Originally Posted by RampantCoyote
You know, the more this gets discussed here and at Rampant Games, the more it occurs to me that the culprit is the focus on combat and mechanics over storyline.

That's exactly what I already said.

I - personally - regard (A)D&D as especially played "combat-centric" and/or the players do so.

Maybe they aren't used to *different* gameplay than that. It has always been so, it will always be so.

I have often the impression as if the European playing-style is relatively different from the american one in that it isn't so much focused on combat.