What Will Influence the Next Generation to Play D&D?

[jgbrowning]

Computers, friends, movies, books. IMO

joe b.

 

[Derren]

I guess that if WotC finishes the Virtual Game Table (in several years) it will be used as basis for 5E where electronic aids are more integrated than now.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Also, for the record, some amount of internet-as-leisure-activity can be just as useful to you as reading, because it involves... reading. Also writing!

I think this might be an under-appreciated effect of the Internet, though I am certain it has done wonders for my English.

Of course, I33t and LOLspeak might ... change our language a lot, and I am sure everyone will hate it. But there can be no doubt that this provides a venue for kids to socialize with each other.
Now, you can claim that they just creating an Internet persona that is not their real personality. But: If they are talking to people they consider to be friends, will their Internet persona not effectively be their own personality? Just as we adapt ourselves to our friends and experiences in the "real" world, we do on the web.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

Whatever will influence the next generation to play RPGs, the last place to find it is on a webboard full of experienced RPGers.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Whatever will influence the next generation to play RPGs, the last place to find it is on a webboard full of experienced RPGers.

I'll take that a bit further...it is also to early to see it...

 

[Andre]

We all know what we want th future of gaming to look like, in that we all want a bunch of new gamers to help the hobby grow. How do we get there?

Actually, I don't think "we all" agree at all what the future of the hobby should look like, but I'd like to ask a more basic question - should D&D be part of the future? Bear with me - I'm not trolling.

D&D exploded on the scene at just the right time, in just the right way, to reach a critical mass and become the standard for RPG's. But D&D, and what current players want from it, was formed over 30 years ago. One of the most common complaints about any particular edition is that "it's not D&D", whatever that means to the poster. There is nothing uniquely "right" about D&D as an RPG. It was the first RPG for many of us, and we tend to get stuck viewing the hobby through that prism.

But imagine if you were designing an RPG today and D&D had never existed - what would the game look like? First off, it would likely be simple, something that would appeal to casual gamers. It wouldn't have thousands of pages of rules. Playing the game would not require significant prep time. It would have constant little rewards, rather than rarer large rewards (new levels). It would be designed from the ground up with technology and current society in mind - for example, an RPG that is playable on Facebook or some other social site, where those with accounts invite specific friends to participate in telling a story. Texting might be the most common method of playing.

D&D has a lot of baggage from its roots. That baggage helps define D&D and is important to many current players. But that very baggage leads me to believe that the "next big thing" in RPG's will not be D&D, but something that completely breaks from D&D. D&D will continue to be a niche in a niche hobby for decades to come, but expecting something first designed over three decades ago to become more than a niche after all this time...I just don't see it.