Attracting new people to gaming -- ideas and strategies

[Buttercup]

The idealist in me thinks WotC has the right idea with their new Afternoon Adventures With Dungeons & Dragons programs in local libraries. I just hope they actually get some responses, and that the program actually gets some support.

Speaking as a librarian at one of the libraries that WotC contacted while creating this program, I can tell you that it is getting a response. We have 14 library locations in our county system, and presently 3 of us are running D&D games for kids. If these go well, and I have no reason to think they won't, I expect more locations to jump on the band wagon.

Each one of these games may only create six new gamers, but eventually those kids will want to start games of their own, and they will recruit their friends.

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but D&D is really an excellent activity for middle school students. It requires them to use math skills & reading skills, to learn cooperation and to develop critical thinking skills and an active imagination. I consider it a perfect fit as a program for public libraries, since one of our major roles in society is to make available opportunities for independent, lifelong learning. As citizens, we also have a stake in helping teens achieve their potential, by modelling appropriate behavior for them and helping them to find productive outlets for their time and energy.

If anyone reading this is a public librarian who wants to discuss this with me, or if you are a library patron who wants to refer your local library to me, you can email me at my yahoo account, which is the same as my yahoo instant messenger name listed to the left of this post. In that case, I'd give you my work email address so we could continue the discussion "officially".

 

[DragonLancer]

At my FLGS "Gamers" we have two gaming evenings, one for CCG's and board games, and the other for roleplaying. Through that we have had several of the younger kids take an interest in D&D and other RPG's. We older gamers are helping them out when they run their own games and I hope that it encourages them to take the hobby up proper.

IMX, established gaming groups are fairlt tight knit - they don't want/need to increase the number of players that they already have, and I would guess most gamers don't have the time to partake in a new group. So I think a lot of the work needs to come from gaming stores as well as gamers in general.

We're lucky here in the UK in so far that we never had the bad press over roleplaying games and people are quite open about it, with no preconceived notions (other than it is a little geeky).

 

[diaglo]

speaking as an adult who was a kid and took our game to the local county library back in the late 70's/early 80's...

the library is a great place to recruit new gamers.

 

[Tav_Behemoth]

some sort of tournament format that gave ANY player the feeling they could be the next big winner... a big cash payout would all add up to increased popularity for gaming.

See the "Kill Monsters & Win Money" link in my .sig. It's inspired by the "D&D for Cash" event Kurt Stoffer of BoneMan Press has run w/great success at Gen Con Indy the last two years. When I spoke to Kurt about doing it at So Cal, he thought it wouldn't work because there weren't enough players (1/6th as many as at Indy), which I'm going to try to overcome by working harder to promote the event.

I'll let you know whether this draws a good proportion of new players (So Cal is doing a good job of that in general.)

 

[talien]

I wonder if MMORPG players who are also RPG players could discuss RPGs over at those forums (eg: Guild Wars, Everquest, World of Warcraft). Bring attention to the new products coming out, or ideas, and how more flexible tabletop RPGing is. It's not to put down MMORPGs, but to explain how tabletop RPGs are a different ballgame. There's no need to do hardcore advocacy or say how one is superior to the other, but just to establish a presence and show how tabletop RPGs are also a fun way to experience the game world the MMORPGs are in.

I did exactly this with my brother's girlfriend (now fiancee!). You can see the results of her game in our story hour: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=103252&page=3

It was exciting to see a female MMORPGer take to D&D so quickly. EverQuest did all the work for me!

 

[Mystery Man]

And that's how we'll grow D&D. One kid at a time...

I'm pulling in possibly 2 more but at least one new player to the game next weekend. We're all in our 30's though.

 

[Kapture]

If anyone reading this is a public librarian who wants to discuss this with me, or if you are a library patron who wants to refer your local library to me, you can email me at my yahoo account, which is the same as my yahoo instant messenger name listed to the left of this post. In that case, I'd give you my work email address so we could continue the discussion "officially".

That would be me, I suppose. I will drop you a line.

I started a group at my library in June. I ran for them all summer, and the group was interested enough to want to continue playing half time through the school year. About two thirds of my kids were brand new players, and two (not the brand new ones) started running at our first fall game, yesterday. One came back in fall with a Samurai class that he'd written from scratch.

