I think that for our hobby to have a long future, it has to get to younger potential players. And they play mostly Warcraft.
I'm 38, been playing for 25 yrs. Last year I ended up with a 20 yr. old guy as a roommate. Long story, not for this thread. Anyhow, 20 yrs ago, he would have been exactly the type of guy to play D&D. Smart, reads some, is a computer geek, and plays lots of online games like World of Warcraft. He saw all my D&D books and was interested. We talked about D&D, and I had him play with my group for a few sessions. He liked it a lot.
I asked him if he knew anyone his age who played D&D. He said there were a few people, in high school, but they were the ones who couldn't afford computers. They were the poorer kids. The obvious implication being, why do it on paper when you can play it on a computer any time you feel like it?
I order to sell it to this kid, and others like him, we have to remember what it was like to be a kid. Not just a geeky kid with no money and no friends, but a regular kid who is a bit smarter than average, and who might be interested in playing.
What motivates kids today? In particular teenage boys? Being cool, and girls. Period. Same thing that motivated the cavemen boys. Part of our genetic makeup.
Perception of D&D players? Poor nerdy geeks who never get laid.
So we need to rebrand D&D as something that is cool and can get you laid.
How do we do that? Since no book, blog, review, or obscure webpage can ever convey what D&D is, and most kids don't know anyone who plays D&D, I think we need to find a way to introduce kids to it.
How?
Youtube.
We need to have someone put together a video of good-looking non-geeky teenage boys and girls playing Swords and Sorcery, having good time, and post it on Youtube. The key here is that it can't be anything even remotely geeky, nor hard to understand. Hire actors if you need to. For God's sake just don't make them look like dorks. Don't have them speak like nerds. They need to be cool. Have plenty of sexual innuendo, and try to convey that as a result of playing D&D, the smokin' hot teenage girls will likely bang the smokin' hot tenage boys.
Good looking cool people have fun playing D&D and they get laid because of it.
That's the message.
That's something playing WoW can never get you---sex with hot chicks.
Then make the videos on a regular basis. Sort of a few episode soap opera arc, where the fans of the vid can see the action of the game unfold, get interested, and hope for a RL hookup of the players. Make it a reality TV show type of thing.
That, IMHO, is the only way I can see to get new kids into the game. It has to be portrayed as cool, fun, not hard, and something that will get you laid.
I'm 38, been playing for 25 yrs. Last year I ended up with a 20 yr. old guy as a roommate. Long story, not for this thread. Anyhow, 20 yrs ago, he would have been exactly the type of guy to play D&D. Smart, reads some, is a computer geek, and plays lots of online games like World of Warcraft. He saw all my D&D books and was interested. We talked about D&D, and I had him play with my group for a few sessions. He liked it a lot.
I asked him if he knew anyone his age who played D&D. He said there were a few people, in high school, but they were the ones who couldn't afford computers. They were the poorer kids. The obvious implication being, why do it on paper when you can play it on a computer any time you feel like it?
I order to sell it to this kid, and others like him, we have to remember what it was like to be a kid. Not just a geeky kid with no money and no friends, but a regular kid who is a bit smarter than average, and who might be interested in playing.
What motivates kids today? In particular teenage boys? Being cool, and girls. Period. Same thing that motivated the cavemen boys. Part of our genetic makeup.
Perception of D&D players? Poor nerdy geeks who never get laid.
So we need to rebrand D&D as something that is cool and can get you laid.
How do we do that? Since no book, blog, review, or obscure webpage can ever convey what D&D is, and most kids don't know anyone who plays D&D, I think we need to find a way to introduce kids to it.
How?
Youtube.
We need to have someone put together a video of good-looking non-geeky teenage boys and girls playing Swords and Sorcery, having good time, and post it on Youtube. The key here is that it can't be anything even remotely geeky, nor hard to understand. Hire actors if you need to. For God's sake just don't make them look like dorks. Don't have them speak like nerds. They need to be cool. Have plenty of sexual innuendo, and try to convey that as a result of playing D&D, the smokin' hot teenage girls will likely bang the smokin' hot tenage boys.
Good looking cool people have fun playing D&D and they get laid because of it.
That's the message.
That's something playing WoW can never get you---sex with hot chicks.
Then make the videos on a regular basis. Sort of a few episode soap opera arc, where the fans of the vid can see the action of the game unfold, get interested, and hope for a RL hookup of the players. Make it a reality TV show type of thing.
That, IMHO, is the only way I can see to get new kids into the game. It has to be portrayed as cool, fun, not hard, and something that will get you laid.
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