rowyn

I thought it'd be fun to compare the number of people who had played each game with the number who liked that game's mechanics. The breakdown for all the games was:

+Terrible Butterflies+: 4 / 4 (100%)
Champions: 5 / 10 (50%)
World Tree: 5 / 6 (83%)
Ars Magica: 5 / 8 (63%)
Savage Worlds: 4 / 6 (67%)
D&D 4e: 3 / 7 (43%)
D&D 3.5: 5 / 13 (38%)
GURPS: 6 / 13 (46%)
Legend: 1 / 0 (undefined)
Heroes Unlimited: 1 / 3 (33%)
Marvel Superheroes: 3 / 5 (60%)
Cyberpunk 2020: 3 / 7 (43%)
ElfQuest: 1 / 2 (50%)
Star Wars (West End Games 1st ed.): 3 / 8 (38%)
Vampire: the Masquerade: 5 / 13 (38%)

If I narrow down games to just those where the mechanics were liked by more than half those who'd played that game, it's a short list:

+Terrible Butterflies+: 4 / 4 (100%)
World Tree: 5 / 6 (83%)
Ars Magica: 5 / 8 (63%)
Savage Worlds: 4 / 6 (67%)
Marvel Superheroes: 3 / 5 (60%)

There wasn't a clear "favorite mechanics": four games got two votes each, three games got three votes each, and the rest got one or no votes. The two and three vote games were:

Champions: 2
World Tree: 2
Savage Worlds: 2
D&D 3.5: 2
GURPS: 3
Marvel Superheroes: 3
Vampire: the Masquerade: 3

My conclusion from my totally unscientific poll: gamers' tastes vary wildly, and not just between a few different camps. I don't think this is just about hack&slash vs roleplayer vs problem-solver, or realistic vs game-balanced, or simple vs complex. Maybe about all of those at once, but I suspect there are a number of subtle factors at work which aren't easily quantified.

... the lesson probably isn't "+terrible butterflies+ is a great system and I should run a game of it". Although it might be. c.c