Last year there was a big survey on gaming, focusing on why people game.
The first pass through the data has resulted in a non-academic first draft of the results, here (http://www.wargamer.com/articles/gama_survey_1/).
For reference, the full URL is http://www.wargamer.com/articles/gama_survey_1/ (http://www.wargamer.com/articles/gama_survey_1/)
I'll wait for some comments before I chip in. It's got some interesting results, though.
The ethnic diversity of the respondents is actually broader than I was expecting.
Ok, I know that survey isn't truly representative of the hobby, but... has anyone seen the contrast between current and starting age?
32.9% are between 31-38 years old, while 31.4% are in the 39-49 bracket. However, the starting age was between 7 and 11 for 36.1% of the people, or 12 to 16 years old for 38.2%.
That's an extremely depressing statistic.
Quote from: JongWKThat's an extremely depressing statistic.
Yea but it not be as bad as it seems. Less than a third of the responses were from roleplayers. Board wargamers really are aging and dying, very few people under 30 play. Young kids also may not appreciate Euro games which were another big chunk of the responses.
But I think representativeness of the survey is the big thing. Young kids seem less likely to get online to discuss games (and thus discover the survey).
Quote from: NicephorusYea but it not be as bad as it seems. Less than a third of the responses were from roleplayers. Board wargamers really are aging and dying, very few people under 30 play.
Oh yea, well that's much better.. :rolleyes: it just means that wargaming is already at where RPGs will likely be in 15 years or so, if we don't reverse these trends NOW by shifting the whole hobby back to one focused on catering to teenagers and college students instead of 30-something professional collectors.
RPGpundit