Do you live in a good gamer city?

[Robert Ranting]

I'm pleased to see that my home city (Lexington, KY) is ranked #8. As the former president of the Miskatonic Student Union of the University of Kentucky, I know we had something like 40 active members during my tenure. Since few if any of our members were involved in D&D Meet-Up, I'm guessing there are quite a few more gamers in town that are left uncounted.

 

[Piratecat]

Someone may have pointed this out already, but the flaw in the ranking is that if a city really has a vibrant and robust role playing community, there's not really any reason to use D&D Meetup. Boston has thousands of gamers and hundreds of groups, but I think many of them are organized through other social channels (game stores, colleges.) If those channels didn't exist, like they don't in some cities, I suspect the ranking might be higher.

Cool work, though.

 

[nute]

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.

QFT. I've been trying to find a group here for a while, and it seems like the place is dead.

 

[wayne62682]

I'm really surprised Tampa/St. Pete is as high as it is.. I live in the Tampa Bay area (not in the city itself, but around 40 minutes or so northwest) and I've barely met anyone. Heh maybe I'm just not looking close enough to the city

 

[Ozmar]

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.

This is probably very true in many places.

IMO, the Twin Cities has a large and healthy gaming scene. I've had no trouble finding many gamers in the past 5 years since moving here. There is also a very large, very well-run game store (The Source) and dozens of smaller stores. One of our local chains, Shinders, has a good selection of gaming materials as well.

Universities are always higher concentrations of gaming, and provide excellent sources for contacting new gamers.

The ideal gaming environment, IMO, is a mid-sized university town, particularly if you are or can be a student and/or join student gaming groups. Ames, IA, for example, has a very good, very active gaming club (AMESFA) and lots of good gamers. Their game store is also first-rate.

I found gaming a little more difficult in Richmond, VA, but they are there if you know where to look. Nearby Charlottesville, VA, has a similar univeristy-feel to it, as well as at least one gaming company (Iron Crown Enterprises). There are opportunities out there.

You really just need to go look and be willing to meet some new people. Take a chance. In my experience, about half of them will be weird (read: too weird, or incompatible gamers) so you also need to be able to say "no thanks", but the rest will be ok, and you'll be able to get a group together, and some will turn out to be the best friends you'll ever have.

Ozmar the Idealist

 

[sckeener]

I tend to agree with those percentages. I live in Houston and it has the problem of being a commuter city. It makes it hard to game when you have to drive for an hour to play.

Now Austin is fun...plenty to do there and it should be higher than Houston.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Denver being as high as it is meshes with my experience. I didn't game outside the family much in previous cities, so I can't comment on those.

 

[ShadowDenizen]

Someone may have pointed this out already, but the flaw in the ranking is that if a city really has a vibrant and robust role playing community, there's not really any reason to use D&D Meetup. Boston has thousands of gamers and hundreds of groups, but I think many of them are organized through other social channels (game stores, colleges.) If those channels didn't exist, like they don't in some cities, I suspect the ranking might be higher.

Piratecate beat me to the punch. (I also figured Boston would've been higher on the list!!)

But intersting read, regardless! Thanks for the effort!

 

[Mallus]

My purely anecdotal evidence says that the Philadelphia region is great for gamers. My gaming opportunities, both as player and GM, far outstrip my available free time...

 

[freebfrost]

As a one-time moderator of the D&D Meetup for Columbus, Ohio, I definitely would say that basing your data on Meetup involvement is largely flawed.

There are numerous gaming groups in Columbus, so much that many people tell me that it is a midwest "mecca" for gamers - but the participation in the Meetup was far short of that reality. I found most of the Meetup members in Columbus to be fringe gamers who were looking for a group but had no idea where to go to find them. A few didn't even know we had gaming stores in Columbus. More than a few were extremely reclusive and outsiders in the gaming community at large. There was little interaction between members, not even in the online forums. It was not indicative of the gamers and groups that I personally know or know of in Columbus. Other areas' Meetups might be more relevant, but its clearly not for Columbus.

Adding to that, as you mentioned, the fact that Meetup wanted to charge funds to host meeting annoucements prompted me to resign from the group and effectively close it down. I'm not sure if anyone stepped up to run it - it may be totally inactive.

I'd be more interested in seeing data compiled from gaming stores, website forums (EnWorld, WotC, rpg.net) and the posters' hometowns, and from local convention attendence. That is harder data to obtain, but more robust IMO.