there is a LOT D&D can make people understand more, but sadly most of that is lost now.Aryxbez wrote:I disagree, D&D years back, has helped expand my vocabulary, perhaps even bettering my reading abilityDSMatticus wrote: There is no moral or practical good in getting better at D&D. It will not make you a better friend, a better employee, a better lover, or a better person. The only thing getting good at D&D will do is make you better at D&D and possibly teach you lessons in game design in that you have gained the mastery necessary to notice D&D's fuck-ups,
Vocabulary, well everything is a keyword now, and defines the word in a way outside of the English language for the game. so that is out.
practical use of algebra... well i have given the equations for THAC0 enough people can go back and look at them. you were mistakenly given one version where you had to solve with, not for an unknown, and people just couldnt move AC from the unknown side to the known side.
cooperation, people are too busy competing with each other during play than working together. treasure division for one example. the group got treasure and gave it to who needed it. a fighter would get a magic sword, not a magic wand because it would be of most help to the group for him to have it. the wizard gets the wand. now its all about $$$ value must be spread evenly.
interest in reading is also a thing form the past. new editions have a lack of reason to read it. it is like fridge instructions, you read it because you must, not because you want to. it just isnt interesting in many places.
it used to teach probability also, and correctly. gave you the bell and linear curves. now, unlimited ranges mean you rarely know if you have a chance for something to work, so you sort of have to grab every possible bonus to hope it increases your chances as infinitely smaller they are for the seemingly unlimited ranges.
it used to allow for learning better problem solving, now just list picking mostly. say before it was thinking outside the box, simply because there was no box, but now mostly the box is a cage many cannot escape from to think outside of.
record keeping and tracking... gone. dont worry about ammo, just assume you always have enough, same for money.
the game has become complacent in its competition of video games that do all those things for you. i like the thing GW says that D&D is not and never has been competition for them because GW isnt in the RPG business they are in the Warhammer business, and nobody but them makes warhammer. while many people make miniature games, nobody really makes anything that comes close to warhammer.
D&D forgot this and tried to earn EVERY entertainment dollar from every source possible, movies, video games, novels, etc. it became something to be all things to all people, and in doing so, trying to be the best PnP video game, and PnP movie, etc.. it forgot how to be D&D and allow for those things it used to teach.
now it can teach... grocery list making? arguing with authority figures? ow to pander to everyone and in the process make a product that lack quality (see $1 calculators)?
did it need to teach all that stuff in the beginning, yes and no. it needed to show how the game worked for novices, the vocabulary in some cases were just a bonus above and beyond what was needed (Gygaxian prose). as i have long said, things have been lost in each edition of the game taking for granted that new editions gain only experienced players. and things were added in places to replace some lost thing that probably shouldnt have been added. (3.5 DMG pg 8, leaving out that deep-immersion is fun, while making sure to put it in for the kick-in-the-door style). this may have actually tailored a generation of gamers to play a certain way. thus we have the infamous from James Wyatt, "the game is about killing things and taking their stuff, not traipsing through faerie rings and talking to the little people"; that was 4th edition wherein you didnt stop to talk to the city gate guards, you just skipped it and got on to the "fun", the fighting. and the "everything is core" so you need to buy everything from us to play mentality of 4th, as opposed to Gygax from 1st who was attributed with saying "The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules". how we got to game must be played RAW from
i will never know except for a marketing ploy.1st DMG Afterword wrote:IT IS THE SPIRIT OF THE GAME, NOT THE LETTER OF THE RULES, WHICH IS IMPORTANT. NEVER HOLD TO THE LETTER WRITTEN, NOR ALLOW SOME BARRACKS ROOM LAWYER TO FORCE QUOTATIONS FROM THE RULE BOOK UPON YOU, IF IT GOES AGAINST THE OBVIOUS INTENT OF THE GAME.