D&D General D&D's Utter Dominance Is Good or Bad Because...

[DEFCON 1]

I don't know how other people find games or players. Personally I use meetup.org where you can search and filter out games. There's all sorts of social media or simply Google to find them. If you're asking people you already know, using word of mouth it still doesn't matter. Either some connection will get you the right contact or it won't, the number of negatives due to playing D&D or not gaming at all is irrelevant.

You aren't randomly throwing marbles or showing up at random locations hoping to find a game. I just don't see what the issue is.

Agreed.

I do find it ironic that we live in the internet age where we now have instant worldwide communication possible at the touch of our fingers and thousands of different ways to form communities and groups across the entire world... and yet people still say they can't find like-minded people to play their games with.

Which to me means one of two things...

1) They aren't looking hard enough or long enough and just give up because something they wanted wasn't immediately available to them (which goes along with the whole "instant gratification" culture the internet has helped bring along).

2) Their preferences for what they need to have in a game has become so much narrower and more esoteric that they can't find enough people that share their same exact idiosyncratic desires.

You couple those two together... it's no wonder some people say they can't find games.

 

[Oofta]

Agreed.

I do find it ironic that we live in the internet age where we now have instant worldwide communication possible at the touch of our fingers and thousands of different ways to form communities and groups across the entire world... and yet people still say they can't find like-minded people to play their games with.

Which to me means one of two things...

1) They aren't looking hard enough or long enough and just give up because something they wanted wasn't immediately available to them (which goes along with the whole "instant gratification" culture the internet has helped bring along).

2) Their preferences for what they need to have in a game has become so much narrower and more esoteric that they can't find enough people that share their same exact idiosyncratic desires.

You couple those two together... it's no wonder some people say they can't find games.

If you're willing to play online and are a bit flexible I can't imagine not being able to find just about any game you want. Searching for an in-person game can be difficult, but depending on circumstances it always has been. I remember finding people to play by putting up a piece of paper at a game store ... gaming is kind of weird like that. Now? After I moved and wanted to start a group? Posted online that I was starting a group with a link to what kind of game I run. On the other hand I grew up in a small town, I was just lucky that some of my friends played D&D.

If you aren't willing to run a game it can be hard to find people to play with in person. If you are willing to run a game or have a game that doesn't require a GM then it's easier. If someone opens up a game for newcomers they're going to be up front about what system they're using, it's not hard to filter out games you aren't interested in. If you filter out games you're not interested in it does lower the number of options. But the number of options that meet your criteria doesn't change because of the numbers of options you filter out.

 

[Eric V]

The goal of the game is to have people buy it. The way to do that is to make a game people enjoy. If something makes the game more enjoyable for the target audience it is therefore not a flaw.

Don't look at me, I didn't say it's a flaw! It's a strategy.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Basically it's you can please some of the people some of time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time. Any good designer is going to know this and try their personal best to get the former over the latter.

I agree, but if that's true WotC should be more clear about the audience they're designing for, perhaps by actually telling us their real design goals and how they intend the game to play.

 

[Corinnguard]

I agree, but if that's true WotC should be more clear about the audience they're designing for, perhaps by actually telling us their real design goals and how they intend the game to play.

True. Instead we had to learn what they were up to after a whistleblower came forward with their plans to change the OGL 1.0a and make D&D into a purely VT experience.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I should just note that the fact you can find a lot of potential people playing the game you want does not mean you can get the time and day of the week in sync. I spent about six months trying to put together a group remotely once and that was the dealbreaker far less than the system.

 

[Oofta]

I should just note that the fact you can find a lot of potential people playing the game you want does not mean you can get the time and day of the week in sync. I spent about six months trying to put together a group remotely once and that was the dealbreaker far less than the system.

True, but the presence or absence of D&D has nothing to do with that.

 

[Thomas Shey]

True, but the presence or absence of D&D has nothing to do with that.

It still means the "if you want to play other games you can do it" is not nearly as tidy as some people are presenting. I've expressed my opinion about the other part of that and see no reason to continue it further.

 

[Oofta]

It still means the "if you want to play other games you can do it" is not nearly as tidy as some people are presenting. I've expressed my opinion about the other part of that and see no reason to continue it further.

There have always been and will always be issues with scheduling and finding people for group activities. It simply doesn't have anything to do with D&D being the most popular game or not.

 

[Shardstone]

True. Instead we had to learn what they were up to after a whistleblower came forward with their plans to change the OGL 1.0a and make D&D into a purely VT experience.

It is legitimately impossible to make D&D a pure VTT experience. Please don't dip into hyperbole when making points.