Do you live in a good gamer city?

[bento]

While sitting at home and lamenting the lack of game playing opportunities, I thought it intersting how there are some areas in the U.S. where lots of gamers seem to congregate, and there are others where there's nary a soul.

For example, I live in 19th most populous city in the U.S. (Fort Worth) AND the 5th largest metropolitian area, but I can count the number of groups in my immediate area on two hands and have some fingers left over.

So, I decided to spend a few hours tonight and put togther two sets of numbers. The first is a count of members for various D&D/RPG Meet-Up groups and compare this with the population of the largest metro areas in the United States. Then I divided the members by the total population and came up with this list:

City Percentage
1 Hagerstown, MD 0.02746% (Highest % of population signed up)
2 Greenville, SC 0.02334%
3 Colorado Springs 0.02060%
4 Seattle 0.01680%
5 Ann Arbor, MI 0.01609%
6 Honolulu 0.01602%
7 Tallahasse, FL 0.01433%
8 Lexington, KY 0.01419%
9 Reno, NV 0.01371%
10 Raleigh-Durham 0.01337%
11 Indianapolis 0.01298%
12 Sacremento 0.01146%
13 Grand Rapids 0.01128%
14 Flint, MI 0.01014%
15 Nashville 0.00844%
16 Baltimore 0.00828%
17 Jacksonville 0.00825%
18 Rhode Island 0.00801%
19 Greensboro, NC 0.00786%
20 Denver / Aurora 0.00780%
21 San Antonio, TX 0.00767%
22 Tuscon 0.00757%
23 San Diego 0.00740%
24 Portland 0.00711%
25 Omaha, NE 0.00701%
26 Birmingham 0.00688%
27 Tampa & St.Pete 0.00687%
28 New Haven, CT 0.00685%
29 Albuquerque 0.00664%
30 Detroit 0.00622%
31 Louisville, KY 0.00596%
32 Salt Lake City 0.00580%
33 El Paso, TX 0.00568%
34 Austin 0.00565%
35 Atlanta 0.00557%
36 Rochester, NY 0.00520%
37 Santa Clara County0.00501%
38 Oklahoma City 0.00501%
39 San Francisco area 0.00484%
40 Charlotte, NC 0.00480%
41 Philadelphia 0.00471%
42 Boston 0.00408%
43 Kansas City, MO 0.00390%
44 Pittsburgh 0.00377%
45 Cincinnati 0.00377%
46 Memphis, TN 0.00341%
47 Greater Los Angeles Area 0.00333%
48 Washington, DC & N. VA 0.00320%
49 Virginia Beach 0.00304%
50 Milwaukee, WI 0.00297%
51 Chicago 0.00297%
52 Minneapolis 0.00293%
53 Las Vegas, NV 0.00286%
54 Houston 0.00282%
55 Dallas / Ft. Worth, TX 0.00263%
56 Cleveland, OH 0.00259%
57 Tulsa, OK 0.00248%
58 New Orleans 0.00243%
59 Miami / Ft. Lauderdale 0.00234%
60 New York City 0.00223%
61 St. Louis, MO 0.00184%
62 Columbus, OH 0.00181%
63 Phoenix, AZ 0.00106% (lowest % of population signed up)

I know that the Meet-Up numbers aren't a great measure of active participation, as it depends on people knowing about the site and then going through the trouble of signing up. There's also the fact that Meet-Up started charging for groups, so there's been fall-out for the past couple of years.

What other data points would you include in this mix? Number of gaming / comic book stores? Top 20 conventions by attendance?

Also are you surprised by these figures?

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I can't comment on your list, but I will say this:

Sydney has a population of 4.25 million. Of our four major universities - the University of Sydney, the University of New South Wales, Macquarie University, and the University of Technology Sydney - the first three support active gaming societies.

(SUTEKH, in fact, was named Best Club 2006 by the student union, and I think it's the largest non-religious society on campus. I don't have data concerning the size or success of UNSW Gamers or Macquarie University Roleplaying Society (MURPS), except that they're active, the former apparently more so than the latter.)

Sydney supports three stores which cater to roleplaying gamers in the central business district - Games Paradise, The Tin Soldier, and Napoleon's Military Bookshop - and at least two I can think of outside the city proper: Burwood Gaming Center and another store, the name of which escapes me, in Blacktown.

We have several conventions each year - I believe Necronomicon and MacquarieCon are still active, and SUTEKH is in the process of setting up InConceivable.

