Are Canadians more likely to be Roleplayers?

[happyhermit]

So, since I got back into talking about rpgs online, I have noticed that us Canadians seem to be very well represented considering the size of our country. Then, I noticed the discrepancy of numbers on Amazon. This is just a comparison to the USA of course, but I wonder if it holds true generally.

ATM, Phb on Amazon.com is at #95 in "books", while on Amazon.ca it is at #23. All the D&D books are similarly much higher in Canada. I don't see this being due to online/FLGS, because I have heard from many people in the US not having access to game stores, whereas out here in the middle of nowhere I have several good ones in what people here consider reasonable driving distance. By all accounts FLGS in Canada seem to be doing at least as well as ones south of the border. The ratio between MSRP and online price seems similar in both countries; $30 vs $57 in Canada, $27 vs $50 in USA.

So, am I imagining this or does it seem like it's the case? If so, why do you think that is, simply the old "Places with "bad" weather have more people who play indoor games"?

 

[Umbran]

Well, we must remember that is a relative ranking - the difference may be because it is selling at a higher relative rate... or it could be because Canadians *don't* buy many of the other things that get bought in the top 100 on Amazon in the US.

But, I also went to university close to the Canadian border. The winters are long, dark, and cold, and that may give some support to a game that has you indoors with friendly folks...

 

[happyhermit]

Well, we must remember that is a relative ranking - the difference may be because it is selling at a higher relative rate... or it could be because Canadians *don't* buy many of the other things that get bought in the top 100 on Amazon in the US.

But, I also went to university close to the Canadian border. The winters are long, dark, and cold, and that may give some support to a game that has you indoors with friendly folks...

Well sure, but that's kind of my point, if there are books that aren't available in Canada that are in the US that is certainly the exception rather than the rule (I haven't seen it). So if people in Canada are buying more RP books than other books the logical conclusion is that they play more RP games. Canadians as a group certainly don't read less than Americans, numbers I have seen show that they read more books of all types.

It could certainly be that old weather phenomenon.

 

[Umbran]

So if people in Canada are buying more RP books than other books the logical conclusion is that they play more RP games.

No, not really. Statistically speaking, we can't say that. In order to say that, we have to make a whole stack of assumptions about other behaviors of Canadians vs. Americans. Simply put, the sales rank only tells you sales rank *within the country it is made*. We don't know how #23 in Canada compares to #23 in the US, for example, so we can't really draw conclusions.

Canadians as a group certainly don't read less than Americans, numbers I have seen show that they read more books of all types.

This isn't about reading books. It is about *buying* them. Go take a look at the top 12 books in the US on Amazon. There's a whole lot of *dieting* books in there. I'd even say that most of those never get actually read. They are part of the diet and fitness culture in the US, which may not exist in anywhere near the same form up north. This doesn't mean the rate of people playing RPGs is any less, but merely that there's an unrelated phenomenon that drives book sales in the US, that drives the relative rank of D&D books down here.

 

[happyhermit]

No, not really. Statistically speaking, we can't say that. In order to say that, we have to make a whole stack of assumptions about other behaviors of Canadians vs. Americans. Simply put, the sales rank only tells you sales rank *within the country it is made*. We don't know how #23 in Canada compares to #23 in the US, for example, so we can't really draw conclusions.

You're right, and I realized after posting my logic was a little shaky there. It is entirely possible that Canadians purchase in a way that lets less books climb higher in the sales ranks (compared to the PHB) than Americans do, the difference would have to be pretty large to account for the differences in rank though. I am also going only on few spot checks of ranking, which change all the time. A better comparison would be actual sales per capita, but that isn't going to happen I suppose.

 

[Herobizkit]

We Canadians are more open to gaming with strangers in a co-operative manner. ^_^

 

[MichaelSomething]

We Canadians are more open to gaming with strangers in a co-operative manner. ^_^

Eh?

 

[was]

Cold weather and good beer = more gaming.

 

[SwivSnapshot]

Cold weather and good beer = more gaming.

Now Wisconsin makes sense.