From Mike Mearl's blog: http://www.livejournal.com/users/mearls/115593.html
Ryan Dancey:
2005 was the best year in the history of the fantasy roleplaying game concept. In 2005, 4 million people paid more than $480,000,000 to play World of Warcraft. That figure is five times the total revenue generated by the tabletop roleplaying game segment >of all companies, of all time, combined<.
The population of people trained to understand the value premise of sword & sorcery RPGs by D&D have found a medium which asserts a new fun/not-fun ratio far more balanced towards "fun" than tabletop RPGs and they have embraced it with gusto.
The core network of D&D players drew in an expanded community of friends, dates, relatives, and co-workers by extolling the fun to be had in kicking down doors, whacking monsters, taking stuff, and powering up. After a half-decade spent developing the technology and the service infrastructure at Ultima Online and EverQuest, the industry hit the ball out of the park.
I think it will be impossible, form here on out, to separate the on-line and tabletop categories of RPGs - the former will become increasingly similar to the latter as new technology like voice & video become integrated into the experience - allowing "virtual tabletops" to exist. It is already impossible to ignore the economic impact MMORPGs are having on the tabletop sub-segment - they decimated it in 2005. Only time will tell if some value premise can be rebuilt from the foundations available to entice a new generation of gamers into the hobby - or if the battle has already been lost.
Me, I'm betting on the guys with $480,000,000.
Ryan Dancey:
2005 was the best year in the history of the fantasy roleplaying game concept. In 2005, 4 million people paid more than $480,000,000 to play World of Warcraft. That figure is five times the total revenue generated by the tabletop roleplaying game segment >of all companies, of all time, combined<.
The population of people trained to understand the value premise of sword & sorcery RPGs by D&D have found a medium which asserts a new fun/not-fun ratio far more balanced towards "fun" than tabletop RPGs and they have embraced it with gusto.
The core network of D&D players drew in an expanded community of friends, dates, relatives, and co-workers by extolling the fun to be had in kicking down doors, whacking monsters, taking stuff, and powering up. After a half-decade spent developing the technology and the service infrastructure at Ultima Online and EverQuest, the industry hit the ball out of the park.
I think it will be impossible, form here on out, to separate the on-line and tabletop categories of RPGs - the former will become increasingly similar to the latter as new technology like voice & video become integrated into the experience - allowing "virtual tabletops" to exist. It is already impossible to ignore the economic impact MMORPGs are having on the tabletop sub-segment - they decimated it in 2005. Only time will tell if some value premise can be rebuilt from the foundations available to entice a new generation of gamers into the hobby - or if the battle has already been lost.
Me, I'm betting on the guys with $480,000,000.