My poll on gaming styles has run its course, dropping off to page three as I write this.

I thought I'd give my opinions of the results and let others chime in. The poll was self-selecting on the responses, and of course was only open to members of this site. So it's not a reflection of anything outside this site, and likely has a rather high marginal of errror even within it.

Even so, 52 votes is rather good, so I think we can draw a few ideas from it. I did see a couple of minor surprises, although in general the results were what I expected from my time on the site reading and responding to posts.



Here's the result, with 52 votes given:

Combat focused- especially Resource Management: 3.85% (2 votes)
Combat focused- especially on Tactical Maneuver : 7.69% (4 votes)
Combat focused- especially on Dissimilar Assets: 0% (0 votes)
Combat focused- balanced: 7.69% (4 votes)
Gaming: 7.69% (4 votes)
Story First: 9.63% (5 votes)
Role-Playing First: 25.00% (13 votes)
The best rules are the least rules: 11.54% (6 votes)
Genre First: 3.85% (2 votes)
Unlisted: 23.08 (12 votes)

Unlisted at 23% is higher than one would want for a poll of this type, this seemed to be driven by the limit of ten options at the time of the poll with the primary result was that it was used by voters who switched between goals or considered a number of them of equal importance. Ideally that would have been a specific option.


The most noticible result was the very high percentages of Role-Playing First and Unlisted, the two major areas where people having low specific needs for game mechanics lump together. In total this made up almost 50% of the vote.

Added to the Story First, and Best rules are the least rules (two other groups with little need for traditional mechanics) and one ends up with 69% of the site. A percentage that makes therpgsite.com far from traditional.

Traditional rpgs design is represented by only 19% of the voters. Here was a small surprise as I expected higher numbers in Resource Management and Dissimilar Assets, the classic strengths of D&D and D20. But the former had few votes and the latter found found favor with no-one.

Tactical Maneuver was higher than I expected, but still only a mere 7.69% of voters. The low number matched my expectations as I knew my preferred style was almost a no-show here. But surprised in that it made up 40% of what traditional preferences existed at all.

Forge style gaming can be seen in the Gaming and Genre First groups, which in total came to about 11.5% giving them less influence than even the traditional styles.


All in all interesting. I thank everyone who responded.

Interesting!  But not surprising, perhaps--we have a lot of old-school OD&Ders, and improvisation and ruling on the fly are definitely hallmarks of that.  

I think we've a nice (even if not nice sometimes) blend here.

Quote from: Zachary The First;252942Interesting!  But not surprising, perhaps--we have a lot of old-school OD&Ders, and improvisation and ruling on the fly are definitely hallmarks of that.  

I think we've a nice (even if not nice sometimes) blend here.

I don't often disagree with you Zachary as I recall, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to here. These results aren't old school D&D, they are quite modern IMO.

For my own tastes the blend is highly disappointing. People ask why there are so few threads on rpgs here compared to off-topic, and this is the reason. Without a focus on the mechanics of the games, the only topics are soft ones- and soft topics lead to off-topic by nature.

Quote from: gleichman;252601My poll on
The most noticible result was the very high percentages of Role-Playing First and Unlisted, the two major areas where people having low specific needs for game mechanics lump together. In total this made up almost 50% of the vote.

Now this I don't get, gleichman. That was my answer, and I'm a systems guy. I've been tinkering with mechanics since the sixties, when I'd kitbash, adapt, and make up my own hex-and-chit war and board games. Why do you think your Role Playing First category is an indicator of disinterest in game mechanics?

-clash

Quote from: flyingmice;252952Now this I don't get, gleichman. That was my answer, and I'm a systems guy. I've been tinkering with mechanics since the sixties, when I'd kitbash, adapt, and make up my own hex-and-chit war and board games. Why do you think your Role Playing First category is an indicator of disinterest in game mechanics?

