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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RyanD" data-source="post: 3698431" data-attributes="member: 3312">I did not believe that they were in 2000.  We studied EverQuest and Ultima OnLine extensively, trying to determine to what extent the two modes of play overlapped and directly competed.  My conclusion at the time was "not much".  We found small amounts of overlapped, and many lapsed TRPG players in MMORPG play, but we did not find people leaving TRPG play groups to move to MMORPG play patterns.That started to change with City of Heroes and accelerated with World of Warcraft.  I now believe the data shows strongly that WoW in particular appeals so powerfully to a certain subset of TRPG players that they are quitting tabletop gaming to play MMORPGs almost exclusively.  That segment is the Power Gamer group.(A Power Gamer is a player who most enjoys the game when it delivers a Tactical/Combat Focus. This kind of person is likely to enjoy playing a character that has a minimum of personality (often, this kind of person plays a character that is simply an extension of the player). This kind of player enjoys short, intense gaming experiences. The consequences of a failed action are minimized for this player, who will roll up a new character and return to the fray without much thought for the storyline implications of that action.)This change in the competitive environment is a huge driver in the current problems faced by the TRPG hobby as a whole, because these Power Gamers often agitate successfully for others in their game groups to shift modes with them, knocking big, irreparable holes in the player network.I would like to cite specific data supporting these conclusions, but none of the information I have is publicly available, unfortunately.  It would be great to see some independent (and public) research done on this topic.Ryan</blockquote>

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