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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8831235" data-attributes="member: 6790260">A wrinkle: Play prior to the turn of the millennium depended on a culture-of-play transmission through oral history (word of mouth, teaching genealogies, spontaneous group formation in gathering-places) and easily-lost written history (mostly magazine articles, but also bulletin boards both digital and physical, snail mail, binders of house rules, etc.) Play after the new millennium has had a much more robust catalogue of information and advice, both intentionally (Wizards' website) and unintentionally (Internet Archive, Youtube and social media, PDF availability, etc.)In a very real sense, we are actively and passively preserving more of our play-culture "as it happens" than the first 20-30 years of D&D could ever hope to do. Even if 90% of the materials created are lost, the sheer volume of said materials would mean that a reasonable selection thereof would remain, permitting at least acceptable approximations of the original.Hence, the cycle may break, after a fashion, not because people change their behavior, but because it's so easy to just...go look up the information. Even information from 20 years ago is still often readily available if you just use a handful of resources (like the aforementioned internet archive--great source for tracking down a bunch of deleted WotC websites. I've used it several times for citing from Rob Heinsoo's interview regarding 4e design.)Information being easily available doesn't stop people from saying dumb things. But it does reduce the rate at which that sort of thing happens.</blockquote>

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