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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Perram" data-source="post: 5980520" data-attributes="member: 84740">That is a fairly specific distinction you're trying to make here.  Bringing players to D&D /is/ bringing them to the hobby.  Simply getting a person used to the idea of an RPG, meeting regularly, reading books, buying dice, minis... THAT is the hurdle.Once they've broken that initial barrier, it is a lot easier to try out a game when all you have to say is: "Well, it's kinda like D&D, but you play space pirates trying to build an empire."All WotC, or any flagship, has to do is keep bringing new players into playing D&D.  The rest is easy.As for the rest of your points?I think you make an appeal too often to your own experiences.  Some of your points may be valid in your areas, but the first thing I've learned is that every area is different.A lot of game shops have a vested interest in building the hobby, for instance, and people like myself very actively build groups, and encourage new players to join them.  I think this ground level activity is more important at this time than major magazine advertisements which numbers are proving work less and less. (The whole print magazine / newspaper business is in much more of a panic than we are, after all.)You mention making friends as a pre-requisit to getting new players.  This is not my experience at all.  I get new players, and then, often, those new players become new friends.And that is what I think honestly needs to happen here, and I'm not sure it isn't happening!  But organized local efforts are what will regrow the hobby.  Paying for an advertisement in PCGamer might help, but I think that buying up some radio time that tells people where they can go THIS WEEK in their city to play a game does a lot better.I've managed a game store for several years, and it is infinitely easier to get someone to buy into a game if you can assure them they'll get to play it.  A box of Warhammer minis in their closet does them no good if they never have a reason to take them out.</blockquote>

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