Target Demographic?

[F4NBOY]

Okay, here's something I have not seen addressed so far, but would be quite interesting to someone like me. What is the target demographic for purchasing/playing D&D 4e? Who do you expect to be playing it? Who is the audience you are really striving to capture?

I get the feeling, on a purely personal and subjective level, that I am so far outside the target area that I don't even show up on the chart.

I beg your pardon, but how old are you?
And what is the audience you think 4E is being addressed for?

I have the feeling you are supposing 4E is being addressed for the younger audience, am I wrong?
Because I can tell you, the kids back at WOTC boards are really pissed off. Have you watched Children of the Corn? I fear...

 

[Masquerade]

Target audience? As far as age goes, I would guess a 16-24 demographic.

Because I can tell you, the kids back at WOTC boards are really pissed off.

It seems there are people on both sides of the issue in every age group. I'm toward the young end of the gamer pool, yet I'm becoming more excited about the new edition with everything I hear. I could name a few peers who strongly disagree.

 

[sjmiller]

I beg your pardon, but how old are you?
And what is the audience you think 4E is being addressed for?

Let's see, my demographic profile looks something like this:
Age: 42
Years of gaming: 28
Average age of current gaming group: 41
Ratio of men to women in gaming group: 1:1 (we're split pretty evenly, actually)
Current version of D&D being played: 3.0
Video game player?: No
Computer game player?: No
Play WoW, CoH, or other MMORPGs?: No
Time spent online: 8 hours every workday (mostly doing work things, but reading this place too)

What sort of audience do I think they are looking for?
Male, 15-29 (or possible 35), less than 10 years of gaming experience, a gaming group of the same age (mostly if not exclusively male), currently plays 3.5, plays many hours of video games and WoW or similar games, and spends quite a bit of time online.

Why do I feel this way? Because everything that is being hyped for 4e appears to be "yeah, so what?" to me. When 3e came out I was excited about playing D&D for the first time in almost a decade. What I have seen of 4e makes me wish I never knew anything about it. There are, I feel, too many changes just for the sake of change. Changes that are arbitrary and do not seem to fit into the style of play I enjoy. To me, that indicates I am not the target audience for this game.

 

[DaveMage]

College Students

 

[Howndawg]

One thing I see with some of the design decisions which are being bandied about is it seems they are trying to bring back some of the older gamers who were turned off by some of the design decisions made in third. Talk about bringing back old campaign settings like Planescape and Dark Sun. Less of a dependence on the characters having a certain amount of gear. Monsters having separate racial and encounter write ups. Sounds an awful lot like they are going for fans of earlier editions.

Howndawg

 

[F4NBOY]

College Students

Guess I'll have to go back to college to enjoy 4E!
Beer and RPG, can't have a better combination!
Better than that only if I could have my top hair back.

 

[Arashi Ravenblade]

it seem like the new game is geared more towards instant gratification and cry-babies, especially with remarks about wanting characters to be able to do something every round in combat and have more abilites so they dont run out as fast.
and it does seem like they are trying to emulate MMORPG's no matter how much they deny it.

 

[Oldtimer]

Probably male 18-49.

So I'm outside of it then...

Time to start sitting on a park bench feeding the pigeons then I suppose.

 

[Doug McCrae]

I believe the big 3.0 questionnaire disregarded any respondents over 35.

If that's still policy then at 36, I'm just outside the age range. But I'm feeling very positive about practically every aspect of 4e. Almost like it was made specifically for me.

 

[Doug McCrae]

it seem like the new game is geared more towards instant gratification and cry-babies, especially with remarks about wanting characters to be able to do something every round in combat and have more abilites so they dont run out as fast.

It's almost as if it's geared towards people who like fun.