Changeover Poll

[Edena_of_Neith]

On the issue of drawing possibly unsubstantiated conclusions from ENWorld polls, I've noticed on occasion (caveat: observer bias, selective memory, etc.) that polls related to the popularity of 4E tend to get more "pro-4E" responses from the late morning to the late evening where I am (Singapore). This translates to something like GMT 0200 to GMT 1400 (I think).

I wonder if this means, at least among ENWorld members, that 4E is more popular in Europe and Asia than it is in the US?

That's possible. Most of the votes in the last 3 hours have been Changeover votes.
But I can't confirm that, obviously. I'd have to run a specific poll for those of our members from eastern Asia and Australia, specifically, to find this out.

And, hey there, from America. Happy New Year to you'all, from beyond the World's Greatest Pond!

(It still astounds me, the Internet. I'll never truly get used to it, that Distance is not a factor. I was born before home computers, much less the internet, and guess that's the reason.
It will never cease to amaze that I can just sit and talk, with people on the other side of our Earth, as if they were in the next room over in the house or apartment. Cyberspace is just that incredible. It truly *IS* the 5th Dimension.)

 

[Plane Sailing]

At the moment we play

• one 4e campaign
• one 3.5e homebrew campaign
• one 3.5e Eberron campaign
• one Starguild OGL sci-fi campaign

but I decided on 'partial' since the two 3.5e campaigns only run a game about once every 3 months; the 4e game and the Starguild game are the two regulars.

Cheers

 

[Jack99]

The misconception is that a tiny geographical area like one city would represent the rest of the country. The reality of this poll is that it is nationwide, and to a point, world wide. IF this poll gets 1,000 responses it will be as viable as the polls you saw on CNN and FOX about who would lead the US next.

Not even close to viable. At least, not if polls in the US are made by anywhere the same rules as we use over here.

No, I don't think that's true. This is a self-selecting poll, with participants drawn from the category "people who are serious enough about gaming to have an account on a hobby-specific message board". Which means it measures something very different to media polls that have randomly selected participants. (That doesn't make it less interesting, just different.)

Internet polls are by and large fairly useless. Not only is it easy to cheat, but when you have no control over who you ask and who they are, it might as well be random numbers.

Its been a while since I have taken a statistics class, but not even close. A self-selecting internet poll on one D&D fansite is going to be representative of the buying habits of tens of thousands of gamers? Highly doubtful.

Not only highly doubtful, but not at all.

It gives us a good idea about how the "regular" posters of ENworld feel. Because lets face it, those who post are those who vote. Question is, are we a good representation of those who play D&D (whatever version) - I doubt it.

 

[Subumloc]

Running and playing 4e only at the moment.

 

[Shemeska]

EN World is a great community, but it is nowhere near representative of all D&D gamers. The WotC boards dwarf EN World and at this point are probably like 90% 4e players if not higher.

And those boards are in freefall. They've been hemorrhaging traffic since the Gleemax folly, and many of the previously longterm posters during the 3.x period have dropped off the face of the planet to go elsewhere. I wouldn't assume the WotC boards to be representative of all gamers as a whole either.

 

[S'mon]

That's pretty bad that there are more "Tried and went back" votes than "Complete Changeover" votes - on ENW of all places!

Edit: And currently over 56% of votes are for the 'no change' categories. How does that compare to the 2e-3e shift I wonder.

 

[Psion]

It seems reasonable that folks who visit ENWorld, and particularly those who post and respond to polls, are likely to be more serious about D&D (and RPGs in general) than more casual gamers. From that, I don't think it is too much of a leap to guess that folks here are probably also more invested (financially and emotionally) in 3ed than the average gamer. So I'd be surprised if the boards did not reflect more of a bias towards older editions of the game than the "average" gamer.

The problem with this is that most prior polls I have seen here show more of a 60/40 split 4e/3e. So if you are suggesting something about ENWorld's behavior, why didn't it apply (or apply as strongly) before?

 

[Phaezen]

The problem with this is that most prior polls I have seen here show more of a 60/40 split 4e/3e. So if you are suggesting something about ENWorld's behavior, why didn't it apply (or apply as strongly) before?

Possibly just a holiday variation, many people are away for vacation or even just not on thier pc's as they are not at work and spending time with friends and family this week.

Unlike me who is currently what constitutes for skeleton holiday staff at my company .

Phaezen

 

[Calico_Jack73]

I tried 4E with KotSF but didn't care for it. Then again I wasn't a huge fan of 3E either so I am stuck with either 1E, 2E, or some other non-D&D fantasy RPG.

 

[Echohawk]

The problem with this is that most prior polls I have seen here show more of a 60/40 split 4e/3e. So if you are suggesting something about ENWorld's behavior, why didn't it apply (or apply as strongly) before?

Perhaps because those gamers who are reading D&D message boards on December 30th are likely to be even more committed to the hobby than gamers who usually read the boards, and thus even more likely to be invested in older editions...