D&D General Gamer Stats From White Dwarf in the 80s

cbwjm · Jul 8, 2019

Azzy said:
To be fair, Mary Poppins could be considered a horror movie. Just saying.

Somewhere on youtube is a trailer someone made for Mary Poppins cut to look exactly like that.

ad_hoc · Jul 8, 2019

Sacrosanct said:
Where did those #s come from? I’d be surprised if D&D had a demographic split like that.

Here is an article stating that.

https://www.themarysue.com/women-in-dungeons-and-dragons/

According to the article there were 20% in 2012 and 40% as of May 2018.

As more people are introduced I would guess that the number would be getting closer to parity.

I think this goes hand in hand with people who won't believe how many people are playing the game. It answers the question of where these people are coming from. They're previously non-hobby gamers who are playing with friends in their homes.

Unwise · Jul 8, 2019

Von Ether said:
Who published the Ringworld RPG?

Chaosium.

There was strangely another game by the same name floating around at the same time, with the same setting but different rules. I believe that one was digitally published, it was sold on disks at gaming stores. This led to a lot of confusion in my area.

Sacrosanct · Jul 8, 2019

ad_hoc said:
Here is an article stating that.

https://www.themarysue.com/women-in-dungeons-and-dragons/

According to the article there were 20% in 2012 and 40% as of May 2018.

As more people are introduced I would guess that the number would be getting closer to parity.

I think this goes hand in hand with people who won't believe how many people are playing the game. It answers the question of where these people are coming from. They're previously non-hobby gamers who are playing with friends in their homes.

The author never said where that number came from though. Even the comments in that linked article have people asking where it came from. I’d love to see the methodology of how that figure was arrived to. I would love it to be accurate, but it doesn’t seem to jive with what we’re actually seeing in game stores, conventions (lots of women, but not nearly half of the attendees, and most of them are playing other games besides D&D), or online community members. What % of posters here on the D&D forum are women?

I know the numbers have increased significantly over the years, but 40% seems awfully high.

ad_hoc · Jul 8, 2019

Sacrosanct said:
The author never said where that number came from though. Even the comments in that linked article have people asking where it came from. I’d love to see the methodology of how that figure was arrived to. I would love it to be accurate, but it doesn’t seem to jive with what we’re actually seeing in game stores, conventions (lots of women, but not nearly half of the attendees, and most of them are playing other games besides D&D), or online community members. What % of posters here on the D&D forum are women?

I know the numbers have increased significantly over the years, but 40% seems awfully high.

Yeah, I've tried to be careful with my language.

That was the first hit in google for 'women in D&D'.

Maybe that was where I was remembering the statistic from.

Personally I don't find it that hard to believe when we look at how many people are playing 5e.

The % of posters here who are women is a meaningless sample. It is highly biased towards hobby gamers and insignificant in number compared to the population at large.

I think the vast majority of 5e players just play with friends privately as they would a board game.

I wonder if WotC has published the number somewhere.

MGibster · Jul 8, 2019

I've noticed changes in the way gamers comport themselves in gaming spaces the last few years. It used to be when I went to a game store I wasn't surprised when I met someone whose idea of good hygiene was to gargle with Coca-Cola and make sure his clothes couldn't stand up on their own without him in them. We collectively referred to these persons as Cat Piss Man because he reeked. I hardly ever see Cat Piss Man in gaming venues these days.

I've also noticed a distinct lack of visible ass cracks when visiting game stores these days. It seems like just a few short years ago I could always count on seeing ass cracks from those playing Magic, Warhammer 40k, or D&D. Now when I see an ass crack at my FLGS I'm surprised.

And most game stores I go to are better organized, well lit, and lack that "game store odor" my wife always complained about. Now when I go to the geek store my wife will actually go in with me.

I certainly can't say the atmosphere has improved everywhere. But has it? Do gaming spaces seem more inviting to women and girls these days?

Sacrosanct · Jul 8, 2019

ad_hoc said:
The % of posters here who are women is a meaningless sample. .

It’s a sample size we can look at. Which is more data than what was provided in that article. If this is a meaningless sample, then what does that make for a statement with no sample whatsoever?

cbwjm · Jul 8, 2019

ENworld has a little over 340,000 members which is pretty significant.

Of course, not all of them will be active and many (most?) may not have filled out the "about me" section of their profile (I haven't), so even if a report could be run off, it might not be the most accurate.

Hussar · Jul 8, 2019

Never minding the number of sock puppet accounts people have as well.

Venley · Jul 8, 2019

Forums skew to the older, whereas much of the rise is amongst the young, often coming to gaming via youtube.

As an anecdotal data point, 40 years after I first started gaming, I am back playing at NoDDSoc in Sheffield. The 14 original gamers of 1979 (3 female, 1 on the committee) are now 130, c.35 female/non-binary (and nearly 50% of the committee). On the whole the women chose to play in the games advertised last September as being newbie-friendly or roleplay-heavy.

I have spent the last two years there in an amazing campaign of Stars Without Number, with 50/50 split of players plus a male GM.