new gamers from the ranks of WoW types

[drscott46]

I grew up in an affluent, very socially conservative area. (Which is why I spent my first few years with the Mentzer Red Box with very few people to play it with.) In my experience, it's true that kids whose families were better off were less likely to play D&D because their parents tended to have a tighter rein on them. They had more resources, but also greater expectations that they'd be doing certain things that were in line with community standards (i.e. sports, church activities, etc.- not that these things are mutually exclusive with gaming, but...)

The kids who did a little more exploring tended to have parents who were a little more laissez-faire about everything. And I think that just tends to be more a trait of parents/families with lower incomes. You can fill in your own reasons why- there are several big ones. Such is the way of the world, I guess. Bright kids come from all socioeconomic levels, of course, but what you're into as a child and teenager has as much to do with your environment as it does anything else.

Hopefully this doesn't offend anyone. Socioeconomic stuff tends to look a little ugly.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I live in London (UK), and the Collector's Core Set cost me £54.

I'm out of the loop, is that a good or bad deal?

According to google, that would be 68 €. Not entirely bad,but not the cheapest either. But as far as I know, the UK is generally more expensive, so it might be exactly where it should be.

 

[Set]

Bah. The only computers they had when I started playing D&D had names like Univac and were the size of my house, and had the computing power of a Speak N Spell.

We had to walk uphill, both ways, in the driving snow, in the middle of summer to get to our games...

Also? Dinosaurs!

 

[Tervin]

I live in London (UK), and the Collector's Core Set cost me £54.

I'm out of the loop, is that a good or bad deal?

Bad deal. Just buying the three books from Bookdepository would cost you £40, with no reductions for buying all three. The UK is in general just about the cheapest country in Europe to buy books in, if you know where to shop.

 

[haakon1]

Way back in the early 80s here in Sweden my experience is that roleplaying was mainly popular among middle class intellectual guys. Some were considered geeks, but far from all

Same experience in the US, across several states, but that might be skewed because I've lived in upper middle class intellectual areas almost all my life.

Original group, from middle school age through high school:
-- Two sons of a executive research chemist and a hospital nutrionist (both from India)
-- Me - son of a college professor and a production editor (publishing company intellectual but low paid job)

College group: Too complex to spell out, but from all backgrounds typical of elite US college, e.g. son of a factory work to son of execs

Current live group where I'm a player:
-- DM is a software engineer, originally from a small industrial town
-- 1 player is an IT person
-- 1 player is a Financial analyst, former tank commander in the Gulf War
-- 1 player is a pharmacist, former medic in the Gulf War
-- 1 player is manager for the dorms system at the local university
-- 1 player is an HR guy
Sounds like middle class intellectual types to me, but with a slightly blue-collar origin in many cases.

Current live group I DM:
-- 1 player is an IT guy
-- 1 player is a stay-at-home mom, otherwise is a pre-school teacher
-- 1 player is currently a recruiter for a factory, used to run a video game store, be the Peace Corps, do marketing, etc., etc.
-- 1 player is an HR guy
I'm thinking basically middle class intellectuals too.

Depends on who you know, mostly.

 

[VanRichten]

i am interested in what people think of the chances of wotc bringing in new blood from the WoW crowd who are in high school or a bit older, who have never played DnD before, and who know no one who does who can introduce them to the game---in other words someone like my landlord's kid was, until he met me. in other words the WoW playing kid walking through waldenbooks who sees 4e on the shelf. what are the chances he will buy it without a social support system already accepting of it and willing to play with him?

As I have seen it the current 4E system is directly targeted toward the MMO genre. It has been tailored in that way on purpose. If you read the book you can see how it directly emulates such a concept. Many will tell you it doesn't play that way, but that is only because you don't have a computer doing your calculations for you on movement and what not. 4E is a written manual on MMO play as it translates to PnP.

I am one to believe that a lot of research went into this idea before it was put into creation. So the chances of garnering people who are big video game fans and who have never done PnP is probably high. Otherwise WoTC as a business would not have invested in it.

