Wizards aiming younger audience

[Steel_Wind]

Dude, what's with the hostile attitude. When did I say I was the first to think of anything? And I didn't say anything about gamers getting laid.

I think you did, wittingly or no.

That's the "stigma" you speak of that attaches to D&D. It's nerdy and geeky and playing it makes you "undateable".

That's the stigma; it's not something else, is it?

Kids find the game cool and don't care about that? Sure. Pre-pubescent kids don't care much about that at all.

But adolescent teenagers certainly do. And that's the target pool for player acquistion, right? D&D's customer acquisition is primarily aimed at teenaged males, ages 13-19, as the overwhelming demographic pool from which to draw its new players. It has been that way for well over 30 years - and it's not going to change.

Marketing and research budgets can't magic up features which contradict the inherent nature of the game, or the inherent nature of the people who play it. D&D is a geeky game - there isn't a way out of that "stigma" as it happens to be true. Doesn't mean that we are ALL walking parodies of Comic Book Guy on the Simpsons...but the stereotype does contain more than a few grains of truth.

That stigma is reinforced by the fact that D&D is mostly played by some pretty geeky people. That's who we are. If the matter is in doubt, take a trip to Gencon. That's the hardcore gamer naked and exposed under the blaze of the Indianapolis noon-day sun.

You get comfortable with it as you get older of course. When you are 15 or 16? It can be a problem for some, sure.

It is what it is.

 

[ssampier]

Interesting thread! It seems many people in this thread are against the geeky and nerd labels*.

D&D is pretty geeky. Whether you want your child to be geeky, too, that's your choice as a parent/guardian.

I take a hard stance on geeky. Isn't most people's jobs pretty geeky? Accounting is pretty geeky, if you think about it, as is high finance. You spends lots of hours on pretty obscure stuff.

Granted those are professions, but what about fantasy league sports? Isn't watching all those games and obsessing about your stats geeky?

Like the old saying goes, it takes one to know one. I play RPGs, love Star Wars, and I support computers for a living


* I did graduate with a liberal arts major, so I can go on and on about nothing. So that makes me more geeky, not less.

 

[renau1g]

As an accountant I can confirm that yes....it is a geeky profession and I play D&D so...I guess I'm a super-geek or double geek or something. Fortunately, geeks usually end up making good money while "cool" high school football players often end up working in a dead end job

Imaro - my comment (like Steel Winds') is that sure at 7-12 kids don't care about girls (I'm generalizing boys here as most players are male) but once you start high school (middle school in US?) they sure do and so people finding out you played D&D would make you an instant "nerd" as does being a hardcore WOW'er or a hardcore Yu-gi-oh or pokemon player. I care far less about what I do now vs high school. I don't advertise my D&Dness to coworkers, but I also don't hide it to family/non-gamer friends any more.

 

[darjr]

Eh, I'll get labeled how people are wont. I'll do what I want.

 

[nedjer]

It's very, eh, brave of WoTC to venture into the 6+ market. Throws up a raft, no, an armada, of questions about children's emotional engagement, whether or not the claimed skill set is verifiable, how you approach child protection issues, the role of in- and out-game psychological interventions, potential media misrepresentation and . . . . where's the money?

 

[mgbeach]

I'm a little surprised the big marketing push for that age bracket didn't come in the form of a specialized minis game. The key to making money off of kids in that age range is having something they will nag mom for at Wal Mart

 

[Achan hiArusa]

If wizards really want to aim at children they just have to not lead them as much. They'll hit them everytime.

Other than the poor attempt at remixing Full Metal Jacket, I like the product and our hobby will gray and die if we don't find ways to reach out to kids (I know I gray more with each passing day).

 

[Wormwood]

It's very, eh, brave of WoTC to venture into the 6+ market. Throws up a raft, no, an armada, of questions about children's emotional engagement, whether or not the claimed skill set is verifiable, how you approach child protection issues, the role of in- and out-game psychological interventions, potential media misrepresentation and . . . . where's the money?

Wait . . . what?

 

[Betote]

But adolescent teenagers certainly do. And that's the target pool for player acquistion, right? D&D's customer acquisition is primarily aimed at teenaged males, ages 13-19, as the overwhelming demographic pool from which to draw its new players. It has been that way for well over 30 years - and it's not going to change.

Do you want teenaged males, ages 13-19? Get some teenaged females, ages 13-19

 

[mgbeach]

I think that being a "geek" these days is much cooler than being a "geek" in the 80s was