Quote from: CRKrueger;612186I hear stuff like this from people about GW shops in England.  Is it illegal there for you to laugh in a shopkeeper's face as you tell him to go fuck his mother?

Dunno. Even when I lived in England, I played most of my Warhammer across the border in Wales...

Actually, most of the GW redshirts that I've dealt with have been nice enough folks, and most of the adult fanbase was great (As I've found is the case with most "nerd hobbies"). But on the other hand... the players they get rid of today, are the parents twenty years down the line. I've had semi-serious conversations with other geek parents about whether we'd let our kids get into collectathon hobbies, if we were funding them.

Quote from: Ladybird;612178An older gentleman, I'd guess he was in his thirties or so

I love this....

I'm not sure I buy this 'slow demise' thing.  Tabletop and RPG genre kickstarters seem to do amazingly well.  RPG books seem to be selling well on Amazon.  Where's the 'death'?  If anything, I'd predict a surge over the next several years as the kids of those who started playing in the mid- to late-70s become independent RPG consumers.  I introduced my kids to tabletop RPGs, and I know others who've done the same.

As far as demographics go, I help run a PBP community with thousands of members (age 13+ mandated), and for us it breaks down something like this: about 1 in 20 users are 13-19, 2 out of 3 are 20-29, 1 of 5 are 30-39, 1 in 13 are 40 to 49, and 1 in 100 are 50 and up.  (Some reference info:  at least 1 in 200 report impossible ages, and about 1 in 20 prefer not to list birth date information.  Information is aggregated from over 2000 users actively posting in the past year.)

So the biggest chunk of gamers in this community by far is 20-29, followed by 30-39, and with reasonable size groups in the 13-19 and 40-49 categories.

My guess would be that PBP communities are shifted to slightly older ages, as the slow and asynchronous play style is probably most favoured by those with commitments that prevent them from setting aside time blocks to get together and game face-to-face with people (e.g. having kids).

Quote from: CRKrueger;611763You may as well talk about the slow decline of the MMORPG industry because there will never be another WoW, just a couple hundred smaller games sharing the same market space.

There's death even in that industry, as City of Heroes/Villains recently got canned. I'm sure DCU and Champions Online will absorb most of that crowd, but an MMO that was still making like $2.5 million in profit a year wasn't considered "profitable enough".

Quote from: vytzka;611765I'm still sad the Battletech virtual cockpits didn't catch on

They were awesome, but a mechanical nightmare to keep running.

Quote from: Warthur;611774So exactly how much of your spare time do you spend hanging around, say, 18-25 year olds?

Only at gaming, honestly.

Quote from: Killfuck Soulshitter;611777I don't believe that all these younger people are too busy playing D&D to be reflected on forums, Youtube, or at conventions.

May I submit your representative data is fucking old, to today's teenagers?
Teenagers don't post in forums, they tweet or Facebook.
They don't post reviews on YouTube, they play the damn game.
They don't go to conventions, which are typically staffed with old or brand new games. They also don't have to go out of their way to find meetings of like-minded gamers, unlike people in their 30's or older.

Just my own experience, but I had to turn down gaming while between 18-25, that I would love to get an offer to now in my mid-thirties. The problem isn't desire, it's fucking responsibilities as a husband and father, and those trump gaming.

Quote from: vytzka;612270Sorry, didn't know that was frowned upon. I don't like the look of bare links, but I'll keep it in mind.

It doesn't have to be a bare link; if you'd just posted "I have here a set of miniature combat rules that use legos" or whatever, instead of the just "something for you", it would not be a blind link because it would have had a basic description of what you were linking to.

On the contrary, if you post just a bare link, and the URL itself is not sufficiently descriptive of what the site in question is about, then you are still posting a blind link.

RPGPundit

nvm; delete plz.

My personal anecdote regarding the Mentzer generation and today, for whatever little it may be worth:

I'm that guy.  I started playing right when it was released, and it was the product that introduced me to RPGs.  It was a gift from a relative (non-gamer) at the age of 8 or 9, and I learned straight from the box with no outside assistance.  I did go on to teach every kid that would listen to me in the 3rd grade (and 4th, and 5th, and so on).

Of the dozen of gamers I met or taught in the 80's, exactly none of them still play table-top RPGs that I know of.  Some play WoW, but most quit when there main group fell apart, because for them the hobby was more about socializing with a certain collection of people than the game itself.  If they can't game with Joe, Bob, Cletus, and Hank, then they just don't want to game anymore.

