Friday, November 05, 2004
The long, agonizing death of a hobby
The signs have been around for years that the tabletop roleplaying game hobby is doomed. Players are clearly getting older, and I rarely see anyone in their teens or early twenties hanging out in my local gaming and comic book shops. I see the occasional child, though, but they're always with an adult who happens to be a Big Fucking Geek -- so the kid looks like he or she is just along for the ride (unless they're into buying CCG booster packs, that is).
Wizards of the Coast has claimed in recent years that the hobby is at its peak. It's bringing in more money now than it ever did back during the so-called hayday of RPGs (generally considered to the 1980s, I believe). So revenue is up, they say. I'm sure it is. However, the price of books has more than doubled -- and in some cases, tripled -- since the hayday. If there are just as many people engaging in tabletop RPGs as there were back then, then revenue should be double or triple what it was. I'll admit I haven't seen any numbers proving that either way, but my gut feeling is that there are fewer people playing RPGs now. However, those people are older, because they got into the hobby in the 1970s and 1980s, and they've continued to play.
When those people first got into the hobby, like yours truly, they were young and didn't have a lot of cash to spend on their hobbies. Now these people are fully grown, possibly have kids of their own and more than likely have jobs. Jobs pay the bills, but they also open up the ability to spend money on your hobbies. So these people can buy more books than they could when they were kids or teens or college/university students. However, most of them are probably playing less because they have a job, kids, responsibilites and other things to do. But they still buy books. It's that whole idea of collecting RPGs that grabs a lot of gamers.
As these old-time gamers get older, many are dropping out of the hobby. I know several of the guys that I used to play RPGs with have dropped out. I'm sure there are others. However, I'm sure when I'm a senior citizen, I'll still be running dungeons and slaying kobolds, as will several others. By that point, though, I don't expect that the tabletop RPG industry will even be around -- or if it is, it will be even more niche than it is now.
Wizards of the Coast has claimed in recent years that the hobby is at its peak. It's bringing in more money now than it ever did back during the so-called hayday of RPGs (generally considered to the 1980s, I believe). So revenue is up, they say. I'm sure it is. However, the price of books has more than doubled -- and in some cases, tripled -- since the hayday. If there are just as many people engaging in tabletop RPGs as there were back then, then revenue should be double or triple what it was. I'll admit I haven't seen any numbers proving that either way, but my gut feeling is that there are fewer people playing RPGs now. However, those people are older, because they got into the hobby in the 1970s and 1980s, and they've continued to play.
When those people first got into the hobby, like yours truly, they were young and didn't have a lot of cash to spend on their hobbies. Now these people are fully grown, possibly have kids of their own and more than likely have jobs. Jobs pay the bills, but they also open up the ability to spend money on your hobbies. So these people can buy more books than they could when they were kids or teens or college/university students. However, most of them are probably playing less because they have a job, kids, responsibilites and other things to do. But they still buy books. It's that whole idea of collecting RPGs that grabs a lot of gamers.
As these old-time gamers get older, many are dropping out of the hobby. I know several of the guys that I used to play RPGs with have dropped out. I'm sure there are others. However, I'm sure when I'm a senior citizen, I'll still be running dungeons and slaying kobolds, as will several others. By that point, though, I don't expect that the tabletop RPG industry will even be around -- or if it is, it will be even more niche than it is now.
// posted by Chris @ 11:49 AM 
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