It's been a gas watching the kids get really excited about something that can kind of feel old hat 23 years in. It was even more fun watching their brains explode making this new campaign. It was a fun adventure, well designed.

No big money was needed for this. Next "semester" I think I will advertise again, as a games club. I would like to start another table. I'm hoping to expose other game playes to DND, and my DND players to some other games.

Two Notes:

I started out with one Living Greyhawk adventure, but they weren't fond of it and, honestly, neither was I. So I switched to a kit-bashed home brew, which they ate up. Sometimes it's not the competition. Or, really, it is, if the product isn't so good.

The library isn't necessarily a great way to meet new gamers. I know when I tried to weasle in on a game as a kid, the college students I was introduced to let me roll up a character and killed it in the first round. Sometimes the problem is the gamers, not the video games.

 

[Drkfathr1]

A big part of the burden is going to have to fall on WOTC's shoulders, and other gaming companies.

They HAVE to advertise in more than just issues of Dragon or Dungeon Magazine. We need ads in a great variety of magazines, and even TV commercials. It would be an expensive prospect I know, but that's the best way to reach segments of the population that have no exposure to D&D, or comics, or games in general. RPG's need mass publicity (of the good kind).

The Library program is a great start, and we all have to do our part to teach new gamers, but at some point, the "Game Days" and "Meetup" is kind of like preaching to the choir. It's only going to reach a small segment of society, and generally only reach people that already know about RPG's.

A large burden needs to fall on the RPGA, but in its current incarnation, with its lack of support and organization at the topmost levels, it can't do much to help.

 

[nothing to see here]

sorry

 

[nothing to see here]

The idealist in me thinks WotC has the right idea with their new Afternoon Adventures With Dungeons & Dragons programs in local libraries. I just hope they actually get some responses, and that the program actually gets some support.

The realist in me says that what gaming needs to become truly ubiquitous and popular is the same thing that poker needed. Big-time money.
Poker has literally exploded with the advent of things like the World Series of Poker. The organizers of these events have hit the nail on the head by convincing the fans of two things:

1 - That ANYONE has a shot at winning.
2 - That winning could make them rich.

This formula has worked for singing and dancing too, with the popularlity of American Idol, and So You Think You Can Dance? Even with cruel judges they get huge turnouts for auditions because everyone thinks they have a shot, and they want that fame and fortune.

I share your conclusions, though not your reasoning. The World Series of Poker has been around for decades - it is only over the past 3 years or so that poker has becoem a pop culture phenomenon. Likewise, American Idol has beenb long preceeded by a variety of talent competitions from "Star Search" back in the 80's all the way to Ed Sullivan.

Which is not to say you're wrong to bring these ideas up...the RPG industry has a lot to learn from them - particulary poker. What is useful is to ask, why did pokwer (and American Idol / Pop Idol etc) take off when they did.

For poker, the answer is simple -- it became a television spectator sport. And the reason it became a television spectator sport was because the organizers developed away to let the TV audience 'in' on Poker's big secret - each player's hole cards. Believe me the WSOP would ba FAR more tedious thing to watch if you didn't have those miniture cameras broadcasting everybody's secret.

In essence -- poker was de-mystified.

The American Idol example is somewhat less fruitful. American Idol emerged as the winner from among a large slate of 'talent' 'pop-star' style competitions several years ago. The reason it succeeded had nothing to do with the 'anybody can win' mentality (every competition shared that), indeed it had very little to do with the competition at all. It had to do with audience...and the emotional release they were promised every week. Alone among the talent-competitions, American Idol does not pick 'winners' it picks 'losers'...a different loser to be booted off the show every week. Sociologists have documented an extremely common emotional release that comes when people watch those who they perceive to be their 'betters' humiliated. A different humiliation every week is American Idol's dirty secret.

Since RPG players often have already run the gauntlet of humilation through the passtime's stigmas in certain quarters...I'd say that that the American idol lesson not particulary approprirate.

Which brings us back to poker. One simple innovation allowed 'outsiders' to peel back the mystery of the game. The question we should ask is that...to an outsider a group of people sitting around a table tossing dice mystifies as much as anything else. Is there an innovation that allows people to peel back that mystery and engage the game.

I believe so