Does the Average Gamer Read?
- Thread starter Scribble
- Start date
Scribble said:
Certianly, everyone in my current group is someone who would read for pleasure: and most of my RL D&D friends are much the same. I would say for most of them that books are an influecne on their RPG ideas as well: sure, you get plenty of computer game/TV/movie/comic based stuff too, but I've still got players who compared Weapons of Legacy to Elric's weapon and wizard spells to paticular acts of Gandalf.
But then, at the agegroup of "early to late twenties" I dunno if my lot really count as a typical D&D game. I'd like to think that even the 14 year olds who play sit down with a copy of Harry Potter or Artemis Fowl or something; my friend was running a game for the 13 and 11 year old siblings of his wife (he and his wife are 26 it's a big family
) and there was definatly an influence in how they dungeon crawled, down to after the game their top priority being finding a magical shopping district so the sorcerer could get a familiar. I've been repeatedly shocked by the number of gamers here who have said they've never read Tolkien's Lord of the Rings or Robert E. Howard's Conan stories. And I've read a number of stats saying that most modern Americans don't read any books for pleasure. So, no, I don't think the average gamer reads.Scribble said:
On the other hand, we have plenty of well-read gamers here -- and a number of obsessive game-novel readers too.
Shades of Green
Explorer
Me and most of the RPGers I know read quite alot, though not nescerily fantasy literature; I've read far more sci-fi than fantasy, and quite alot of non-fiction too, but very little game-novels (only Deathgate which is arguably a D&D game-novel and a Shadowrun game-novel called Tails You Lose).
Well, I don't know any average gamers...
I'm a voracious reader, though, these days, I go through cycles of heavy reading, then not touching a book for a few months. It was my interest in Tolkien (reading LotR at age 11) that got me interested in D&D, but I'd been a fan of sci-fi, and later on, fantasy, from a young age.
Most of the gamers I know are readers, typically of sci-fi and fantasy, but often just heavy readers in general.
I'm a voracious reader, though, these days, I go through cycles of heavy reading, then not touching a book for a few months. It was my interest in Tolkien (reading LotR at age 11) that got me interested in D&D, but I'd been a fan of sci-fi, and later on, fantasy, from a young age.
Most of the gamers I know are readers, typically of sci-fi and fantasy, but often just heavy readers in general.
ShadowDenizen
Explorer
I think, on the whole, most RPG'ers also tend to be readers.
In my group, I am the most voracious reader (I tend to favor Epic Fantasy, but I also force myself to read from a variety of other genres, including literary classics.)
We do have one person who doesn't read, but I find that to be a bit of an anomaly.
In my group, I am the most voracious reader (I tend to favor Epic Fantasy, but I also force myself to read from a variety of other genres, including literary classics.)
We do have one person who doesn't read, but I find that to be a bit of an anomaly.
mmadsen said:
I know a whole mess of rabid sci-fi and fantasy readers who haven't read those. In general, if you pick any particular "classic", you'll find lots who haven't read it. That's simply because there are so many books otu there, individuals can pick and choose what they want.
And, given that it is a fringe hobby, you'd expect that RPG players are going to differ from the average in some ways. My personal experience is that there is a corellation between pleasure reading and gaming.
It isn't always genre novels, though. I know quite a few DMs who don't read fantasy, but instead read history and military stuff.
Similar Threads
