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Message: <blockquote data-quote="nothing to see here" data-source="post: 1897061" data-attributes="member: 16432">Just what kind of kids are we talking aboutMarketing is an interesting field, and a frustrating ones, particularly to people with backgrounds in the maths and sciences, who like existing evidence to be able to provide 100% certainty on future outcomes.IT doesn't quite work that way.  Particularly so when looking at demographics.There is a lot of dissension in this discussion on marketig to our 11-13 year olds.  As their should be.  This is not a monolithic block.I can't help but notice that nobody has mentioned the traditional poor sister of demographics...namely psychographics...Rather than ask the questions "how can we market to thirteen year olds?"...ask "just exactly what kind of thirteen year olds do we consider our target market?"And that -- friends is a very different question.  We should first consider that among the teen/pre-teen age group, there 'value-tribes'... distinct clusters of personality types -- only a couple of which would have any interest in D&D...no matter ho simple the rules, or how pervasive the promotion.The personality traits in question?  This is only speculation but my guess is that they include.....an enjoyment of complexity.  A tenedency to use escapism as a coping mechanism.  A desire to demonstrate mastery.  And an enjoyment of being accepted in a rather exclusive subculture.These same traits are probably held by kids who have no problem with steep learning curves for rules.  In fact these enjoy complex rules...it gives them a sense of satisfaction to master and manipulate them to their liking.And quite frankly -- they are the same personality traits that attract adults to the game.  The only difference between ages is cosmetic -- certain older groups appreciate a depth of roleplaying unavailable to most thirteen year olds purely for reasons of maturity.There is a reason why people who like role-playing games are often (unfortunately derisively) considered 'geeky'...it's because, psychographically speaking...a significant proportion of them are.  The personality traits I described are, colloquially speaking, geeky ones.  This is not to diparage people who have these personality types (for goodness sake, I'm writing on this board, so I certainly share a few of them)...nor is it implying that everyone who plays RPG's is a geek.  But the base personality type who enjoyes creating fictional characters -- whose skills are measured in statistics that go around having fantastic adventures --falls into a largely predefined psychographic profile -- whether we are talking about children teends or adults.  To market more effectively we need to consider the distribution of this profile -- and how to get to people who fit the profile but have not yet been reached.Those who have called RPG's a niche hobby are right.  It is -- and there's nothing wrong with that.   Everybody should have a niche hobby of some sort or another.  RPG's will never be mass-market leaders, nor do they have to be.I do believe however, that the potential of the RPG niche remains significantly unfulfilled -- but to fill it -- we need to better understand just who it is we're going after.</blockquote>

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