Given that SUTEKH and other clubs welcome non-student members, I don't think it's at all difficult to find gamers, if not games, in Sydney.

 

[Kanegrundar]

I'm surprised that KCMO was on the list at all. Beyond minis games and Magic it seems like my corner of the metro is a gaming wasteland.

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

I'm shocked that Santa Clara County scored as high as it did (37). I've had a terrible time finding players and games. Then again, perhaps living in Indianapolis (11) and Denver/Aurora (20) spoiled me.

What about Rockford, Illinois? I had an easier time finding players there than Santa Clara County as well.

 

[Clueless]

Raleigh NC has a high percentage too- though not surprising given the number of colleges in the area and that we get a lot of students out of Greensboro (like me). With RTP and all it's tech/geek jobs - including a few smaller video game companies right nearby - we're not hurting for gamers.

 

[Glyfair]

For example, I live in 19th most populous city in the U.S. (Fort Worth) AND the 5th largest metropolitian area, but I can count the number of groups in my immediate area on two hands and have some fingers left over.

The number of groups you know about.

I live in Newark, DE and it's a very good gamer area. We have two strong gaming stores in the immediate area, and both have been in business since the late 70's/early 80's. One store tried to start and failed, but they made quite a number of mistakes (opening across the street from an existing store with a loyal customer base, catering to gamers who enjoyed hanging out but not buying things are two that come to mind).

One thing I think that has contributed to the strength is that Newark is a college town. The Days of Knights has been on Main Street since '81. Even when some gamers wandered off after graduation (and many stayed, or revisit), the next class brought more back in.

Plus, that age bracket is the sweet spot for gaming. A lot of gamers start in college, or at the end of high school. Once they are on their own they often dive into what they love (which often can hurt their college careers if they aren't focused).

However, we are unlikely to have a strong showing on meetup.com, because the gaming stores give us a built in community (especially with DoKs attached game club). Finding a game is often a matter of heading down to the game club and networking.

I wouldn't be suprised if towns with military bases have a similiar effect as well (assuming a somewhat stable military population so some groups can get a "history").

 

[Nyaricus]

Winnipeg has quite a large quotia of gamers; I'm subscribed to meet-ups and usually every 2 weeks another person has jumped on ship, looking for a group.

Outside of that, however, Winnipeg has seen both Campaign Outfitters and Morgana's close down. Out of the two, the former has since re-opened at a different location, and the latter was a secondary branch of Pendragon games anyways, so I'm not sure what's what with Winnipeg.

Of course, Winnipeg is also one fo the most fickle cities in all of North America (you have no idea how much product research is done here), so there you have it

cheers,
--N

 

[Chimera]

One of the problems with the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul), and I wouldn't at all be surprised if it is similar in other parts of the country, is that it is the Land of 10,000 Cliques. It's really difficult to get to know people. People who move here from other areas often have trouble finding regular friends, let alone gaming friends.

On the positive side, once you do get into a social group, you will connect to everyone in that group. The shadow side of that is that you will be forced to associate with members of that group that you'd rather not be around, because you'll see them at every group function.

The last gaming group I played with (before the current one) consisted of four guys who were 36 and had known each other since they were 6. As a co-worker said when I told him about the group and asked him what it told him; "It says that they've never learned how to add new friends into their group." Spot on.


So I'd say that there are always, ALWAYS more gamers around than you know of. There are always new groups and new games everywhere, including right under your nose. The problem is finding out about them and making the connection.

Because, like we see over and over on this board, there are a lot of people who will only game with close friends. They're not willing to branch out or reach out.

 

[S'mon]

I live in London, UK. Doesn't get much better. I can recruit new players anytime I want, and reject any I don't think are up to scratch. Hooray!

 

[bento]

Thanks for the comments and insights so far.

College gaming groups is another good indicator, but it can be a segregated community. Most outside people aren't welcome unless they are invited guests. I was the sponsor of one such group at my former employer - a technical university. I recently decided to go out on my own because I'm back to the 9-5 grind across town and want to game with guys closer to my own age.

In the immediate area I live in (which we call FAR north Fort Worth & Keller), the ratio of houses build in the last 15 years to before that period is probably 70-30, so there's a large influx of people trying to make a community. I've read it on boards before - how can we figure out who's cool - a secret handshake? I'm not so sure I want to wear a gamer shirt to the next PTA meeting.

Back on the project - I'm going to see how easy or hard it is to get populations of game stores. With the advent of eCommerce though, this number will probably be as specious as the MeetUp data.

Anyone know where convention numbers might be posted? GAMA?