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 occasionally to get some inspiration, but if it's more often than the real thing then it raises some questions...

 

[jmucchiello]

It makes sense to me. In a way it’s how I got in the hobby long ago. I watched my friends play, then took the plunge.

I think this needs a boost. Lots of people joined the hobby by watching their friends play. It's the spouse who comes to game and just watches who is rolling up a character a few sessions later. This has been happening for decades. Twitch and Youtube just make so you don't have to have a spouse who plays. Instead you have "Hey, honey, I've been watching these videos and..."

IOW, this isn't really new. It's just something old in a new format.

 

[Mallus]

Another great thing about this proliferation of online gaming to watch is we get to see how many different ways the game is played. I'm okay with the fact *some* people might be PLAYING D&D WRONG.

Why last night I stumbled across what I think was Girls, Guts, and Glory while I was trying to find Force Grey on the PS4 Twitch app -- which is possibly not the platform a man nearing 50 should be using or admit to using. It sounded like the PCs were in some sort of spa, possibly gossiping while high on something analogous to Ecstasy (or maybe this was just their personalities).

And I was like "Wow, what a weird things to be doing in a D&D... wait a minute.... this could be MY GROUP!". One of he most quoted scenes from my old 3e campaign took place at a hotel restaurant brunch and I introduced a magical Ecstasy-analogue way back in a 1990s 2e campaign.

It's nice to know me & my group aren't alone!

edit: it's also nice that by their very nature, the popular gaming streams are going to focus on the characters & their hijinks, not on technical rules issues or SYSTEM MATTERS or articulating positions on simulationism or any of the other popular fodder that gets discussed in places like this. Not that I'm dissing conversations about any of those things -- but honestly, they're probably not appealing to people curious about the game, and they're not the reasons we got involved in the hobby in the first place.

We learned to love arguments about the nature of hit points later...

 

[Aaron L]

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?

The name Harmonquest seems to ring bells for me, maybe? That's the one with the pro voice actors, right? I was only able to watch the first 2, maybe 3 episodes. I was very excited at first... actual D&D play with professional actors! The DM seemed to be really on the ball, with a big book of notes, and seemed like he really had a lot of stuff planned out for the players; it seemed like it was all set to be great... but the players were more determined to be silly and ridiculous than to actually play out the game he had going, and the scenarios all devolved into goofery without ever getting anywhere, with the players wasting the whole time with things like asking inane questions of every NPC and arguing with each other over stupid things, and I soon lost interest in watching anymore. It felt to me more like a Monty Python skit parodying a game of D&D than an actual game of D&D. I'll just assume/hope that things improved after I lost interest in watching. I wouldn't say I was actually insulted by it, but it did bring back those bad memories and my excitement really waned and I decided I could spend my time on better things. Like generating massive random dungeons on http://donjon.bin.sh/ and reading through them just for fun. That site is rad.

 

[Aaron L]

I'm still relatively new to D&D playing. I grew up getting shut out of my friend's groups because I was the only girl and I would "throw the dynamic off." 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.

Do it do it do it! You can do it! Your "friends" who wouldn't let you play because it would "throw the dynamic off" were doofuses. I would love to have women in our gaming group who are there because they just want to play. More diversity = more points of view = wider perspective = better games.

You can run a better game than any of them, I guarantee it! Just go for it!

 

[ClaytonCross]

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...

Kind of like fantasy foot ball, soccer, basket ball, tennis, golf, baseball, and The Armored Combat League... just to name a few. This trend of people watching things instead of doing them has been getting out of hand since the Roman Coliseum and we should really do something about it.

; )- lol


Regards,
Clayton Cross.

 

[thewok]

While it's great to see a surge in popularity of the hobby, this particular phenomenon is not without its negative aspects. I have a friend who was introduced to D&D via a little bit of Critical Role, but mostly Adventure Zone and the like. Because of this, she expects every RPG to be both filled with people doing special voices and somewhat silly. She has trouble playing a character until she "finds her voice," which is a quite literal thing for her. And then, when other people don't have special voices or don't engage in silly antics (say, because their characters wouldn't act in such a fashion), she gets upset, and her energy level dives, killing the mood of everyone around her.

I love that we're getting more exposure as a hobby, but I don't like that some people start believing that Critical Role is the expected "normal" game.

 

[Hussar]

On the other hand, perhaps others should take a cue from her. Games are often a lot more fun if people really dive into the character. If everyone is just calling out the numbers and acting in third person, it can make for a very dry game. Not necessarily bad, but, not as good as it could be.

 

[Parmandur]

While it's great to see a surge in popularity of the hobby, this particular phenomenon is not without its negative aspects. I have a friend who was introduced to D&D via a little bit of Critical Role, but mostly Adventure Zone and the like. Because of this, she expects every RPG to be both filled with people doing special voices and somewhat silly. She has trouble playing a character until she "finds her voice," which is a quite literal thing for her. And then, when other people don't have special voices or don't engage in silly antics (say, because their characters wouldn't act in such a fashion), she gets upset, and her energy level dives, killing the mood of everyone around her.

I love that we're getting more exposure as a hobby, but I don't like that some people start believing that Critical Role is the expected "normal" game.

It doesn't seem that abnormal to me, but I pretty much never play sober.

 

[thewok]

On the other hand, perhaps others should take a cue from her. Games are often a lot more fun if people really dive into the character. If everyone is just calling out the numbers and acting in third person, it can make for a very dry game. Not necessarily bad, but, not as good as it could be.

We're not dry and calling out numbers and acting in third person, though. We just don't go to "fantasy costco" and other such things.

 

[MarkB]

While it's great to see a surge in popularity of the hobby, this particular phenomenon is not without its negative aspects. I have a friend who was introduced to D&D via a little bit of Critical Role, but mostly Adventure Zone and the like. Because of this, she expects every RPG to be both filled with people doing special voices and somewhat silly. She has trouble playing a character until she "finds her voice," which is a quite literal thing for her. And then, when other people don't have special voices or don't engage in silly antics (say, because their characters wouldn't act in such a fashion), she gets upset, and her energy level dives, killing the mood of everyone around her.

I love that we're getting more exposure as a hobby, but I don't like that some people start believing that Critical Role is the expected "normal" game.

I've been in a lot of games, with a lot of different people, and the majority of them have had frequent silliness. They are, after all, mostly gatherings of friends having fun together. You should at least consider the possibility that it is your group, rather than her, that is atypical.