How long have you been gaming?

[GrahamWills]

I went to UKGE and saw no Americans; my conclusion is that Americans don’t play D&D

...

How many 20 yr old new gamers have even heard of Origins, let alone travelled there?

Your comparison (even with the smiley) is silly. I wasn't just looking at one group and saying "D&D players are old". I was comparing two groups drawn form the same population. The correct analog would be to say "I went to UKGE and saw no Americans playing D&D, but many of them playing Indie Games; my conclusion is that Americans don’t play D&D" which would, honestly, be a reasonable conclusion.

The second point suffers the same issue -- even if the Origins crowd skews older, why do those who play D&D skew older than the Indie game crowd?

You could posit that there is some interaction between the three factors -- perhaps that young d&d players stay away from Origins, or that young indie game players really like origins. That doesn't seem likely to me, but maybe.

I am curious though, does anyone have some demographic info on GenCon or Origins attendees?

 

[Morrus]

Your comparison (even with the smiley) is silly. I wasn't just looking at one group and saying "D&D players are old". I was comparing two groups drawn form the same population. The correct analog would be to say "I went to UKGE and saw no Americans playing D&D, but many of them playing Indie Games; my conclusion is that Americans don’t play D&D" which would, honestly, be a reasonable conclusion.

It was supposed to be silly. It was a joke.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I would expect the exact opposite. WotC's player acquisition outreach over the last 3 years has been strongly targeted at new, young gamers (as it should be if they want to keep going for another 40 years).

They're outreach maybe, but their product is targeted at long-time and returning gamers. Kinda the opposite of Essentials, which was a product targeted at new gamers, marketed to returning gamers ("The Box is Back!" 'what's inside it bears no resemblance...').

It's not as bad a strategy as it sounds (the 5e strategy, the Essentials strategy was even worse than it sounds), because long-time and returning players include a lot of really good DMs, who can take the relatively familiar (to them), relatively intuitive/complicated (to new players) system, and deliver a good gaming experience.

JMHO, y'know, from being a long-time DM delivering play experiences to new players...

They're using Twitch, young Hollywood types, an aggressive worldwide Organised Play program, and large social media outreach all designed to that end. While EN World itself would skew older (for other reasons)

Like, this is an Internet Forum and that is so 2002.

I don't think that D&D as a whole does these days. At local gaming clubs and the like, the new youngsters are all playing D&D 5E.

5e or PF, as those are likely the only things on offer, if they're looking for an RPG, (or there with their dad, like the youngster at my Wed table).
More of them are obviously playing magic or boardgames at the FLGS, even more MMOs without ever darkening the door of one. :shrug:

 

[jasper]

My Players Handbook is dated 8010.10 so I bought the PHB with my birthday money. So say Sept late August 1980. And I don't have any original dice.

 

[Mercule]

It was supposed to be silly. It was a joke.

Jokes are not allowed. We don't play these games to have fun.

 

[DragonMan]

I first played at age 15. We played AD&D version 1. I created a first level magic-user whose one memorized spell was Charm Person. I didn't know what the heck was going on and just tagged along as the group explored a dungeon. I did nothing except hold a torch, so I was a bit depressed at not being able to do something. After returning to town, our group went to the only merchant in town and he was rooking us. I cast Charm Person on him and he failed the save! I was the hero for the day for getting far better than normal selling prices for our loot.

 

[jamesalan]

I have been playing games since I was 6 years old. When I was child, I mostly loved playing action games. But now I love playing puzzle and logic game.

This is one of my most favorite online gaming sites http://www.coolmathgameskids.com/

 

[Mallus]

Started when I was 16 (I think) in 1985. So 32 years, give or take. Memory's been getting sketchy for years...

Might have been 15... prolly not 17... like I said, sketchy.

 

[pogre]

Started playing very early - pretty sure it was Thanksgiving, 1974. Introduce to the game by an older cousin.

We were blessed in the midwest with access to a boom in the then new rpg genre. We were right smack in the middle of Judges Guild in Decatur, GDW in Bloomington-Normal, and TSR in Geneva.

 

[Mike 007]

I have been playing games since I was 10 years old. Some of the first games I played on PC were on my Pentium 2 and I remembered playing Prince of Persia, some low poly moto GP, Duck hunter, Doom, and much more fun retro games for that period. Now I play Dota 2, LOL, Heroes of the Storm, Counterstrike Global Offensive and more. When I lack time I play some fast online games made in webGL here: Play Free Online Games. Technology is progressing fast we have better and better online games that you can play in browsers without having to install anything.