Is this the Golden Age of Roleplaying?

[Twowolves]

No, this is the Age of Aquarius, get with the program!!

 

[Glyfair]

I'll go with the early 80s as well (specifically the early 80s). I could go into just about any major town, find the local game store and go in and find out when they were running games. In certain areas you could walk in any night of the week and find an RPG, and often several on weekends (my FLGS was like this).

Today the game stores are disappearing (although it seems more slowly than they were as early as a year ago). If you go in there are card games and miniature games and the RPG is a rarity. RPGs are moving back to the thing you do in the privacy of your own home, away from the public.

On the positive side, if you are willing and comfortable playing online, this is the best time to find an online game. The tools are becoming sufficient for a quality online game (even if it doesn't match up to a tabletop, face-to-face game). You can find players potentially all over the world, even for the most niche games.

Still, it seems to me that gaming community is becoming more "inbred." A much higher percentage of the roleplayers are long time gamers or the children (nephews, nieces, grandchildren) of longtime gamers. I could be wrong, but doubt anyone has any hard statistics on this, outside of WotC.

 

[GregT_314]

Pfft. The Golden Age of Roleplaying was clearly the period from the publication of the first edition of Vampire: The Masquerade through to AEG discontinuing support for the 7th Sea RPG.

*sniff* I miss those magical days.

 

[diaglo]

No, this is the Age of Aquarius, get with the program!!

well clearly it is not the dawning any more. b/c they called for peace and love.

"Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars"

 

[Crothian]

Since we don't have hard data on any numbers concerning how many gamers played when, or how many products were sold when, and quality of gaming itself is entirely subjective, how do you assert one time period is more golden than another? The only real constant is gamers, and I seriously doubt that gamers as population have changed very much in the last couple decades.

So, now is as good a time as any. The 1980s were as good a time as any.

Product quality of all games and books published across the board. That's what I judge it on.

 

[avin]

I don't think it's golden age for White Wolf or GURPS (all hail GURPS!) at this time.

More a D&D golden age...

 

[Dausuul]

I'm going to have to agree with the '80s and early '90s as the Golden Age. That was the time when many RPGs that were not D&D were flourishing, new games were coming out all over the place, and there were gaming groups to be found everywhere.

Of course, it was unsustainable. Much like the tech bubble of the late '90s, lots of people rushed into a hot new market, and for a while everyone was riding high until it became clear that the market could not sustain most of them. Then they died and their games went with them. Most of the gamers who had played them got older and went on to other things.

Three editions of D&D in existence at once does not make a Golden Age of Gaming. The RPG market right now consists almost entirely of games that have been around 20 years or more (D&D, White Wolf, GURPS, et cetera). I don't think we're going to have another Golden Age until somebody figures out a new model for the RPG, something better suited to the era of MMOs and Facebook.

 

[Mark]

Is this the Golden Age of Roleplaying?

Sadly, no. That was yesterday at 3:32 pm Central US Time. Many people missed it because they were at work or watching Jeopardy (which is a shame since that was a rerun of a college tourney) or tweeting about their mundane locations. The Golden Age lasted for mere seconds and then became a fleeting memory for those lucky enough to have been paying attention. I'll post pics later if I can figure out how to upload them. Look for the less popular but more malleable Aluminum Age later this week. The British are already planning a boycott to protest the spelling.

 

[kitsune9]

Sadly, no. That was yesterday at 3:32 pm Central US Time. Many people missed it because they were at work or watching Jeopardy (which is a shame since that was a rerun of a college tourney) or tweeting about their mundane locations. The Golden Age lasted for mere seconds and then became a fleeting memory for those lucky enough to have been paying attention. I'll post pics later if I can figure out how to upload them. Look for the less popular but more malleable Aluminum Age later this week. The British are already planning a boycott to protest the spelling.

Well, I was definitely at work at that time, but didn't catch the Jeopardy rerun.

Well, getting back on topic, it seems a lot of people here point to the 80's as a Golden Age. Is it because that's when a lot of you got into rpgs or D&D in general?

 

[Mallus]

For me personally, yes. I have a swell bunch of people to game with every other Friday night (and an Internet through which I can discuss and/or argue about gaming any time!).