gamer numbers

[Moe Ronalds]

my middle school has maybe 300-400 students (maybe not, I suck at estimating. But I think that's close.) Of that, I can think of at least 12 people who have tried table top RPGs at one point or another.

 

[Balgus]

If you guys remember Sodalis did a report on this a whgile back. He found that everyone is a gamer to some extent.

His main thesis was that gaming is an integral part of growing up, and as people grow, they take gmaing into the real world and use it in their everyday lives.

Remember when you were young, and played war games with little green soldiers? How about GI Joe? Those wierd voices you would make while trying to immitate the person you were holding in your hand... whether snake eyes, or storm shadow, or Duke... or even Cobra Commander...

Girls RP too- but in a different way. they play house, pretending to be mothers and caretakers. Making food out of leaves and grass, mud and sticks.

If you read his report, you would know that it was truncated- chopped. He needed 10 pages- but his final report was somehwere along the lines of 30. He hacked out a lot of good stuff:

Boys and girls both RP- boys are more active in their imagination- focusing on what people "do", while girls are more elaborate in theirs- focusing mostly on details and "fluff".

Taking this further into Sociological viewpoint, Goffman states that we all wear masks. In every situation that we find ourselves in, we observe and calculate out which personality would get us the best results (based on the reaction we are looking for) and we wear that mask- a suit that covers our entire personality.

 

[evil_rmf]

I can believe the 2.25 Million quite easily. All of this counting of RPG clubs and such is undercounting. I'm guessing there are more gamers around that are not in clubs, than are members.

Also, think of the numbers needed to support a LGS, then figure out how many people are buying stuff from Noble Knight, Dragon's Trove, etc... It takes a lot of sales to keep those guys who just do gaming in business. Then add in the sales from amazon, ebay, etc.. And there you have some more players.

Now, add in the old derelicts (like myself) who are still playing 1E and 2E. The group I play 1E with is around 9 people. Most of them have haven't purchased any RPG stuff in years, but they are still playing.

I am guessing that Dancey's information doesn't even cover the majority of gamers. Is there a link to this report out there?

 

[Umbran]

does anyone have any #s on this? how many us's are there in a we?

I didn't make that "couple of million" up. I got my numbers from WotC market research.

In short, their reseach back in 1999 suggested:

* 3% of the U.S. population between the ages of 12 and 35 (approximately 2.8 million people) play paper-based tabletop roleplaying games (TRPGs) at least once per month.

* 59% of monthly TRPG players (approximately 1.65 million) play Dungeons & Dragons at least once per month.

(edit: fixed broken url tag)

 

[alsih2o]

umbran, you have knocked me out of my seat, i am amazed, flabbergasted even.

i had no idea that there were that many of us!

whew, now i feel REAL bad that i can only find an irc game with old college friends......

 

[Xeriar]

IIRC according to WotC market research two million people in the US play a role playing game once a month or more. And this would be before the d20 renissance.

Over two million people played D&D in the US, before d20. Nearly a million more played other RPGs, but not D&D (at the time, myself included - 2nd edition sucked).

 

[Buttercup]

Over two million people played D&D in the US, before d20. Nearly a million more played other RPGs, but not D&D (at the time, myself included - 2nd edition sucked).

Yeah. It's my guess that the number of people playing monthly now is about a third larger. What do I base this on? The number of people I know who have gotten back into RPGs or have gotten into it for the first time.

I'd love it if WotC would do another survey, but I suppose they can't afford it these days, what with Hasbro stock in the toilet.

 

[Corinth]

The number today, after the launch of D20 and the release of 3e, is about 3 million. That's roughly 1:100.

 

[Buttercup]

Where did you get that number Corinth? I'd love to read a more recent market survey.

 

[Henry]

Man, what I wouldn't give for an "I'm __insert name of celebrity here____, and I'm a gamer" ad campaign!

Unfortunately, the one thing I can't give is money, and that's why we'll never see one.