When I first found and started visiting hobby stores for RPGs, I was always the youngest person there (unless I had brought a friend).  Of all the "old-timers" I met (IOW, people who started before me), all of them have long quit RPGs by the time 3e rolled out.  Even the shop owners themselves!

I still manage to game weekly today, and know about two dozen regular RPG players.  Every one of them started in the late 90's or with the D20 era.

So, however little value it may have, my experience has been most of the "red box generation" have actually long-left table-top RPG's, and the older players today tend to be D20 generation.  


(Also, of all the gamers I know, retired or current, I am the only one that spends any time at all on RPG forums.)

Quote from: SJBenoist;612589Of the dozen of gamers I met or taught in the 80's, exactly none of them still play table-top RPGs that I know of.

When I first found and started visiting hobby stores for RPGs, I was always the youngest person there (unless I had brought a friend).  Of all the "old-timers" I met (IOW, people who started before me), all of them have long quit RPGs by the time 3e rolled out.  Even the shop owners themselves!

I still manage to game weekly today, and know about two dozen regular RPG players.  Every one of them started in the late 90's or with the D20 era.

So, however little value it may have, my experience has been most of the "red box generation" have actually long-left table-top RPG's, and the older players today tend to be D20 generation.

I've noticed the local oldtimers (in many places I have lived over the years) whom started with Moldvay/Mentzer/AD&D and are today still playing tabletop rpg games, come in two distinct stripes:

A - My way or the highway.
B - Willing to try almost any tabletop rpg game.

(Locally, there is very little to no overlap between cases A and B).

Unfortunately I've come across too many cases of A, whom are just very unpleasant to play rpg games with.  This is the main reason why I haven't played any AD&D campaigns in a very long time.  (Too many bad experiences with too many hardcore AD&D individuals fitting into case A.  The well has run dry).

At this point, I'm mainly playing one-shot evening rpg games once in a while, with individuals fitting into case B.  Much more pleasant to deal with.

Quote from: ggroy;612632I've noticed the local oldtimers (in many places I have lived over the years) whom started with Moldvay/Mentzer/AD&D and are today still playing tabletop rpg games, come in two distinct stripes:

A - My way or the highway.
B - Willing to try almost any tabletop rpg game.

(Locally, there is very little to no overlap between cases A and B).

Unfortunately I've come across too many cases of A, whom are just very unpleasant to play rpg games with.  This is the main reason why I haven't played any AD&D campaigns in a very long time.  (Too many bad experiences with too many hardcore AD&D individuals fitting into case A.  The well has run dry).

At this point, I'm mainly playing one-shot evening rpg games once in a while, with individuals fitting into case B.  Much more pleasant to deal with.

If there's anything that will kill of this hobby it's the conflict between a and b.

Quote from: Daztur;612199That sounds like a lot more fun to me. As a kid I got the WHFB intro boxed set, got bored trying to paint the damn things, ran screaming from the prices of the models and then just used risk pieces, legos, a stuffed hedgehog (nurgle) and anything else I could dig up. Was fun playing 10,000 point battles over a course of a week against my brother in the space room. He was not happy when my skaven cannons killed his big demon before it ever saw combat, but what did he expect, I had like 20 of them

I never bought the models, but played many a WHFB game on the floor. We just wrote down all the relevant numbers on slips of paper, and shuffled them around.

One day my GF came over, saw "the mess" on the floor, and neatly piled up all the little squares of paper. Arg.

Quote from: SJBenoist;612589Of the dozen of gamers I met or taught in the 80's, exactly none of them still play table-top RPGs that I know of.  Some play WoW, but most quit when there main group fell apart, because for them the hobby was more about socializing with a certain collection of people than the game itself.  If they can't game with Joe, Bob, Cletus, and Hank, then they just don't want to game anymore.

Dude, you actually know a guy named Cletus?

Quote from: Joethelawyer;612659Dude, you actually know a guy named Cletus?

Is it Cletus Van Damme? Are you in trouble with the Armenian mob?

Cletus van Damme?  :confused:

I thought it would have been Cletus from the original Dukes of Hazzard.  

Quote from: ggroy;612664Cletus van Damme?  :confused:

It was Shane's improvised alias in The Shield. Mate, The Shield is seriously the best TV programme ever made, go and get the boxed set immediately!

Quote from: Joethelawyer;612659Dude, you actually know a guy named Cletus?

No, I was just making-up names.  You could insert Wolfgang if it reads better

Quote from: SJBenoist;612677No, I was just making-up names.  You could insert Wolfgang if it reads better

Wolfgang does not have the same gravitas as Cletus.