Growing the hobby: Why target the young?

[buzz]

But, I think you're missing a key component: time. Yes, people in their 30s have more disposable income to spend on games. They also have things like significant others, children, house-work, full-time jobs that often require travel during the week and potential weekend hours, visiting parents and in-laws (who, as they get older, will need more time commitments), etc.

<Anecdotal>

I do realize the time issue. I probably did have a lot more time for gaming when I was in college. I had even more in high school and earlier, but I didn't have a car, and none of my friends lived nearby, so I probably gamed way less than I do now.

In my 20's, I was busy enough trying to earn a living, trying to get laid, and trying to be cool (yeah, I was in a band), that I really didn't have time or money that I wanted to devote to gaming. Granted this was also the "dark ages" of gaming, i.e., the CCG boom and the height of TSR's incompetence, so there weren't many games out that I cared about, and nobody was playing the ones I did like.

Now that I'm in my 30's, I've found that life has actually settled down in comparison. I'm married, I have a steady income, and I'm not spedning my weekends in nightclubs or rehearsals. In a way, I have a lot of free time I'm looking to fill. 3e came along at just the right time to play on my nostalgia and rekindle my interest in the hobby. Add this to my no longer being a shy teen/gen-X slacker, I have no problem seeking out people to play with.

I dunno. My 30's have been the best time for gaming yet. I've got the money, I have the ability to make time for gaming, and I've got a level of maturity that makes the whole experience more enjoyable.

</Anecdotal>

Sure, maybe focusing on the 30+ set shouldn't be the *only* thing puiblishers do... but surely that well hasn't run dry.

 

[Desdichado]

Now that I'm in my 30's, I've found that life has actually settled down in comparison. I'm married, I have a steady income, and I'm not spedning my weekends in nightclubs or rehearsals. In a way, I have a lot of free time I'm looking to fill. 3e came along at just the right time to play on my nostalgia and rekindle my interest in the hobby. Add this to my no longer being a shy teen/gen-X slacker, I have no problem seeking out people to play with.

Sounds like you need to have some kids.

 

[buzz]

Sounds like you need to have some kids.

Touche, sir.

 

[Kalendraf]

From what I've seen, people of different ages have different interests. Hobbies that they enjoyed in their younger years tend to be the ones they return to in their later years. I'm basing these statements on my interactions with people of varying ages that I've discussed gaming with. I live in the upper midwest and most of my contacts live in smaller cities or even rural areas, so this information may be skewed by my geographics.

In general, the retired people I've met (or at least ones 60+) have no clue about RPGs and even trying to explain it to them is difficult. When I ask what hobbies they like to do, they tend to mention activities like gardening, playing cribbage, cards, fishing, travelling, crafts, visiting friends and family, and so forth. Given their amount of free time, these are the activities they seek to do. While I expect a few of them might enjoy RPGs, I've yet to find any that are even willing to try.

I've gamed with one fellow in his 50's, but most people in the mid 50's to 60's range tend to not be very inclined to consider RPGs either. Many of these people are working, and have families, though many tend to be empty-nesters with somewhat more disposable income to work with than younger people might have. When asked about their hobbies, I hear things like watching TV, movies, reading, golf, and so forth are often mentioned. Once in a while they mention something computer-related, even games, but this tends to be uncommon. Some of the people I know in this age bracket are very creative and have active imaginations, but for some reason, RPG stuff just doesn't seem to catch on for them.

I'm going to group the 30's to early-mid 50's crowd together. This is in my opinion, the core of old-school gamers. These are folks that were 20-something or younger when D&D came out, and many of them tried it and were hooked. At the time, there weren't a lot of other fantasy-type games available, so this became the game of choice. A lot of them still play games, though it might just be computer games or non-rpg stuff. This is where a bulk of the people that I've met and gamed with come from. These tend to be very dedicated RPG players. I suspect this is also a fair chunk of the revenue stream for WotC as well. It may be hard to grow this base, but I suspect there are still some folks in this bracket that would play D&D that aren't currently.

The younger crowd (30's and below) are IMHO the new-school gamers. Most of them probably never played in the glory days of 1e or the classic modules. And they're gaming time has had to compete against more and more other gaming options (playstation, xbox, computer rpgs, trading card games, etc). While they are often hard-core gamers, they aren't as dedicated to RPGs.

Which of those audiences are the best to target? I think WotC would be wasting money if they tried to sell to the retired folks. No matter how many advertisements they put in AARP magazine, it likely won't generate a single sale. I think they are already doing a fair job of marketing to the younger audience which is clearly important. They could probably target the 30 to 50 crowd a bit more, but I'm not sure if that will really find all that many new players.

 

[diaglo]

why target the young?

b/c it is like candy from a baby.

