Geography and statistical probability of ENWorld members

[alsih2o]

You might, however, conclude that there are a larger percentage of blabbermouths from the southern and midwestern US, however.

i resemble that remark!

 

[Darrin Drader]

Methinks perhapse you have neglected to mention the rather large clump of ENWorlders from the Seattle area.

 

[ArcOfCorinth]

I was amazed at the amount of people from my state back when I registered.

There's nothing to do in Alabama so I guess it makes sense.

 

[AmerginLiath]

I once asked Gary Gygax why he thought RPGs started in the midwest - he was not sure, but perhaps the lack of things to do...

I'm from South Jersey outised of Philadelphia, and there's not much to do here aside from RPgs either...

 

[Nifft]

Sample Me!

One out of one Niffts are from NYC!

-- Nifft, from NYC

 

[Agback]

Though I do stand my my original intent, which was that scanning the message boards hardly consists of a statistically valid sampling means (not to mention our skewed population).

Very true. There are all sorts of problems with the sample. For a start, residents of big cities might be more concerned about revealing their location online than residents of places where stalking is less of a prominent concern. It's just that a lot of people with no idea of how large a sample has to be to support a given conclusion tend to spout off like parrots about a sample being too small, and it's starting to get to me.


REgards,


Agback

 

[Agback]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Geography and statistical probability of ENWorld members

Statisticians are very quick to point out that they can get reliable statistics with small sample sizes. They aren't so quick to admit that it's very difficult to do so, and that it's very easy to screw it up.

They (we) are also aware that big unrepresentative samples are just as misleading as small unrepresentative samples. In short: in cases like this, the problem is not with sample size.

Regards,


Agback

 

[The_lurkeR]

It's an interesting but as others have alluded to, slightly flawed question when you stop to think about it.

You're assuming that RPG'ing and even more specifically a website about RPG's would have universal flat appeal across the population. When you're actually talking about a pretty specialized niche in the population, heavily skewed towards white suburbia.

For some neat demographics information on the U.S. check out this site. It's fun to look up your home town and see if it has a or for it's crime rate breakdown page.

http://www.areaconnect.com/

 

[Shadowdancer]

I'm always surprised by how many people from Texas are on these boards. But it is a big state, both in population and area, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.

 

[Morrus]

I've never understood the small number of UK gamers on the boards. I think that I've seen more people from New York (pop 8M?) than from the entire UK (pop 55M?), which isn't what statistical calculations would lead you to believe. Indeed, London's representation should be similar to that of New York's, but it's not by a long way.

Perhaps D&D is more popular (percentage-wise) in the US than in the UK -- but it certainly doesn't seem to be *unpopular* here from the number of gamers I meet. I guess less people choose to look online for D&D info here than in the US.