if we look at history, the most popular game has always been D&D. ( tenically Vampire: The Masquerade was more popular one time but didnt last long). and pathfinder is D&D. but why?  this is a phenomenon that only happens in the west. if we look at japan, this is a phenomenon that only happens in the west. if we look at japan Call of Cthulhu is the most popular system. I honesly dont know why.

also D&D was almost always is a monopoly. and honestly that's a pretty bad thing but the good thing is that's going to change. although the game to replace D&D is D&D  (but not for Wizard of the coast). and a pathfinder is likely to occur again (but I dont know when).

the question is why D&D is and probably will be the most popular.(at least in the West)

Cultural differences, probably. And D&D really doesn't count as a monopoly just because it's the most successful.

Because D&D is a mash-up of our favorite stories and franchises. It's the good, the bad, and the ugly characters of Lord of the Rings roaming Middle Earth with a fistful of gold coins, bringing law and order to the western frontiers for a few gold coins more.

Quote from: Shteve on Today at 08:52:39 AMCultural differences, probably. And D&D really doesn't count as a monopoly just because it's the most successful.

and what you count as a monopoly?

Quote from: antonioGUAK on Today at 09:02:40 AM

Quote from: Shteve on Today at 08:52:39 AMCultural differences, probably. And D&D really doesn't count as a monopoly just because it's the most successful.

and what you count as a monopoly?

GOOGLE SAYS: "A monopoly is a market structure that consists of a single seller or producer and no close substitutes. A monopoly limits available alternatives for its product and creates barriers for competitors to enter the marketplace. Monopolies can lead to unfair consumer practices."

Having a single dominant entity is NOT a monopoly. There are literally hundreds of competitors to D&D.

Possibly because in a niche hobby it was (arguably) the first RPG and gained enough money to keep pouring it into products and keep churning out products. If only Ken St. Andre had taken a more serious approach to Tunnels and Trolls or RuneQuest been a bit not so weird...

Part of it is huge name recognition. D&D was first on the scene, was mentioned in movies, got a bunch of parents concerned and thereby made the news several times etc. So it's the one RPG that virtually everyone has heard of, even if they don't know what it is.

I can't speak to "the West," but in America I think a lot of D&D's enduring popularity stems from the Satanic Panic. It gave the game a sense of the forbidden that was irresistible for a big part of its initial demographic: teenage boys. AD&D really leaned into that kind of edginess, if that's the right word, and became targeted by busybodies as a result. Apart from being first, I think this controversy helped establish D&D as the game to play. And once established, it became hard to dislodge. There likely are other reasons too, but I think this is a significant one.

I think to a large extent it's because they didn't know enough to outthink themselves, and all they were doing was just making something fun for themselves. It's not the money of being first. D&D's publishers have come close to running out of money several times, and did run out of money at least once. The commercial history of the West is strewn with companies that were first and still died.

As Corolinth wrote, D&D was a mashup of everything great for the time. If sharks with lasers had existed, there would be sharks with lasers in core OD&D. (We actually had rats with lasers in last night's game.) There was no sense of having to force something cool into the structure, because there was no structure.

As pretentious as it may sound, D&D was built on inspirations which themselves were quite grounded in the western traditions and those values.

You leave the western american/european sphere and D&D suddenly isn't as dominate. Call of Cthulhu is more popular in Japan and likely thanks to artists like Junji Ito, generally Japan has a very different relationship with Horror and Cosmicism than us.

You go to Eastern Europe and Warhammer and Vampire tend to beat out D&D in popularity, having read and enjoyed a lot of Russian and Polish literature, they have a much more grim perspective on the human condition than us.

Speaking of Call of Cthulhu: this is the only game that I have found people being really interested in playing in all three countries where I have lived: Norway, Canada, and USA.

I think D&D has publishing problems in the 90s that hurt it in Japan. But you can see D&D's influence in pretty much every fantasy IP in Japan. There were even games based on the completely fictitious gods in D&DG (Tower of Druaga for instance). Look at the monsters in JRPGs. So many from D&D and not mythology.