Why aren't RPGs poplular

[Garmorn]

It also requires:

1) having friends who are interested.

2) Reading and math.

3) Willing to be creative and imaginative.

That makes it unattractive to the average person.

These and the same reasons that science has never been popular. Most people don't want any entertainment that requires thinking. Heck most don't even like to get out and play sports, or do easy physical exercise like walking. People are lazing.

Here's another thing that I think has cropped up in the last few years: SCHEDULING. Among gamers, it's incredibly hard to get everyone to have the same amount of time off every week/two weeks for several consecutive hours. Of the non-college attending adults I know, they can only manage one game a month.

Even without attempting a frequent game, getting the guys together once every few months is tough. We all have jobs, most of us have kids, someone is always moving or on a business trip, whatever.

Much easier when we were all in high school or college, or on summer break!

Turn that part around by saying WOW is ridiculously convenient... You can play whenever you damn well feel like (except for patch/maintenance days), and you literally don't have to get out of bed to play. The only scheduling you have to do is for raids and arena (and even those you can PUG as long as you're tolerant of some degree of fail...).

I never had a general problem with scheduling just the occasional 3 or 4 times a year can't come. Well except while I was in the military but we had ways to get around that. But I am an old fart who got a lot of problems by turning my entire family into RPG player.

 

[LostSoul]

It's something that I think bothers a lot of us. Why aren't RPGs as popular as video games, board games - even CCG's?

Logistics and creative risk.

 

[Barastrondo]

It's a tough thing to require a certain amount of bookwork prep, open scheduling and a good dose of social chemistry to deliver an ideal RPG experience. If you can only manage two out of three, traditional RPGs aren't as competitive.

 

[LostSoul]

It also requires:

1) having friends who are interested.

2) Reading and math.

3) Willing to be creative and imaginative.

That makes it unattractive to the average person.

Oh please. Reading and math? Might as well say, "2) Gamers are snobs."

The third isn't a problem - people don't mind being creative and imaginative. What they do mind, or fear, is judgement of their creative contributions.

Which is what the hobby is about.

 

[Rechan]

Oh please. Reading and math? Might as well say, "2) Gamers are snobs."

One in Four Read No Books Last Year - washingtonpost.com

One in four adults read no books at all in the past year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Tuesday. Of those who did read, women and older people were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices.

The survey reveals a nation whose book readers, on the whole, can hardly be called ravenous. The typical person claimed to have read four books in the last year _ half read more and half read fewer. Excluding those who hadn't read any, the usual number read was seven.

It's also not about not being able to do math, but not liking math. I can count many who I've known that cross their eyes and push the books away when trying to make a character, given the math involved.

Hell, I'm a gamer who hates math to begin with. The fewer rules and numbers, the better.

Finally, there's a stigma. Gaming involves doing things that are nerdy. Call me a snob for saying it, but reading and doing math FOR FUN is perceived as really nerdy. Add in the perception that RPGs are predominantly a hobby of nerds, and you have an unattractive stigma.

 

[frankthedm]

The video game took a huge chunk of the market D&D had in the early 80's. The escapsm offered by the march of technology as video games went beyond quartermunchers meant D&D's heyday would have been far more glorius had it begun a decade beforehand.

 

[Ariosto]

Add in the perception that RPGs are predominantly a hobby of nerds, and you have an unattractive stigma.

Man, back at the height of the Disco Era, lots of hot older chicks played D&D. Of course, most of us guys weren't fat and didn't have beards (being only 11 or 12 years old). That didn't seem to change much in the '80s.

Now, though, yeah, some of us look sort of like

... funny how that happens!

 

[Kzach]

Even without attempting a frequent game, getting the guys together once every few months is tough. We all have jobs, most of us have kids, someone is always moving or on a business trip, whatever.

Much easier when we were all in high school or college, or on summer break!

Yeah, this is one of the primary reasons why I do a lot of gaming online these days. Maintaining a group is very difficult.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My bad! Sorry bout that.

That is some awesome funny!

Oh please. Reading and math? Might as well say, "2) Gamers are snobs."

One in Four Read No Books Last Year - washingtonpost.com

It's also not about not being able to do math, but not liking math. I can count many who I've known that cross their eyes and push the books away when trying to make a character, given the math involved.

Hell, I'm a gamer who hates math to begin with. The fewer rules and numbers, the better.

I'm with Rechan on this one.

When I was in law school, I took time- even during the 1st year grind- to make sure I did some reading for fun...often when I took lunch at the school's cafeteria or grabbing a snack between classes.

You'd think that the majority of those in law school would be used to the sight of someone reading, but when I did it, it was like I was an exotic animal in a zoo!

On multiple occasions, I actually had people stop to ask me why I was reading a non-law book, and were incredulous when I said "For fun."

Even our valedictorian read only newspapers and business/news periodicals. No reading for fun.

Now, I know its not a universal affliction- our Profs often made classical allusions...which I then had to explain to my classmates- but it was pretty widespread.

Again, this in an environment devoted to reading. A LOT.

Participation in a (moderately expensive) hobby that involves significant reading and non-trivial math (at least in amounts if not in actual difficulty) is going to be almost a foreign concept to many people under age 40.

 

[The Ghost]

Call me a snob for saying it, but reading and doing math FOR FUN is perceived as really nerdy. Add in the perception that RPGs are predominantly a hobby of nerds, and you have an unattractive stigma.

I disagree (partly). Reading and Math on their own are not the problem. Poker has surged in popularity over the past decade. Lots of the poker players I know, myself included, have spent countless hours reading Super Systems, Card Player magazine, etc. Part of success in poker is understanding the math (statistics) behind the game.

Fantasy Football (or, as a good friend of mine put it - D&D for jocks) is another very popular activity that spawns countless magazines devoted to player statistics. I spend a good hour each day on ESPN's website reading about football, analyzing how I suspect each of my players will fare in their upcoming games. Basically reading and analyzing statistics. Most of the guys/girls I play with do as well.

I think you are underestimating the amount of reading and math people do "for fun".

I do think you are absolutely right on the perception issue. Sadly, when I mention D&D to many of my friends the image is the overweight bearded guy living in his mother's basement.