Dec 1981 Dragon Magazine survey -- results

[Bullgrit]

I recently picked up a couple old issues of Dragon Magazine at my local comic book shop.
Total Bullgrit

One of them, #62 (June 1982) mentioned the results of a survey they had included six months previous. For anyone interested in the details given:

"about 7,000" respondants

95% readers are male
Average "a little over 16 1/2 years old"
4/5ths are students

"...been playing games on the average for a little more than two years, and most also serve as a DM for half the time they spend gaming."

Board games:
61% = "rules should be followed as closely as possible"*
17% = opposite of the above

Role-playing games:
42% = follow the rules as closely as possible**
37% = opposite
35% "said their gamemaster actually followed the official rules as well as possible"
34% = opposite

29.92% of readers "for new non-player characters" / "want more NPC's" in Dragon magazine


* This number surprises me. I would have expected a much higher percentage of following the rules of a board game a closely as possible.

** I thought there was a thread-poll around here that asked how closely we followed the RAW in the old days, but I can't find it. If someone else has a link to it, it would be interesting to compare the numbers.

Bullgrit

 

[Scribble]

* This number surprises me. I would have expected a much higher percentage of following the rules of a board game a closely as possible.

Eh... Doesn't suprise me that much... I think I've never started a game of Monopoly without clarrifying how people play it.

 

[El Mahdi]

Eh... Doesn't suprise me that much... I think I've never started a game of Monopoly without clarrifying how people play it.

Do you mean the rules, or flavor...like Forgiving, Bloodthirsty, and "The Full Donald Trump Treatment"?

 

[Lanefan]

One of them, #62 (June 1982) mentioned the results of a survey they had included six months previous. For anyone interested in the details given:

"about 7,000" respondants

Average "a little over 16 1/2 years old"

This one surprises me. I'd have expected an *average* age somewhat higher, and even a median age of 16 1/2 seems low. (I'd always thought the median age of players got lower as the '80's went on, and that in 1981-2 most players would have still been college age or higher).

4/5ths are students

This one, on the other hand, comes as no surprise at all.

"...been playing games on the average for a little more than two years, and most also serve as a DM for half the time they spend gaming."

Hmmm ... in my experience DMs have often been in relatively short supply. That said, it's unlikely to have been casual players responding to the survey, so they probably (and unintentionally) got a rather skewed view of things.

Lanefan

 

[Glyfair]

Hmmm ... in my experience DMs have often been in relatively short supply. That said, it's unlikely to have been casual players responding to the survey, so they probably (and unintentionally) got a rather skewed view of things.

Another self-selecting feature of the poll is that DMs are more likely to buy The Dragon (especially in those days).

That being said, I remember a lot more players taking a turn behind the gamemaster screen in those days. Part of it might have been more exposure to a variety of games. Some players would only GM spy games, superhero games, science fiction games, or specific rules sets.

 

[MerricB]

This one surprises me. I'd have expected an *average* age somewhat higher, and even a median age of 16 1/2 seems low. (I'd always thought the median age of players got lower as the '80's went on, and that in 1981-2 most players would have still been college age or higher).

Not that I participated in the survey, but 1981-2 was when I was first getting involved in D&D, as were a lot of my friends, and we were about 9 or 10.

Remember '81 was the year of the Moldvay boxed set, and even the old Blue Box Basic had been out for quite a few years previously.

Cheers!

 

[billd91]

Board games:
61% = "rules should be followed as closely as possible"*

* This number surprises me. I would have expected a much higher percentage of following the rules of a board game a closely as possible.

I'm not sure that surprises me. 61% is pretty high. The numbers you report don't add up to 100% so I assume there were people who didn't feel strongly enough to rate themselves as following the rules as closely as possible even though they probably already do.

But keep in mind that people house rule plenty of board games and common ones at the time would have included Risk and Monopoly, both of which support a lot of variation. And, who knows, maybe people were adding weapons to Chutes and Ladders as well.