The rehabilitation of roleplaying games

[Victim]

The major cost of RPGs is in time. How long do I need to prep for a game of Halo? Not at all. For an RPG, a pretty basic minimum time cost is becoming familar with the rules (most major RPGs are big hardcovers). Running a game requires a bigger time cost, that needs to be repeated each week (or whenever).

An RPG group also requires a rather complicated degree of social coordination. First of all, there's the logistics of getting everyone together, typically without an organizing venue (like a stadium). Second, everyone needs to be able to agree on the same tastes and styles. It's one thing to watch a movie you're not that fond of with your friends. It's another thing to do it every week. Look at all threads about dealing with problem players or DMs. How often do people start similar disagreements in unrelated threads? How many new players are going to come back after a playstyle disagreement? And, given the problems with finding and organizing groups, even if someone does want to keep playing with a new group, will they be able to?

 

[Ranger REG]

The major cost of RPGs is in time. How long do I need to prep for a game of Halo? Not at all. For an RPG, a pretty basic minimum time cost is becoming familar with the rules (most major RPGs are big hardcovers). Running a game requires a bigger time cost, that needs to be repeated each week (or whenever).

An RPG group also requires a rather complicated degree of social coordination. First of all, there's the logistics of getting everyone together, typically without an organizing venue (like a stadium). Second, everyone needs to be able to agree on the same tastes and styles. It's one thing to watch a movie you're not that fond of with your friends. It's another thing to do it every week. Look at all threads about dealing with problem players or DMs. How often do people start similar disagreements in unrelated threads? How many new players are going to come back after a playstyle disagreement? And, given the problems with finding and organizing groups, even if someone does want to keep playing with a new group, will they be able to?

Can't be no worse than MMORPGs, unless you're one of the rare individuals who don't mind being in any group at any given time. Many actually meet the players online and try to schedule time to be together online.

*pauses*

You need a stadium to play RPG?

 

[Hussar]

Can't be no worse than MMORPGs, unless you're one of the rare individuals who don't mind being in any group at any given time. Many actually meet the players online and try to schedule time to be together online.

*pauses*

You need a stadium to play RPG?

True, but then, generally, the people you group together with online are the people you meet frequently, who play at the same time you do. And, really, in the larger guilds, you literally have hundreds of people, some of which are going to be online at the same time as you.

The same is not true for tabletop. Tabletop games have a very limited pool of people within any geographic area. That's probably one of the biggest stumbling blocks for tabletop. Geography. This is not a limitation in MMORPGs.

 

[Ds Da Man]

I have never played online, and probably never will.

I don't want D&D to become more mainstream then it already is.

 

[Victim]

No, but I'm saying that the lack of external organizing factors can make things more difficult. Some people seem to prioritize more external events (ie, a sporting event either as player or spectator) differently than more informal ones like gaming.

Most MMO guilds are going to have some separate chat program and website to coordinate things. And they usually have more members than are active at any given time. If I can get 2 of my friends in a group, we've got a decent core of a group and can probably take a pickup player or two if needed. But gamer temps haven't exactly made the transitition from KoDT to reality, so an RPG group might have trouble if 2 players are absent.

Also, the more organized raider types are generally a minority anyway - much like traditional RPGers. Notice the big success of the solo friendly WoW: casual MMOs players apparently weren't enjoying the coordination game that other, more group intensive MMOs require.

 

[Hussar]

And, while not MMORPG's, the FPS crowd is also pretty large - Halo and others. This is the simplest form of game you can really get. You don't need any coodination in order to have fun.

Really, the point of having more members than are active at any one time is well put. How many adventuring groups have more members than play regularly? Probably not many. No matter what, you have to work the schedules of four or five people in order to get a regular game going. Not a simple task. At least, not as simple as jumping online and starting to play.

Never mind that in any MMORPG, you don't need a DM.

 

[Mystery Man]

It might help if the books were cheaper and geared towards a younger audience.

 

[Umbran]

By rights, tabletop roleplaying should be enormously popular. Or at least a lot more popular. It's creative, communal, inexpensive, encourages lateral thinking, and it's accessible to everyone. "Roleplaying game" is as generic as "sport". Almost anyone who enjoys reading fiction can enjoy roleplaying games.

Um, that's kind of assuming that folks in general like creative, communal, lateral thinking entertainments. Pardon my cynical side here, but I don't think that describes all that many people.

And RPG playing is a much different activity than reading fiction. One is passive, and one is more active, and liking one does not imply liking the other.

Maybe what's needed is an awareness campaign that goes beyond advertising. Right now there doesn't seem to be any formal advocacy, just marketing and various online communities.

So, my question is: would lobbying be effective in changing public perception of roleplaying games, would it be worth it, and what form would it take?

Perhaps this is a terminiology issue - where I come from, "lobbying" is not an activity to raise general awareness. Lobbying is what you do to raise the awareness of specific people with power on a very specific issue in order to bring about a very specific result - the iconic case being in politics, where one lobbies legislators to get a vote.

One does not "lobby" the general public - that's marketing, or advertising.

 

[Victim]

Um, that's kind of assuming that folks in general like creative, communal, lateral thinking entertainments. Pardon my cynical side here, but I don't think that describes all that many people.

It also assumes that roleplaying is about creativity, deeping thinking, and ever changing plots. In my mind, that's the far more questionable assumption.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Also keep in mind that sales of World of Warcraft are paltry compared to popular single-player games, and non-(solo-friendly)-WoW MMOs are essentially sales nonentities. Developers like to make them because they provide a huge return in the form of subscriptions, but don't move anything like the volume of units they do with a comparably 'visible' offline game. MMORPGs are an extremely visible phenomena, but if you take their immense popularity in the Korean market out of the picture, probably not a bigger one than tabletop RPGs in terms of active players.

The real volume in electronic gaming is in single-player games (Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto), online multiplayer games (Age of Empires, Half-Life), and primarily offline multiplayer games, mostly sports (Madden). Those have even less outlay of time and substantially less of money, since none of them have a subscription cost.

Of course, the REAL volume in electronic gaming is Microsoft Solitaire, which is the most-played game in the world by a wide margin - possibly as high as all other electronic games COMBINED. Its immense player base may also be skewing those male/female numbers considerably.