyond our capacity to ascertain, we should admit that.



Well, Hasbro and WotC can do survey work, at least. Not quite as accurate, but sometimes you take what you can get. But still, surveying on the appropriate scale is also beyond our means here on this site.

But, let me answer a question with another question - Why do we want to talk about "quality"? Or, more specifically, why do we want to assert we know "quality"? In what ways is talking about our opinions and experiences insufficient?

Might be related to the reason that most people don’t like being told they made a poor or low quality choice.

 

[Lanefan]

yeah but if stranger things big bang theory and the streaming gaming (I know I missed at least 1 pop culture reference) all hit between 1994 and 1998 and 1997 had a huge resurgence of table top games (normally board games) and 1999 had a world wide (or close) plague causing everyone to stay in and find entertainment they could do from home... would 2e have exploded the same?

3e would have, had it been released on the same schedule that it in fact was.

If all there was was 2e, though, while there might have been an uptick I don't think there'd have been the same boom. In 1996 2e (and along with it, much of the TTRPG hobby) was pretty much on life support, and I'm not sure whether the above externl factors would have saved it.

 

[Lanefan]

I don't. I would very much like to discus my onions of this .....

Auto-correct for the win, it seems.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

3e would have, had it been released on the same schedule that it in fact was.

If all there was was 2e, though, while there might have been an uptick I don't think there'd have been the same boom. In 1996 2e (and along with it, much of the TTRPG hobby) was pretty much on life support, and I'm not sure whether the above externl factors would have saved it.

now I went out of my way to put every date pre 2000 (when 3e came out) to avoid this "no no the other one" but okay... so 3e then.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Auto-correct for the win, it seems.

that was opinion at some point... but I am posting from my phone

edit: maybe somewhere deep in my subconscious mind I wanted to go back to talking burgers...

 

[soviet]

3e would have, had it been released on the same schedule that it in fact was.

If all there was was 2e, though, while there might have been an uptick I don't think there'd have been the same boom. In 1996 2e (and along with it, much of the TTRPG hobby) was pretty much on life support, and I'm not sure whether the above externl factors would have saved it.

Magic the Gathering was having an impact for sure, but this was also the height of the World of Darkness which was a legitimate cultural phenomenon. I remember 1996 as a boom time for RPGs, at least in the UK - we had at least two monthly magazines (arcane and valkyrie) and mainstream high street stores (Virgin Megastores) carried a large stock of RPG products.

D&D was in the doldrums for sure but the hobby and wider industry were doing fine.

 

[soviet]

that was opinion at some point... but I am posting from my phone

edit: maybe somewhere deep in my subconscious mind I wanted to go back to talking burgers...

Advanced Onions & Dragons

 

[Lanefan]

Magic the Gathering was having an impact for sure, but this was also the height of the World of Darkness which was a legitimate cultural phenomenon. I remember 1996 as a boom time for RPGs, at least in the UK - we had at least two monthly magazines (arcane and valkyrie) and mainstream high street stores (Virgin Megastores) carried a large stock of RPG products.

D&D was in the doldrums for sure but the hobby and wider industry were doing fine.

LARPing was pretty big (relatively speaking) here during the '95-'98 era; but at the same time M:tG had taken TTRPGing out behind the woodshed, beaten it to a pulp, and stolen its pocket money in order to buy more cards.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Magic the Gathering was having an impact for sure, but this was also the height of the World of Darkness which was a legitimate cultural phenomenon. I remember 1996 as a boom time for RPGs, at least in the UK - we had at least two monthly magazines (arcane and valkyrie) and mainstream high street stores (Virgin Megastores) carried a large stock of RPG products.

D&D was in the doldrums for sure but the hobby and wider industry were doing fine.

i am not calling you out or saying you are wrong... I have very little sales data, but I have been told WoD never got close to hitting TSR 2e levels of acceptance or financial success. (in my personal experience everyone playing D&D was also playing WoD in one way or another, but the reverse was not true...but I have been under the impression that was a weird outlier)

 

[Lanefan]

i am not calling you out or saying you are wrong... I have very little sales data, but I have been told WoD never got close to hitting TSR 2e levels of acceptance or financial success. (in my personal experience everyone playing D&D was also playing WoD in one way or another, but the reverse was not true...but I have been under the impression that was a weird outlier)

It sounds like @soviet is - or was at the time - in the UK, though; and the gaming culture/market there is often a very different beast than it is here in North America.