I know this is really a small issue if any at all, but yet I find it mildly disturbing that so many people watch others play D&D instead of playing it themselves... it's kind of similar to the rise of "eSports" and their possible inclusion even in the olympics. And also my kids are starting to watch people play Minecraft on youtube instead of playing it themselves! It's ok to watch occasionally to get some inspiration, but if it's more often than the real thing then it raises some questions...
Over Half Of New D&D Players Got Into Game From Watching Online Play
I know this is really a small issue if any at all, but yet I find it mildly disturbing that so many people watch others play D&D instead of playing it themselves... it's kind of similar to the rise of "eSports" and their possible inclusion even in the olympics. And also my kids are starting to watch people play Minecraft on youtube instead of playing it themselves! It's ok to watch...
Parmandur
Book-Friend
Yeah, that jumped out at me as well: profit might very well mean they are getting more lisences from third parties, or ad revenue from Twitch, but point is: record profits, massive popularity and gaining traction.
Out of curiosity, which videos brought back the bad memories? I'm really new to watching other people playing D&D online -- i.e. I've seen Harmonquest & most of Force Grey: Omu -- so I'm curious as to which to avoid.
And on the flip side: which streams/casts do people recommend?
Henry
Autoexreginated
Watching other DMs is how I'm working up the courage to give it a go myself.
By all means, keep at it. There’s nothing quite like finding a good group to game with regularly. On one hand, I almost feel hesitant to give women that advice because of the horror stories I hear, but on the other hand, there are so many good people out there gaming that I know first-hand, that it’s worth the difficulty of putting up with the jerks to find them. It’s better to find existing friends and introduce them to gaming when you can, though - those are the kinds of groups that so often last for years.
Azzy
ᚳᚣᚾᛖᚹᚢᛚᚠ
That's just sad.
I kept trying, though, and eventually (YEARS later) found a group that would let me in. Then the DM got a girl friend and that was the end of the group because no one else knew how to DM. Watching other DMs is how I'm working up the courage to give it a go myself.
Get that courage, you can do it!
Are there any examples of other publishers trying to capitalize on this trend?
It seems foolish to ignore marketing data like this.
- D&D's most profitable year ever was 2016, and 2017 may surpass it.
- “Over half of the new people who started playing Fifth Edition [the game’s most recent update, launched in 2014] got into D&D through watching people play online,”
It seems foolish to ignore marketing data like this.
Parmandur
Book-Friend
Yeah, other games have streaming shows: Pathfinder, Star Wars in particular.
I’m sure there are many streams by players featuring different systems, but are any other publishers actively promoting or broadcasting live-play of their products?
happyhermit
Adventurer
D&D seems to have really led the way on this. There have been a couple RPG publishers on "Tabletop", but that isn't really a LP and this is years after they had the host on AI. I imagine it's much harder for less known systems to get people to do LPs, especially "taste makers"
but I haven't seen much in way of concerted effort or acknowledgement of it's importance until recently.Libramarian
Adventurer
There's an analogy here with pornography vs. real sex...
Sword of Spirit
Legend
I'm also one who gets irritated by watching groups that both have a poor understanding of the rules (and it is clearly ignorance rather than houseruling) and who aren't taking the game seriously. Are there any streams with some quality games that don't have those two problems?
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