WotC needs to read up on some Techdirt

[Umbran]

People who play both are gifted and special souls who will be praised in song for years after the demise of both games.

I think you may be wrong, in that the folks who like both probably aren't particularly special. The people who like or play both may be far more common than we on message boards might imagine - they may well be the majority.

I would guess that most folks play one game or another out of mild preference, inertia, and/or convenience, not out of some issue written in stone that they'll never play the other game. Given the appropriate conditions (like, say, being invited to a game by friends) they probably don't care so much what game they're playing.

If we could recognize that strong preference to the point of exclusivity is not the norm, maybe we'd be better off in our discussions.

 

[DEFCON 1]

And besides... I always thought the 'gifted and special souls' were the Earthdawn players.

 

[BryonD]

The people who like or play both may be far more common than we on message boards might imagine - they may well be the majority.

I don't think so.

First I'll get the anecdote out of the way....
IME, people I've met offline are far more likely to clearly favor one or the other. (with 3E winning the nose count)

But, I also think that makes sense. This online community is biased much more toward people for whom gaming is fairly significant. Yes, there are exceptions both ways, but people who spend time places like this are more "serious" vs. "causal" players who don't bother with places like this.

The casual players are a lot less likely to play in a bunch of games. Not so much because of any lack of tolerance, but moreso because of the level of general investment.

However, hand in hand with being more invested, those of us online who have a distinct preference feel much more strongly about it.

An non-onliner who plays one game is generally going to take the position of "I prefer this one." and move on. An online person is more likely to be in the "my game rocks and your sucks" group.

So you have more division offline. But a notably less passionate division.

Again, I don't doubt there are numerous exceptions. But, they are exceptions.