What's really at stake in the Edition Wars

[evileeyore]

That's why I fought in the Edition Wars (though like most veterans, I wish I could have avoided the battle).

Good for you. It is far better to lose a friend than to give in on one's principles.

Besides, in the end you have properly instructed him in how best to think and what he should prefer.

 

[Windjammer]

Hard core strategists, mystery solvers, explorers of the unknown, and lovers of logic and reasoning (like me) are left out in the cold.

XP given. Exactly how Mearls described the difference between 0D&D and 4E, but yours is more thoughtful - and also more forcefully expressed.


PS. That said, if you treat 4E as only half a game where the other half is spent on the players solving problems by means not codified in the game ... then you sort of get the best of both worlds.

Funny moment at my table couple of weeks back (this was in a 3.5 game, but the same applies). I ran the Indiana Jones-"In Latin, Jehova is spelled with an 'I'" puzzle in a dungeon of mine (modified, with Roman numerals representing the alphabet in reverse, and the 'safe' floor tiles not spelling Jehova but Vecna) and one of the players says,

"Hold on guys! I think this one we can solve by logic on its own."

(They actually didn't figure out the puzzle... but the dwarven fighter kept throwing heavy pieces of rock at the tiles from a safe distance - to see which ones were stable. )

 

[BryonD]

If I am an edition warrior, I am definitely a defender. Why? Mostly because I get tired of people spreading what I perceive as lies or misguided opinions about 4e.

ENworld being the premier Internet forum for D&D, I think it's a shame if people do not get the right idea because some people are allowed to not stand corrected.

Hear Hear!
Of course it just *might* be better to stop lies and misguided opinions about OTHER editions as well....

And I'm all for correcting the stands of some people. That badwrongfun has got to end!!

 

[jdrakeh]

Well now you have 99% of all edition warriors together in the same thread, to it should just be a matter of time before someone fires the first shot and things go south.

I think that may have already happened.

 

[jdrakeh]

Hear Hear!
Of course it just *might* be better to stop lies and misguided opinions about OTHER editions as well....

And I'm all for correcting the stands of some people. That badwrongfun has got to end!!

I don't think he's talking about correcting opinions or personal tastes as you suggest but, rather, about explaining away many of the outright falsehoods being spread about D&D 4e. There's not so much of that going on anymore (i.e., people spreading said falsehoods), but in the time leading up to D&D 4e, and shortly after its release, there were a lot of people making crazy things up from whole cloth about the game in an effort to get their hate on. Such intentional spreading of disinformation was little more than deliberate trolling and had no real value insofar as discussion went. It was intended merely to confuse and incense; as such, it probably should have been corrected.

[Edit: And you're right. Similar disinformation about other editions also deserves to be debunked.]

 

[wedgeski]

I don't know whether my story is at all prevalent, but my stake in the edition war is not over which game is better (which is as absurd an argument as always), but over the honesty used in the discussions. On the rare occasions I got involved, it was almost entirely because someone had said something, or because something was being perpetuated and used as the lynchpin of an argument, that I thought was factually incorrect, intellectually dishonest, or outright fabricated for the purpose of stirring up trouble.

Thing is, I would do the same on any topic I felt I had experience in, on any forum I currently post to.

 

[jdrakeh]

As for my own role in edition wars. . . I'm currently a defender of 4e, not because I particularly like it, but because I'm absolutely sick of seeing certain parties take each and every opportunity they can to deliberately bag on the game in the most insulting way that they can conceive of or criticize its players in a similar manner. Sick. To. Death.

I don't play 4e, I don't own the books for it, and if you look at my .sig, you'll see that my tastes in gaming actually run in the opposite direction altogether. Having said this, as somebody on another forum recently mentioned, it has been two years since D&D 4e was released. If you're still bent about it, get over it already.

If you're one of those people whose only contribution here (or anywhere else) is to talk about how 4e ruined your life or how people who play it are some kind of wrong, you're contributing nothing worthwhile. Instead of calling people names and making fun of their preferences in gaming, why not try some positive promotion?

Start a thread about the games that you like instead of shitting up threads about games that you don't, post some links to games that you like in your .sig (see my .sig for examples), or otherwise positively represent your favorite edition of D&D (or other games).

That seems like a really easy solution but, apparently, some people just don't have a positive bone in their bodies.

 

[Jack99]

Hear Hear!
Of course it just *might* be better to stop lies and misguided opinions about OTHER editions as well....

And I'm all for correcting the stands of some people. That badwrongfun has got to end!!

Sarcasm doesn't become you. But as JD mentioned (quoted below), it has nothing to do with what you are implying. I couldn't care less if you do not like 4e. I do not however like if you run around and claim that you can't roleplay in 4e, or that only 13-year old WoW-lovers play it (just two out of a gazillion of examples). And no, the "you" in my post is not you, BryonD, just another random 4e-basher.

I don't think he's talking about correcting opinions or personal tastes as you suggest but, rather, about explaining away many of the outright falsehoods being spread about D&D 4e. There's not so much of that going on anymore (i.e., people spreading said falsehoods), but in the time leading up to D&D 4e, and shortly after its release, there were a lot of people making crazy things up from whole cloth about the game in an effort to get their hate on. Such intentional spreading of disinformation was little more than deliberate trolling and had no real value insofar as discussion went. It was intended merely to confuse and incense; as such, it probably should have been corrected.

 

[diaglo]

i have only read up to the first page so far. i'll go back later and reread this thread after i get some thots down here first.

Hr. The problem I have is that I don't think your thesis here is correct.

Spider Monkey,

i agree with Umbran here. but for a different reason.
i believe that since before the game saw print in 1974 and on gamers have always been well aware of the rules. that's why we still tweak them.
i would say your choice of the term remediation is part of the bias of edition wars.

What is/was at stake? Well, consider - for there to be a stake, there must be something you can win, and something you can lose. In the discussions on this board, there was... nothing to be won, and nothing concerning the game to be lost. There was no reason to believe that discussion with random parties on the internet would have any measurable impact on the development of the game.

again i'll agree with Umbran here a little too. a stake or side needs to be chosen and a condition for armistice.

for me, i want to see OD&D(1974) back in print. edit: on page two i see Hobo brings up another point for me. i'd like to find groups to play it.

 

[billd91]

As for my own role in edition wars. . . I'm currently a defender of 4e, not because I particularly like it, but because I'm absolutely sick of seeing certain parties take each and every opportunity they can to deliberately bag on the game in the most insulting way that they can conceive of or criticize its players in a similar manner. Sick. To. Death.

I don't play 4e, I don't own the books for it, and if you look at my .sig, you'll see that my tastes in gaming actually run in the opposite direction altogether. Having said this, as somebody on another forum recently mentioned, it has been two years since D&D 4e was released. If you're still bent about it, get over it already.

I'd say this is also an issue that exacerbates edition war threads. By your own admission, you really don't have a dog in the fight, yet you participate anyway. I wonder how many other participants this applies to.

As far as the OP goes, how does a participant in the edition war who does not have a stake in it fit into the theory?