How many gamers you know post in forums?

[DaveyJones]

i met all of the current gamers i game with online.
and all of the ones from 1999 that i have gamed with in local campaigns

of those probably only 10% classify as regular posters. but all of them have community names somewhere on the web.

 

[Gilladian]

Of the 10 or so people I know/game with, I am the only regular poster. The other DM reads here, and once in a great while posts, and two of our mutual players are active online, but they don't read/post in gaming forums. One is big into comics/manga and reads lots of fanfic. The other is a photography bug and hangs out on photo lists.

Both of them are of the mind that gaming boards are really for DMs, although if they had a serious issue, might come here for help if I really pushed them to do so.

 

[Barastrondo]

The number's high-ish for me because of co-workers. I know several of my buddies from work post in variable amounts of regularity to RPG.net and of course our own forums. I don't know of any of them who post to ENWorld, though of course among them D&D is nobody's principal game (although there are both 4e and red-box D&D games going on at the office at the moment), and sites with broader interests as a whole suit them better.

Among the people who gather around my table regularly for the past decade or so, my wife is registered on a couple of forums but rarely posts, and everyone else doesn't use forums.

I honestly think that the forums aspect of gaming is a sub-hobby. It's sort of like painting miniatures (which most of the people I game with enjoy to some degree) — a good match to gaming, but an acquired taste.

 

[rjdafoe]

How are you folks that think you're the only posters sure? Many people keep their internet identity/activities a step removed from their normal lives.
Do you ask? Or are you just assuming you're the only one that posts? Do the other people in your group know you post?

It is not that hard when one of the groups that I game with have been gaming together for 15 years or more. We are all good friends. None of them but me even read forums, much less post. None of them even knew a 4th edition D&D game was coming, until I told them. None of them have DDI either.

The other group - it is easy. We found a couple of people online. They found my post from a google search, not coming here and looking.

I have a forum setup for our gaming group - and they don't even post there very much. Most of them just say yes or no wether they are available for the next game.

 

[Stoat]

I'm one of six people in my group, and I'm the DM. I know for sure that three other members of the group have ENWorld accounts, but as far as I know, they never, or almost never post here. Based on casual conversation, I don't think they lurk here too often either.

I'm fairly sure that the other two players don't visit ENWorld.

 

[Dragonbait]

of the 20 I know..

2, including me.

 

[Festivus]

Very, very few.

This... and I know a lot of gamers.

 

[Stoat]

It's worth keeping in mind that lots of people don't have access to EnWorld (or other forums) at work. Either because they don't have access to a computer, they don't have time to browse/post, or the site is blocked by their employer.

That by itself would cut down on the number of gamers who regularly use online forums.

 

[Umbran]

How are you folks that think you're the only posters sure? Many people keep their internet identity/activities a step removed from their normal lives.

People will tend to keep internet and hobby activities private from people who are not involved in similar things, sure. A major point of having made up usernames is to allow some level of anonymity - so your employer cannot easily find things that aren't actually work-related about you, and such.

That doesn't hold nearly as strongly when you're dealing with folks in the hobby. Quite the contrary, in my experience - it becomes part of the hobby, and thus part of the things you talk about with people in your group.

 

[weem]

How are you folks that think you're the only posters sure? Many people keep their internet identity/activities a step removed from their normal lives.
Do you ask? Or are you just assuming you're the only one that posts? Do the other people in your group know you post?

I ask pretty regularly - "Hey, did you check out EN World? The site I told you about?" - "What about any other forums?"

Or for those who post something rarely, "Did you see that post about X in the rules section?" ... "Na, I don't really go there much" or, "Na, I haven't been there in a few months" etc.

I love forums (not just EN World, or even D&D forums, but work-related etc) - I spend most of my online (non-gaming) time in forums, so I talk about them regularly and know that most are not into them (that I know).