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<blockquote data-quote="ThirdWizard" data-source="post: 6366251" data-attributes="member: 12037"><p>I'm not talking about video games. I mean stuff like PbP, virtual tabletops, Skype, Google Hangouts, and other forms of electronic play. I'm also not talking about "freeform" roleplaying (in case anyone thinks I am) because lets pretend has been going on since time immemorial. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>There's no doubt that D&D was more talked about in the '80s, but I think that had less to do with people playing the game and more to do with the satanic accusation. I know I had to defend myself more than once and hide any of my D&D stuff when relatives were around. That is to say, I don't know that the household name that D&D had actually corresponded to people playing the game. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I'm pretty positive that 20 million was a lifetime number of players since its first release, and that was including several years of 3e in those figures. It wasn't peak players at any one time. I'm not going to guess what the peak number at any given time was, but you can be reasonably sure it was significantly lower than 20 million.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I guess I'm giving mixed messages there. I'm saying two things:</p><p></p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Sales metrics can't be used to determine number of players. In addition to games people have been buying for years, there are now many free options. Lots of people play, for example, Savage Worlds who never bought it and play off of the free PDF. Or Dungeon World off the gazetteer. Or D&D 2e that they bought thirty(!) years ago!</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dungeons and Dragons is not the alpha and omega of roleplaying games, especially when it comes to online play. It is much easier to find like minded people who want to play niche games online. If I wanted a group to play Window or Star Trek FASA I could probably do so. So, you can't just use D&D sales as the metric for how many people are gaming.</li> </ul><p></p><p>And, even a few million players isn't <em>that</em> high a bar when you're talking about worldwide these days. Especially for an essentially free hobby in the information age.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="ThirdWizard, post: 6366251, member: 12037"] I'm not talking about video games. I mean stuff like PbP, virtual tabletops, Skype, Google Hangouts, and other forms of electronic play. I'm also not talking about "freeform" roleplaying (in case anyone thinks I am) because lets pretend has been going on since time immemorial. There's no doubt that D&D was more talked about in the '80s, but I think that had less to do with people playing the game and more to do with the satanic accusation. I know I had to defend myself more than once and hide any of my D&D stuff when relatives were around. That is to say, I don't know that the household name that D&D had actually corresponded to people playing the game. I'm pretty positive that 20 million was a lifetime number of players since its first release, and that was including several years of 3e in those figures. It wasn't peak players at any one time. I'm not going to guess what the peak number at any given time was, but you can be reasonably sure it was significantly lower than 20 million. I guess I'm giving mixed messages there. I'm saying two things: [LIST] [*]Sales metrics can't be used to determine number of players. In addition to games people have been buying for years, there are now many free options. Lots of people play, for example, Savage Worlds who never bought it and play off of the free PDF. Or Dungeon World off the gazetteer. Or D&D 2e that they bought thirty(!) years ago! [*]Dungeons and Dragons is not the alpha and omega of roleplaying games, especially when it comes to online play. It is much easier to find like minded people who want to play niche games online. If I wanted a group to play Window or Star Trek FASA I could probably do so. So, you can't just use D&D sales as the metric for how many people are gaming. [/LIST] And, even a few million players isn't [I]that[/I] high a bar when you're talking about worldwide these days. Especially for an essentially free hobby in the information age. [/QUOTE]
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