Dungeons & Dragons has 15 Million Players in NA Alone; Storyline Is "The Da Vinci Code meets Gangs o

Ace · May 6, 2018

Morrus said:
.... because...?

Because I used to do polls for a living and I am suspicious of the validity of them even to this day. The thing is, true or not the increase in gamers and in women is GOOD news not bad news.

TerraDave · May 6, 2018

Tony Vargas said:
Have you checked all the threads he's posted in lately?
It didn't really end, though, because 3.5 was barely different, just a way of getting the same fans to re-buy the same books (yeah, I'm still cynical about that). Really, PF's prettymuch the same game, so the total 3e run /might/ be ending with the introduction of PF2, after 18 years - if no one else swoops in and clones PF or re-clones 3.5, that is.
(Granted, by that standard, 1e & 2e AD&D could be 'pretymuch the same game,' and added together for a 20+ year run.)

Yeah, it's soo much more important that someone is wrong than that the hobby is growing...

You're not exactly mr positivity.

3.5 changed things on ENWorld. The fights over it, the end of the big 3rd party wave, the cracks in the facade (those started with the immortals handbook, but got worse with 3.5). It wasn't 4e, but it was a foreshadowing.

It can be good to go after bad ideas and bs memes. No shame in that.

Morrus · May 6, 2018

Ace said:
Because I used to do polls for a living and I am suspicious of the validity of them even to this day. The thing is, true or not the increase in gamers and in women is GOOD news not bad news.

Then you’ll know that basic demographic info is super easy to gather, and the processes behind it are really accurate. It might be harder to dig down into nuanced opinions on stuff, which might have a slightly lower reliability (but still really high if done properly) but basic demographics are easy and very accurate. Gender percentage? That’s the easiest one of all.

CubicsRube · May 6, 2018

The number is higher than I would have thought, but I hope it's true.

I like having women in gaming groups because I notice that when they aren't present, the dynamic seems to be better.

I'm all for all women groups too. If I had a FLGS, this poll would make me wonder if a ladies gaming night might be a feasible option.

SkidAce · May 6, 2018

Rygar said:
The saddest part is, if they actually tried producing D&D they'd probably be able to grow their market to huge proportions.

Compared to any other time in my gaming experience from around 82ish, there is a LOT more people playing, and those people make up a WAY bigger percentage of the population than they used to.

gyor · May 6, 2018

CubicsRube said:
The number is higher than I would have thought, but I hope it's true.

I like having women in gaming groups because I notice that when they aren't present, the dynamic seems to be better.

I'm all for all women groups too. If I had a FLGS, this poll would make me wonder if a ladies gaming night might be a feasible option.

I certainly hope not, I would be opposed to a men's night so I wouldn't support a ladies night.

Am I the only one who doesn't really care if 40% are women thing one way or the other? Good for them, but it honestly it makes no difference to be, they are no more or less special then any other player.

Erdric Dragin · May 6, 2018

Parmandur said:
3.0 was never on top the way 5E is: by this point in 3.0's existence, it was out of print, not having the best sales year in the history of D&D (which Perkins has stated is the case for 5E n 2017).

But 3.5 was rising, and pretty quick, before they dropped the ball, abandoned it and made 4e. I knew 4e was going to be a problem and not last long, and I was correct. The reason 5e is doing well is they took nostalgia and sprinkled it with a few of the best mechanics from later editions and called it a day. The rest are adventures, very little mechanics.

I do, however, wish they did more "fluff" books. Didn't "Elminster's Forgotten Realms" do really well? And the "Grand History of the Realms" as well? I miss the days of 2e books, so much world material to play with. I was hoping for that in 5e, but we didn't really get it.

Parmandur · May 6, 2018

Erdric Dragin said:
But 3.5 was rising, and pretty quick, before they dropped the ball, abandoned it and made 4e. I knew 4e was going to be a problem and not last long, and I was correct. The reason 5e is doing well is they took nostalgia and sprinkled it with a few of the best mechanics from later editions and called it a day. The rest are adventures, very little mechanics.

I do, however, wish they did more "fluff" books. Didn't "Elminster's Forgotten Realms" do really well? And the "Grand History of the Realms" as well? I miss the days of 2e books, so much world material to play with. I was hoping for that in 5e, but we didn't really get it.

I'd read it more as, 3.5 turned the tide before fizzling out and necessitated a more radical change after gradualism didn't work with 3.5. Note how common layoffs we're in the D&D department through the whole period, and publishing strategies abandoned left and right.

ad_hoc · May 6, 2018

Erdric Dragin said:
The reason 5e is doing well is they took nostalgia and sprinkled it with a few of the best mechanics from later editions and called it a day. The rest are adventures, very little mechanics.

I would wager that the majority of people playing 5e have no prior experience or nostalgia for D&D of the past.

I would further speculate that it is doing well because it is inclusive, is designed to be intuitive, and values narrative over simulation.

It shouldn't be shocking that creating a game that is friendly to women will result in more sales and players as many people are women*.

* I realize I don't have hard data on how many people are women. My evidence is only anecdotal, in my experience women are people and I have encountered many of them. I have not, however, interviewed everyone in the world to find out how many of them are women so take this statement with a grain of salt.

Rygar · May 6, 2018

Morrus said:
Then you’ll know that basic demographic info is super easy to gather, and the processes behind it are really accurate. It might be harder to dig down into nuanced opinions on stuff, which might have a slightly lower reliability (but still really high if done properly) but basic demographics are easy and very accurate. Gender percentage? That’s the easiest one of all.

Only when you have a known population that you can survey. You can survey a city. You can survey the attendees of a movie, play, sports game, etc.

You cannot survey an unknown population. When your product is a set of three books, and n number of people in a group need only one set, you cannot tell how many people are there, what their sex is, or how often they play.

The numbers presented here are about as accurate as randomly generated values. They have no way of knowing how many people play, no way of contacting them, they're blind.

The closest thing they could do is cold call people, or survey some game shops. The most likely thing they could do is survey game shops in their HQ region, which given the culture in their area, is going to give them *extremely* bad information. I don't think anyone would try to assert that Seattle is equivalent to anything other than a few cities in CA, and very different from everywhere else.

Dungeons & Dragons has 15 Million Players in NA Alone; Storyline Is "The Da Vinci Code meets Gangs o

Ace

Adventurer

TerraDave

5ever, or until 2024

Morrus

Well, that was fun

CubicsRube

Hero

SkidAce

Legend

gyor

Legend

Erdric Dragin

Adventurer

Parmandur

Book-Friend

ad_hoc

(they/them)

Rygar

Explorer

Similar Threads

Related Articles