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Originally Posted by Nightshade

I'm not sure that really has that much to do with it, honestly, though combat oriented adventures are likely to be what most people start with; but they're also often what some of the longest running groups I've ever heard of still mostly focus on.

Probably because some group never mature. I know one group that has played D&D for 30 years. The current GM has been removing all the 3.0 and 3.5 rule changes and is running it more and more like the way he ran AD&D 20 years ago. 95-99% of any XP awards are for combat, and character interaction and role-playing is viewed as slowing the game down.

Sadly, most other D&D player's I've seen aren't any better. All pay lip service to role-playing, and acting in character, but most adventures are little more than the old "Room/Monster/Treasure". Most "role-players" simply add a reason why the group is going through lotting the dungeon but the rest is the same.

I see this with most non-D&Ders too. Many claim they are roleplaying, but most are fighting.

I think its bad to extend that arguement too far; that's been an element of D&D, but even D&D itself moved somewhat away from that with 3e (where you can get every bit as much negotiating with the goblins as killing them, if that will also solve your problem) and few other game systems even pay attention to what you're fighting as such. In fact, short of directly D&D derived systems (such as Palladium), I'm not sure I can think of one that does. Can you (as you seem fairly knowledgable in the field)? Certainly none of the other big name systems (GURPS, Hero, Storyteller) do.

I can think of several that do, but most have chose to simply the advancement. I don't think it was a move towards roleplaying as much as a move away from calculators. For example, even D&D derived games like Palladium don't calaculate XP per monster, but simply by encounter.

But most groups I see focus on the combat. Not so much by choice, but becuase that's the only thing that is presented as exciting.