Just and FYI I have spent over 20 years in the PnP community msyelf, and 10+ years in the MMO community. I can safely say without a doubt that 4E has been built to bridge the gap between MMO and PnP.

My personal opinion is this is a sad thing, but opinions do differ.

 

[Festivus]

When I was growing up we didn't even have computers. Well, my Dad had one from the office that he used, a CP/M system, but really it couldn't be used for online gaming (or anything online for that matter).

We played D&D (and Boot Hill, Spycraft and V&V) because it was something fun for us to do, didn't involve spending a lot of money (though I did like to go and flip through the Pegasus and Dragon magazines for ideas). I would save my allowance for months just to get a copy of a game (like Boot Hill, I think it was $10 back then and it took me two months to get).

Bear in mind this was also the era of bars on the TV screen after midnight, and only 7 channels of TV to choose from. Yeah, you looked for things to do back then. Makes me yearn for yesteryear.

On topic, I know that two of the players in my new 4E game are in fact avid WoW players (who's guilds are pissed that I took away not one, but two of thier clerics). It will be interesting to see how thier past experiences mesh with a couple who are 3.5ers, a 1 edition guy, and myself who is a 2nd edition skipper (having played every other version).

 

[rkwoodard]

middle to upper middle

When I was growing up we didn't even have computers. Well, my Dad had one from the office that he used, a CP/M system, but really it couldn't be used for online gaming (or anything online for that matter).

We played D&D (and Boot Hill, Spycraft and V&V) because it was something fun for us to do, didn't involve spending a lot of money (though I did like to go and flip through the Pegasus and Dragon magazines for ideas). I would save my allowance for months just to get a copy of a game (like Boot Hill, I think it was $10 back then and it took me two months to get).

Bear in mind this was also the era of bars on the TV screen after midnight, and only 7 channels of TV to choose from. Yeah, you looked for things to do back then. Makes me yearn for yesteryear.

On topic, I know that two of the players in my new 4E game are in fact avid WoW players (who's guilds are pissed that I took away not one, but two of thier clerics). It will be interesting to see how thier past experiences mesh with a couple who are 3.5ers, a 1 edition guy, and myself who is a 2nd edition skipper (having played every other version).

My group (from 1980-present) was all middle class, a couple were pushing lower upper. No total computer geeks, but some science geeks and some Band-geeks.
My parents were squarely Mid-class, I got a computer for Christmas..but I didn't get the good Comodore, I only got the VIC-20.

There is still 4 of us in the group. None of us play MMOs. I am gung-ho for 4e, 1 other is looking forward to playing (first session saturday), one does not like the look at all, and the other would play the Britney Spears RPG if I would run it.

No idea why I posted this. But it is a very interesting thread.

RK

 

[mhacdebhandia]

The game I run at the moment is entirely made up of people who are also in our World of Warcraft guild. They're all looking forward to the switch to Fourth Edition (it helps that they're all more or less playing characters who translate pretty well), but they were also all eager to play the game when I started it up under revised Third Edition.

To be honest, though, we're talking about people who belong to pretty large social circle centered around a university "gaming and geek culture" society. All of us have a great many tabletop gaming friends, and I can say with certainty that all of us except one had played a roleplaying game before this one, and the one I'm not sure about is dating one of the most experienced gamers I know (who's not in this group).

In other words, none of us were really MMO players first, tabletop gamers second. On the other hand, one of the players in my group ran a very successful Keep on the Shadowfell preview for his girlfriend (also in our WoW guild) and her friends, and one of the two people who started up the first WoW guild I ever belonged to is now equally as much a fan of D&D (though that probably also has something to do with the fact that her partner and fellow guild-founder was a tabletop gamer first).

 

[CountPopeula]

I just saw a commercial over here (UK) the other day for WoW, and the spokesman/actor they got was the guy who played Mini-Me.

Every other word he said was "mage".

Those aired over here. The one with William Shatner as a Tauren Druid is my favorite... there's one with Mr T, too.

As for the number of comments saying that D&D seems to appeal mainly to lower-class people in outcast social cliques... if this is true, why isn't it being marketed to manga fans?