DM and/or player?

[Graybeard]

There are 4 of us that run games in my group so I DM about 1/4 of the time. Two of us run homebrews, another runs an Eberron game, and the last runs various modules. We switch off every couple of months.

 

[Umbran]

I run a 3.5 campaign and a 4e episodic game, each running twice a month. I also play in Sagiro's bi-monthly 3.5 game and Storminator's monthly MnM game.

Be careful, dude, or you shall feel the weight of the board's collective envy.

In overall history, it has been about even, for me. Right now, I'm the only DM within reach.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

I went with half half. But that is over time.

From when I started gaming in '77 to '85 I was almost exclusively a DM.
I played for a number of years without GMing.
Around '90 or so I ran a long running champions game (10 years) and another long running FH game (about 5 years). I played in another game there too.

These days I mostly just play.

 

[Wombat]

30+ years, man and boy, behind the GM screen, with a few short forays on the other side.

 

[Zinovia]

Historically I've GM'd as much as I have played. For the past six years, we've been running only a single D&D game, and my husband has been DM'ing that.

I'm going to be back behind the screen soon running two different 4E games. One is KotS with the family and a friend of ours who is willing to put up with the kids (ages 10 and 13). The other will be a 4E conversion of WotBS whenever our Saturday group finishes up our six year old 3.5 game. At the rate we're going (1 session every 3-4 weeks), it will be awhile yet.

I'm a bit concerned about the transition to be honest. Not only are we switching systems, but we're switching DM's at the same time. This is a group that's been playing a single campaign for years. One of the players was brand new to RPG's when she started this, so she's never had another character, another system, or another DM. It puts a lot of pressure on me to ensure she's still having fun, despite having to give up her beloved bard "lost heir to the fallen duchy" character.

 

[Mercurius]

It sounds like a lot of "mostly DMs" would like t play more; I know that I would have, yet usually ended up DMing because I was generally the most interested in gaming in most of the groups I've been in, as well as the unfortunate fact that some people are better as players than as DMs.

 

[Belorin]

It depends on the game bring played, for D&D, I DM mostly but will play a pc in an emergency.

Bel

 

[Invisible Stalker]

About half and half for me, I'm currently in the DM slot.

 

[Joshua Randall]

I'm toying with the idea of doing a series of polls (for the fun of it) to get an idea of EN World demographics, and how they may or may not be--or to what degree they are--representative of RPGers as a whole.

I strongly suspect ENW demographics are nothing like RPGers as a whole. But enjoy the polling.

 

[Mercurius]

I strongly suspect ENW demographics are nothing like RPGers as a whole. But enjoy the polling.

Yes, agreed, and I don't expect them to be. What I'm curious about is A) What are the demographics and interests of the EN World community, and B) To what degree are those demographics representative of the larger gaming community?

Bear with me as I speculate wildly...

This poll gives us some small inclination of the 2nd point in that 60% of ENWorlders (so far) are primarily GMs. Obviously 3 out of 5 gamers aren't primarily GMs; if the average gaming group is, say, 5 people, it would be 1 out of 5, or maybe 1.5 out of 5, which still only comes to 30%. So my sense is that approximately 20-30% of all gamers are primarily GMs (let's say 25%). If 60% of ENers are primarily GMs, we are getting a slice of--at most--40% of all gamers (60/100 = 25/40ish, thus 40%).

This is not to say that 40% of all gamers post at EN World--obviously they do not. But that EN World is a microcosm of, at the very most, 40% of the gaming population.

My guess is that in order to discuss the gaming community, you have to look at different "tiers" of interest (let's use the 4E terminology for the fun of it).

1) Epic tier - "Serious Gamers", often designers or would-be-designers to some degree, usually GMs; they put a significant amount of daily thought into RPGs; almost always spends a significant percentage of spare change on game books.
2) Paragon tier - "Regular Gamers", usually players, who are probably part of a regular gaming group or buys books semi-regularly; spends some money on game books, but almost always only for games they play, and only what is necessary.
3) Heroic tier - "Casual Gamers", almost entirely players, who either play semi-regularly or once-in-a-blue moon, or may play "when they get a chance" or did so "back in college" wouldn't mind playing again; may own a Player's Handbook or the main Vampire book, but little else--doesn't buy books, just shows up to play. Often-times they are spouses and relatives of Regular and Serious Gamers.

I have no idea what the percentages are, but I'd guess something like <5/25/70. If the commonly bandied-around 5.5 million D&D players is at all accurate, and if D&D makes up--I'm pulling this one out of a hat--80% of all gamers (including much overlap; the other 20% being those that don't play D&D at all), then there are approximately 6.5-7 million gamers worldwide. Let's be generous and round up to 7 million. With my percentage guesstimates of the tiers, that would make 350,000 Serious Gamers, 1,750,000 Regular Gamers, and 5,900,000 Casual Gamers. Somehow I don't see there being 350,000 Serious Gamers, but I could be wrong.

Anyone want to speculate wildly?