What format do you play the most?

[Carl333]

I play expanded the most because of all the different decks you can use.  (Also LR is banned which makes it even better)

[sgtdraino]

Fascinating. And yet on Gemp (as is fairly usual) stats for the past 30 days place Fellowship at most played (40.3%), followed by Expanded (21.2%), with Movie in third place (17.7%). Towers Standard is in 4th (11.3%), and everything else is in the single digits, or less.

[Ringbearer]

Gemp players not all come here.

[sgtdraino]

That's true, but one would think the distribution would still be the same. Can you think of anything inherently different about players on Gemp, that would make Expanded more popular for them, than the people here who DON'T play on Gemp?

[Ringbearer]

Availability of cards.

[idleninja]

Availability of cards.

This exactly. If I had more access to post-Movie block cards I would definitely play more Expanded. Right now it's Fellowship, Towers, and Movie for me.

@sgt are you asking which format we play the most in real life or on GEMP, or overall?

[sgtdraino]

This exactly. If I had more access to post-Movie block cards I would definitely play more Expanded. Right now it's Fellowship, Towers, and Movie for me.

@sgt are you asking which format we play the most in real life or on GEMP, or overall?

That's a great point, actually. I was asking for overall, but I guess I was coming at this from my own point of view, which is that I almost NEVER play real physical cards anymore. Nobody near me still plays, and even when my buddies who DO play are nearby, we find it more convenient just to play on Gemp instead of doing all the setup and moving tokens around. It's just easier. So, 99.999% of my card playing happens on Gemp, and I suppose I'm used to thinking that's the way it is for most people, when I guess a fair few of you still do play with physical cards.

If this is actually what's causing the disparity in the poll, that's an interesting angle: I normally get the impression that players who don't play Expanded are avoiding it because they don't like it, because they think it's "broken." But if you're right, the difference in statistics between TLHH and Gemp indicate that once people get accustomed to playing Expanded, it becomes one of the most popular formats. So, the ones here on TLHH who don't play Expanded, probably just don't have much experience with it.

[Ringbearer]

I still dont play it becasue I dont like the format.

And the dispairity is easy to explain: on GEMP it counts as played games, while you ak here for players. If on GEMP there are only 2 players who play Expanded 20 hours a day, of course it gets a huge boost, while if There are 100 players playing movie once a month, it gets a low percentage, while the poll in here show like 99% favourite in movie.

In short, they are completely different measuring methods and should not be compared.

[sgtdraino]

I still dont play it becasue I dont like the format.

That's allowed. Everyone has their personal tastes. Hopefully the reasons you don't like it are actually real though, and not imagined.

And the dispairity is easy to explain: on GEMP it counts as played games, while you ak here for players. If on GEMP there are only 2 players who play Expanded 20 hours a day, of course it gets a huge boost, while if There are 100 players playing movie once a month, it gets a low percentage,

However, since clearly there aren't just 2 players playing Expanded for 20 hours a day, your point is not that relevant. It might be interesting to collect a list of people who regularly play each format, to see how it all adds up.

while the poll in here show like 99% favourite in movie.

43% is nothing like 99%.

In short, they are completely different measuring methods and should not be compared.

On the contrary, comparing different measuring methods can yield new discoveries, such as the possibility that Expanded would be more popular on TLHH if there was more card access.

[Ringbearer]

No, you compare players in one poll and games in another. Those are complete different mediums so you cant compare them.

Let me elaborate:
GEMP goesnt say how many people play expanded.
This poll doesnt show how much games the people play on GEMP if any.

So there are too much inconsitencies between the two results and they cant seriously be compared.

[sgtdraino]

No, you compare players in one poll and games in another. Those are complete different mediums so you cant compare them.

It is often extremely useful to measure a phenomena using several different systems, for precisely the reasons I've already stated. Comparing the systems to each other can yield new information.

Let me elaborate:
GEMP goesnt say how many people play expanded.
This poll doesnt show how much games the people play on GEMP if any.

You had earlier proposed that Expanded statistics on Gemp are inflated by a few players playing many more games than players of other formats... however there is not really any evidence to suggest that this is the case, nor is there any logical reason why players of Expanded Format would play any more often than players who play other formats. It is more likely that Expanded players play about as often as other players, and so the large number of games played on Gemp is indeed evidence of popularity for the format.

[bign19]

I have nothing to back this up, but this may be a reason for the results.
It seems like a lot of players only play with cards up to set 10. Those people play fellowship, towers standard, towers block, and movie (King block is available but not really played).
The people that play sets 11 and up usually prefer expanded. Open, standard, war of the ring, and hunters are generally ignored.
 This could mean that anyone who likes the higher sets will play expanded every time they are online. Those who enjoy sets 1-10 will play a larger variation of games when they log on.
I know that I play a lot of fellowship, towers, and movie. With that being said, it would inflate expanded play percentage because only that format is being played by a number of people, whereas a larger group may enjoy sets 1-10 but play a bunch of different formats relatively equally. This would slow down the percentages growth.
Basically it takes a larger group to get the percentages higher because they spread their games over a wider variety of formats.

[sgtdraino]

I have nothing to back this up, but this may be a reason for the results.
It seems like a lot of players only play with cards up to set 10. Those people play fellowship, towers standard, towers block, and movie (King block is available but not really played).
The people that play sets 11 and up usually prefer expanded. Open, standard, war of the ring, and hunters are generally ignored.
 This could mean that anyone who likes the higher sets will play expanded every time they are online. Those who enjoy sets 1-10 will play a larger variation of games when they log on.

That's an interesting theory! I'd be curious to see some more data on that one.

One thing that I would point out, other than Fellowship, Expanded, Movie, and Towers Standard, all the other formats on Gemp have exceedingly low percentages of games being played. For example, over the last 30 days, all the games played for all the other formats other than the top four only added up to 11% of the total games played. So, all the less popular formats combined added up to less than the fourth most popular format (Towers Standard), which clocked in at 11.3%. So, there doesn't really seem to be all that much variation outside of the top four formats.

I know that I play a lot of fellowship, towers, and movie. With that being said, it would inflate expanded play percentage because only that format is being played by a number of people, whereas a larger group may enjoy sets 1-10 but play a bunch of different formats relatively equally. This would slow down the percentages growth.
Basically it takes a larger group to get the percentages higher because they spread their games over a wider variety of formats.

That is theoretically true... however, if this is a popularity contest, the point is a bit moot; If you split your time between Fellowship, Towers, and Movie, then clearly none of those three really outshines the other two. You like them better than Expanded, but other than that, you like them all about the same. You don't like one in particular enough to play it a whole lot more than the others, so I'd say even if what you say is true, the statistics on games played are still reflecting the popularity of those formats. If (for example) Movie really deserved to be more popular than Expanded, then more people would be playing it more often, and not spending their valuable time playing other formats.

I'd further suggest that the Daily Tournaments for Fellowship and Movie tend to bolster the stats for those two formats, because they are natural draws for players. Expanded does not have Dailies.

[Shelobplayer]

I wish gemp had highlander format. Or if more people played standard... As it is I'm stuck with expanded :p

[Luipaard]

I only started playing a few weeks ago, and right now I'm mostly playing movie. Before that, I liked FS and TT evenly, but in Movie Block there are just so many options for great decks, it really keeps me coming back to it and experimenting