You started a yahoo group. That's excellent. There are other things you can do, too. I've twice linked you to my article about that, but here it is again.

There are lots of gamers out there, more than you think. And there are far more people who might give gaming a go if you asked them. Saying that as a gamer you won't ask non-gamers to game is like being 45 years old and saying you'll only ask out virgins. You can do that if you want, but you're really limiting your options.

The latest issue of Cerise has got an article on How to Make New Gamers. It's pretty good, go read it.

Quote from: JimBobOzOne thing the diagramme doesn't show is the strength of each connection. It doesn't distinguish between "see him every day at work, talk to him but if I left the job would never talk to him again," and "my husband."

Here's one with jump numbers...er...relationship strengths as line weight.

Quote from: JimBobOzThe latest issue of Cerise has got an article on How to Make New Gamers. It's pretty good, go read it.

Very interesting article.  The majority of the gamers I used to game with were people who had never gamed before and I tought how to play (Gamers I made).

Sometimes it works out, sometimes it does.

Thanks for pointing out the article though.  It's a good read.

Quote from: JimBobOzOr rather, the guy who posted it originally as a social map on a university site gets major geek points for slipping it in, see here. In any case, it illustrated things well, yes?

Curses! Foiled again!

(Although I'd swear that the little x'd boxes on the left look like part of the Australian Sub-Arm.)

Although indications are that the gamer population may be shrinking as it's aging, I've been continuously expanding my gamer connections and gaming pool during my gaming "career".  As a result, from my perspective it's impossible to state that there are less gamers; contrary to other people's observations, mine are of an ever-increasing gamer community.  My gaming has never been better or more plentiful.

Part of these networking connections have required a good measure of effort.  I have had times in the past when my husband and I thought, "That's it -- we've exhausted the gamer pool."  But we kept on joining clubs, trying demo games, getting involved in organising events, invitong new people, etc.  Last winter, I tried to put together some notes on what has worked in our community; they're found on this wiki.  The two that would be of interest here are Forming a Gaming Community, which has many similarities to Jim Bob's articles, and Weekly Short-Shots, where I describe how our club created weekly events that have provided us with a lot of good gaming, new players, new contacts, and overall vitality.

I want to stress that this kind of endeavour rarely starts strong.  The weekly games floundered for a long time until we managed to learn from mistakes, work around hurdles, and pour enough energy into them to make them strong.  Nowadays, the calendar is booked six to eight weeks in advance, but for the first couple of years or so, we had many cancelled events, players or GMs flaking out, miscommunications about time or location, lack of volunteers, etc..  It took some work and commitment to get things running smoothly.

Quote from: AnemoneAlthough indications are that the gamer population may be shrinking as it's aging, I've been continuously expanding my gamer connections and gaming pool during my gaming "career".  As a result, from my perspective it's impossible to state that there are less gamers; contrary to other people's observations, mine are of an ever-increasing gamer community.  My gaming has never been better or more plentiful.

Yep some areas are doing well but there are many areas where gaming is really hurting.

I happen to live in one of those areas.   I have started a Yahoo group as I mentioned to JimBob.  I will give it a try to find gamers (I have tried many other different ways such as through the FLGS's, Game related sites to find gamers around me, etc but that hasn't worked) and if it doesn't work then it was a good try.

I can just put my remaining books on ebay and walk away from the hobby.