 

[James Heard]

Maybe the idea might be to somehow encourage more and better DMing, since that's the principle time draining position in a group. I know cons do this in seminars, but maybe some specifically targeted marketing and "DM boot camps" (yeah, I know it sounds horrifically silly but DM's are in a lot of ways the salesmen of the product since a bad DM can totally ruin the gaming experience). I don't know how you'd manage to sell the idea, maybe if WOTC would do something like a book tour run around country making loud and publicized stops at Universities and trade shows where they didn't exactly fit in with the rest of the crowd (like NEA conventions with "Educational Benefits of Gaming" pamphlets and polite young people ready to fight off religious conservatives). Maybe someone could write up an analysis of the Open Game Licence plug it in a business rag. It's not as if the world doesn't know D&D exists, they don't have it waved under their noses though and they don't know an awful lot about it. Ultimately it might be as simple as 'giving a face' to gaming, lots of people know the little "I shoot the magic missile...into the darkness!" schtick because it's been widely propogated. Something that clever that doesn't make gamers look like pathetic social misfits and that had more of a funny 'everyman' quality might work, or just sucker Vin Diesel or some other well recognized star into talking about D&D on television more. Maybe a spot or two with Wil Wheaton (who I think is the voice of Robin on Teen Titans?) on the Cartoon Network.

Really, the point shouldn't be to make it cool or attractive I think, but not unattractive and not hard to learn and participate in. If it starts drawing people in, you'd hope the market would react appropriately and fill their needs.

 

[buzz]

(yeah, I know it sounds horrifically silly but DM's are in a lot of ways the salesmen of the product since a bad DM can totally ruin the gaming experience)

A point so astute that I wanted to draw attention to it.

 

[Zelgadas]

One should never underestimate the importance of the "mommy, buy it for me!" factor. I knew a kid in high school whose parents bought him a Miata when he got his driver's license. It happens, and it's not that uncommon.

 

[ledded]

Sounds like you need to have some kids.

I dunno, almost everything Buzz said described me as a gamer, gamed as a kid starting in 1979, I'm 34, married and game better now than I ever did as a kid or teen.

I also have 3 small children and I'm the sole breadwinner in the house, so I don't have very much time at all for anything. I do, however, *make* time to game, and I've got steady enough income that I can choose to buy what I want and when I want as far as gaming stuff. I could have never pulled off the purchase of a couple sets of Dwarven Forge with a couple rulebooks as a kid, now I just saved up a little and there it is.

Also, it has the added benefit of playing Heroclix with homebrew rules with my 6-year old son, and painting minis with him too, which is some of the best fun you can have. It's a blast to go to the gaming/comics store together and we pretty much take turns going "Oooooo! Look at this, it's so coooool!"

 

[Samothdm]

Maybe a spot or two with Wil Wheaton (who I think is the voice of Robin on Teen Titans?) on the Cartoon Network.

Wil is the voice of Aqua-Lad. He (Wil, not Aqualad) is a big proponent of gaming and is a really cool guy. He has an e-mail friendship with Monte Cook and is pretty plugged into the gaming scene.

That said, I don't think that TV commercials are the answer here. Back in the heyday of gaming, there was probably a big enough cost-benefit analysis to create and air a TV commercial. These days, with the cost of national TV media, I don't think it would pay-out. The cost of the production alone would be in the $300,000 range and that's for a "B-level" director.

Public relations is free and that's another matter. WotC could/should have a much more vigorous PR department.

Also, I could see potential for short segments to air once a week on the G4 network, for example, to talk about pen-and-paper RPGs and how they're really responsible for most of the video games that people play today.

It seems that there are a lot of people in their 30s posting to this thread. I'm one of them and, yes, anecdotally, I would agree that I do have more income now to make RPG purchases and I have been able to make time. My entire game group is pretty much all in their thirties and I find the hardest thing is for everyone to agree on which time is best. Specifically, the married people are hard to coordinate because if they're out-of-town for a friend's wedding or visiting family then we've just lost two players instead of just one.

We've also had two couples with children in the group, and one of those has another one on the way. It definitely affects their attendance for long periods of months, and their gaming expenditures. One of the guys, specifically, I know would buy a lot more RPG stuff but he has to "clear it with his wife" because they have a mortgage and need to make car payments and of course allocate money to their child.

All that said, though, I think you guys already made my point: It seems that most of you who are in your 30s and gaming started gaming when you were young. So, it's no surprise that most gaming marketing efforts are targeted on the younger, potentially new customers. The older people who "buy for nostalgia" are going to buy them anyway.

I think it's highly unlikely that a person in their 30s-40s who has never gamed before could be "converted" to gaming based solely on exposure to advertising and marketing. That type of conversion is usually based on word-of-mouth from friends who are already currently playing.