The description of the choice I put forth in the OP indicated that those selecting it considered the role-playing primary, and were willing to switch between systems almost without care as a result. Note that the OP also stated that the question was only related to mechanics and not to things unreflected in mechanics (i.e. role-playing), so disinterest to a large degree in mechanics was built into that option.

So I think it's clear why I view the vote total there in the way that I do. The question is why did you vote for something that you now don't think is true? I imagine the answer is that the meaning of the selection wasn't clear to you, either as a error on my part or yours.

Wait a minute. Genre First is Forge-style?

Quote from: gleichman;252958The description of the choice I put forth in the OP indicated that those selecting it considered the role-playing primary, and were willing to switch between systems almost without care as a result. Note that the OP also stated that the question was only related to mechanics and not to things unreflected in mechanics (i.e. role-playing), so disinterest to a large degree in mechanics was built into that option.

So I think it's clear why I view the vote total there in the way that I do. The question is why did you vote for something that you now don't think is true? I imagine the answer is that the meaning of the selection wasn't clear to you, either as a error on my part or yours.

Ah... I misinterpreted your OP, then. You posted "Role-playing First: It's all about role-playing, and that can be done no matter the system, I can use them all." I interpreted that last as "systems don't give me any trouble. I can master any system." Mentally subtract at least one vote then. I wouldn't have chosen any of the other options.

Thanks for clarifying!

-clash

Quote from: flyingmice;252964Ah... I misinterpreted your OP, then. You posted "Role-playing First: It's all about role-playing, and that can be done no matter the system, I can use them all." I interpreted that last as "systems don't give me any trouble. I can master any system." Mentally subtract at least one vote then. I wouldn't have chosen any of the other options.

Thanks for clarifying!

No problem.

Btw, not chosing any of the other options puts you into "Unlisted", and doesn't change the end result any

Quote from: JongWK;252961Wait a minute. Genre First is Forge-style?

A subset, at least in how I view things.

Quote from: gleichman;252958The question is why did you vote for something that you now don't think is

That question is easily answered.  Your poll would require an infinite number of answers to clearly reflect the variety of gaming tastes.  Even two gamers with generally similar tastes are going to differ just enough that you can't lump them together.

To put it bluntly, polls based on personal preference or opinion are crap.  You could put us all through a 20 question open answer quiz on roleplaying and even then you wouldn't even begin to have anything resembling the scientific data for which you seem so fond.  You may as well have asked us "Why do you like gaming?"  and then limited us to 10 answers when in truth things just aren't that simple.

That's not saying these polls aren't interesting, they're just way too limited in scope to provide any real answers.

Quote from: gleichman;252974A subset, at least in how I view things.

Huh. Seems I picked the wrong option then, because I am one of the two votes for Genre First. Forge-style was not even the last thing in my mind.

Quote from: JongWK;252986Huh. Seems I picked the wrong option then, because I am one of the two votes for Genre First. Forge-style was not even the last thing in my mind.

It also included non-Forge games. For example I'd put Pendragon in here if it's the virtues that are your primary interest.

Quote from: gleichman;252972No problem.

Btw, not chosing any of the other options puts you into "Unlisted", and doesn't change the end result any

It wouldn't be a vote at all, actually.

-clash

Quote from: gleichman;252989It also included non-Forge games. For example I'd put Pendragon in here if it's the virtues that are your primary interest.

Ah, ok.

Maybe it's just that I took some of the poll options as a given for any game or campaign I'd play. Once you consider that, "Genre First" makes sense as a choice.

Some games I've played or ran in the past couple of years:

Earthdawn
Shadowrun
Pendragon
Qin
Amber Diceless
True20 (fine-tuned for a Highlander campaign)
Warhammer Fantasy

Quote from: flyingmice;252990It wouldn't be a vote at all, actually.

Not choosing is a choice and all that

In fact, too many polls here in the past were missing "None of the Above" or "Unlisted", and I think they suffered from it. That should always be an option.

The size of the people who pick it is a good measure as to how clear and complete the poll ways. The one I did didn't fair so well in that respect