Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="MGibster" data-source="post: 9235027" data-attributes="member: 4534">I was going to post something about this in one of the other threads.&nbsp; In the 80s and 90s, I could head down to my local gaming store and find a lot of shelf space devoted to role playing games.&nbsp; In addition to a myraid of AD&amp;D books, I see a ton of Palladium, GURPS, Traveller, Marvel Super Heroes, DC Heroes, Star Wars, Shadowrun, and a plethora of smaller games like Teenagers from Outerspace, Warpworld, or the critically acclaimed Cyborg Commando.&nbsp; When I go to the a typical game store in my neck of the Arkansas woods, the shelf space for RPGs is very limited with something like 70% or more of retail space devoted to D&amp;D or derivative games.&nbsp; If there's one thing I've come to appreciate over the years, is that the gaming community was so fragmented at the time that I can't take for granted that my experience was the norm.&nbsp; But the group I gamed with also switched games frequently.&nbsp; While AD&amp;D was the game we played the most often, we played a lot of Palladium, Star Wars, GURPS, Marvel Super Heroes, and Cyberpunk.&nbsp; And I don't have much of a problem switching game systems with my current group of old people.&nbsp; When, not if, but when, D&amp;D declines in popularity with fewer new players joining the game, I do believe we'll see a decline in new players for other games as well.&nbsp; If WotC succeeds in building their walled garden where it becomes the norm to pay some sort of subscription fee for access to the game, I think that might have a negative effect as fewer players will venture out to purchase other games.&nbsp; What's interesting is that in many ways there are more games available today than there were for many of us in the 80s-90s.&nbsp; While I've never seen Thirsty Sword Lesbians or Trail of Cthulhu at a game store, I do have easy access to them both online.&nbsp; I suspect you're right about companies like Palladium and White Wolf never reaching similar popularty.&nbsp; At least not any time soon.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="MGibster, post: 9235027, member: 4534"] I was going to post something about this in one of the other threads. In the 80s and 90s, I could head down to my local gaming store and find a lot of shelf space devoted to role playing games. In addition to a myraid of AD&D books, I see a ton of Palladium, GURPS, Traveller, Marvel Super Heroes, DC Heroes, Star Wars, Shadowrun, and a plethora of smaller games like Teenagers from Outerspace, Warpworld, or the critically acclaimed Cyborg Commando. When I go to the a typical game store in my neck of the Arkansas woods, the shelf space for RPGs is very limited with something like 70% or more of retail space devoted to D&D or derivative games. If there's one thing I've come to appreciate over the years, is that the gaming community was so fragmented at the time that I can't take for granted that my experience was the norm. But the group I gamed with also switched games frequently. While AD&D was the game we played the most often, we played a lot of Palladium, Star Wars, GURPS, Marvel Super Heroes, and Cyberpunk. And I don't have much of a problem switching game systems with my current group of old people. When, not if, but when, D&D declines in popularity with fewer new players joining the game, I do believe we'll see a decline in new players for other games as well. If WotC succeeds in building their walled garden where it becomes the norm to pay some sort of subscription fee for access to the game, I think that might have a negative effect as fewer players will venture out to purchase other games. What's interesting is that in many ways there are more games available today than there were for many of us in the 80s-90s. While I've never seen [I]Thirsty Sword Lesbians[/I] or [I]Trail of Cthulhu [/I]at a game store, I do have easy access to them both online. I suspect you're right about companies like Palladium and White Wolf never reaching similar popularty. At least not any time soon. [/QUOTE]

Verification