Over Half Of New D&D Players Got Into Game From Watching Online Play

I know this is really a small issue if any at all, but yet I find it mildly disturbing that so many people watch others play D&D instead of playing it themselves... it's kind of similar to the rise of "eSports" and their possible inclusion even in the olympics. And also my kids are starting to watch people play Minecraft on youtube instead of playing it themselves! It's ok to watch occasionally to get some inspiration, but if it's more often than the real thing then it raises some questions...

 

[TheSwartz]

He doth protest too much, methinks. It's OK, you don't need to hide it. You are among friends here.

whatever. troll.

 

[Caliban]

whatever. troll.

 

[schnee]

And, too bad they have a skewed view of the real game. By real, I mean actually playing with real friends, who aren't a bunch of actors with producers and sound guys.

You realize several of them were friends for years before the podcast?

And the game was a private thing for two years before the show?

Now, for the dozen wanna-be that are springing up around them, with groups of small-time actors that never gamed before, you have a point.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I'm just glad the screen shots of the ones I've seen are not full of players in cosplay. I've had too many people assume I'm wearing a puffy pirate shirt and cape when I game...

 

[Caliban]

I'm just glad the screen shots of the ones I've seen are not full of players in cosplay. I've had too many people assume I'm wearing a puffy pirate shirt and cape when I game...

You haven't seen the screenshots from the Halloween games then. Being theater geeks and voice actors, they tend to go all out on their costumes.

 

[Krachek]

The Verge talks about D&D, live streaming, and the current popularity of tabletop roleplaying. Livestreaming is a big thing these days; it used to be a video game phenomenon, but tabletop gaming now has a massive presence.

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• D&D's most profitable year ever was 2016, and 2017 may surpass it.
• “Over half of the new people who started playing Fifth Edition [the game’s most recent update, launched in 2014] got into D&D through watching people play online,” says Nathan Stewart, senior director of Dungeons & Dragons.
• A year ago, WotC has two shows on Twitch; now it has 20.
• Critical Role has more than 5 million views on YouTube.

The article contains much more. Well worth checking out.

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The trending is “role play”.
Min/Max, balance, rule precision are not trending.

 

[happyhermit]

For myself, after a 10 year absence from the game, it was listening to the Podcast Critical Hit on my hour long LA commute that got me itching to play again and brought me back to the game. Got four other friends who played D&D back in the day listening to it and the next thing I knew we were engaged with the Next playtest and have been meeting twice a month to play ever since. Critical Hit's Celestial Crusade campaign is 60 or so hours of pure genius.

Watched a few episodes of Critical Role but didn't have the time to fully watch. Now that it's a Podcast i'm making my way through it and loving it. It's amazing how much their bumbling, rules-adjacent gameplay matches the style of my group!

YES! This is the first D&D liveplay to keep my attention (maybe it was AI, can't remember for sure), it made me try harder to get 4e to work for us, which ultimately was a failed endeavour but that's besides the point. Unfortunately their 5e trial was kind of embarrassing to all involved but they are trying other systems which is cool.

 

[timbannock]

Wow is that an astounding result/finding.

I mean, I find online play so boring I can't manage to watch even say Critical Role for 5 minutes. I never imagined such shows held any attraction at all to anyone not steeped to an embarrassing degree in the hobby already (and perhaps not able to get their 'fix' in the normal manner). 50%???

As my 12 year old would say, "Mind blown."

Same. I managed a few eps of Force Grey because they were so much shorter and heavily edited, but I figured if that's the best then I'm never going to enjoy watching others game. Not my thing.

I'm really happy to hear it, though. The "my older cousin" method of bringing people into gaming needed something innovative to topple it, so this is a nice solution, and since I play with some folks who are part of this 50% -- and they are some of my finest players -- I certainly encourage others to watch the hell outta these things. I even consider recording my sessions, but...I'm a lazy DM, and that sounds like added work right there ;-P

 

[Zarithar]

Southpark dedicated an entire episode to people watch video gamers. I don't get it I'm 46 so I'm from the older generation... but My kids love watching these videos.
ehh what ken said.. People .. well my kids.. do both

I'm 47 and I do both... so I don't think age has anything to do with it necessarily. I watch (mostly listen actually) to 5 D&D streams regularly here at work both for entertainment and to brush up on my own DM'ing skills. While I feel competent as a DM (after doing it 30+ years) there is always something new to learn.

I also play the hell out of Hearthstone as an example of a video game, and watch some streams to improve my strategy and learn various tips/tricks.

In my opinion it's about being open to new experiences.

As for the headline of this story? I think this is excellent news and really exciting to hear. I hope it keeps growing as a hobby for years to come.

 

[Parmandur]

The trending is “role play”.
Min/Max, balance, rule precision are not trending.

Honestly, were they ever trendy?