Is the RPG hobby dying? [RPG Blog Carnival]

[I'm A Banana]

So true. I think the trap falls into the *must* grow mindset. Growth is good, but growth with no bounds can be harmful as well.

Welcome to capitalism, where the only successful business models look a little bit like a tumor, but with money.

Part of me wonders if sustainability can be as strong a business concept as it is an ecological concept, but given the typical MBA's frantic pursuit of cancerous wealth, I doubt they have the language.

Anyway, the hobby isn't dying. Maybe it will someday. I kind of hope not, but if it does, it will be because there isn't a demand.

I think there is a demand, still, for this type of thing. But RPGs need to undergo a generational change to embrace it, rather than an incremental change. Which is harder to do.

 

[Hussar]

I honestly don't understand the idea that "The hobby is just fine in its current size." Well, ok, I do kinda understand - people have stable groups and don't really care otherwise. Fair enough I suppose.

But, the benefits of massive growth, in my mind anyway, outweight any downsides. Current estimates of gamers is somewhere in the neighbourhood of 5 million (might be more or less, I'm picking 5 cos it's an easy number.) Imagine for a second that we lived in a world where that jumped up to 50 million regular gamers worldwide. Increase the current gamer population by ten times.

Where's the downside? Gaming becomes a totally socially acceptable past time, same as baseball or Euchre. Instead of one company and a bunch of little ones supporting your hobby, you get hundreds of companies all competing for your dollar.

Imagine opening up an RPG book with gaming fiction written by Stephen King, including a CD with a sountrack by Santana and artwork by fifteen different top of the line artists and an editing staff of dozens.

All you have to do is look at the difference in video games to see what going truly mainstream does. Compare any video game of the 80's to one of today. Never mind the differences in technology, but also the writing, voice acting from leading actors, you name it.

I mean, Halo gets Greg Bear to write fiction for it. We're talking one of the top talents in SF writing game fiction.

Is most of the stuff produced going to be crap? Oh of course. Sturgeon's Law always applies. But, the fact that there's a thousand times more stuff out there to take advantage of means that that remaining 10% is going to be freaking GOLD.

So, at the end of the day, I have no idea why people would want gaming to stay where it is. I want the gaming population to be 50% female. I want gaming to grow out of the suburbs and into every area. I want to turn on the TV and see Magic the Gathering tournaments being played. (Ok, that I wouldn't watch, but, I'd still LOVE to see it)

 

[I'm A Banana]

Imagine for a second that we lived in a world where that jumped up to 50 million regular gamers worldwide. Increase the current gamer population by ten times.

Crazy Awesome!

But...I have serious doubts as to whether there are 50 million people in the world that have the particular mental mindset required to sit in a room and pretend to be an elf for four hours.

Since that is really the foundational experience of D&D, I do wonder exactly how big that could get.

Still, I support grabbing every single person who might be inclined to do this.

There might only be 5 million people who do it, though.

This is all rampant conjecture, of course, I don't have any hard-and-fast numbers to back it up, but I can't imagine the potential audience for D&D is really very big at all.

It would be AWESOME if I was wrong.

 

[Hussar]

Oh, totally, totally agree. It might be that we've basically hit the wall and the hobby just can't really grow any more. This is it and it's as good as it gets.

But, man, I'd LOVE to be wrong.

 

[Dire Bare]

I want to turn on the TV and see Magic the Gathering tournaments being played. (Ok, that I wouldn't watch, but, I'd still LOVE to see it)

Actually, this has already happened. For a short while at least, Magic tournaments were aired on ESPN. I saw it! But, it was as exciting as watching golf on tv, IMO. And I love Magic!

While your wish for 10x the gaming population probably will never happen (as you knew, of course), I do think the hobby has the potential to grow much larger and become more accepted by mainstream than it is today, which means more money for WotC and more gaming for us. There would be downsides, but the upsides would certainly outweigh them. I also don't really grok the grognard mindset of, "Harumph! The hobby was just fine until WotC started messing with it!" (insert TSR for WotC also, of course). IMO, it's kinda selfish. Not picking on anybody in this thread, in fact I haven't read the entire thread (I know, I hate that too).

 

[MerricB]

There is a realm between the cultist and "I don't give a damn". It's called being a fan.

*looks up from sacrificing a chicken*

Oh, wait? There's a realm between? Ahem. Let me put this knife away. Sorry about the blood.

If the hobby goes the way of wargames...

*looks to status at left*
Oh dear, I'm involved in *another* dead hobby? Why does no-one tell me these things?

Cheers!

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Welcome to capitalism, where the only successful business models look a little bit like a tumor, but with money.

Part of me wonders if sustainability can be as strong a business concept as it is an ecological concept, but given the typical MBA's frantic pursuit of cancerous wealth, I doubt they have the language.

Anyway, the hobby isn't dying. Maybe it will someday. I kind of hope not, but if it does, it will be because there isn't a demand.

I think there is a demand, still, for this type of thing. But RPGs need to undergo a generational change to embrace it, rather than an incremental change. Which is harder to do.

Sustainability is a matter of accounting. Once governments decide how it should be handled in the accountancy rules then it gets slotted in to the business model. This requires quite a few things of course like poltical will and international consensus and stuff like that.
Capitalism is about making legal money and that is defined by accountancy frameworks.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Oh, totally, totally agree. It might be that we've basically hit the wall and the hobby just can't really grow any more. This is it and it's as good as it gets.

But, man, I'd LOVE to be wrong.

I would love if your were wrong also but I think that it simply is too hard as currently constituted. To be a player one is expected to know a lot of rules and this puts people off.
Betrayal at House on the Hill has elements that remind me of rpgs and the old choose your own adventures but seems to be popular with people that do not do rpgs or more complex boardgames.
RPG require a fair bit of system mastery and I think will not expand much while that requirement remains.

 

[Umbran]

All you have to do is look at the difference in video games to see what going truly mainstream does. Compare any video game of the 80's to one of today. Never mind the differences in technology, but also the writing, voice acting from leading actors, you name it.

Higher production values, sure. But homogenization of gameplay and style seems to come with it.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Where's the downside?

A lot of gamers don't want Joe Sixpack playing. Keep the hoi polloi out of my elite gaming club! It's only for people who can speak elvish.

Check out the thread about Lovecraft. That's elitism right there. You have to have read Lovecraft/Vance/Tolkien/Howard to properly appreciate D&D. Get out of here with your anime and your videogames.

Perhaps there's a fear that the game would be 'dumbed down' if it became more popular. Maybe you wouldn't have to read 1000 pages of rules and create your own secondary world in order to run it. That would be terrible.