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Originally Posted by Raellus
Regarding tabletop RPG sales in general, then v now, on the one hand, I can understand today's smaller numbers. There are so many more digital gaming options nowadays. Tabletop RPG's seem quaint, and they require a lot more work to play than pushing the power button.
On the other hand, back in the '80s and '90s, tabletop RPG'ing was much less socially acceptable than it has become over the last decade or so. And it's not like there were no computer/console RPGs eating into the market back then. Also, today, there's a lot more venues for playing tabletop RPGs, especially on the interwebs. You no longer have to find a handful of people with similar interests in your town; you can game with people all over the world. And marketing- back in the '80s and '90s, the only way to find out about new games was to go to a brick and mortar gaming store, or find an esoteric gaming mag. With the internet, it's so much easier to learn about, and acquire, new (and old) RPGs. Also, today, it seems like the man-who-still-plays-with-toys (and I don't say that here in a disparaging way) is much more common than he was 25-40 years ago. It seems like the market for tabletop RPGs should be bigger today, instead of smaller.
Is the answer that today's customers are the exact same people as the '80s and '90s customers (just older now)? That can't be it, can it? At the high school I teach at, there's a pretty big, pretty active D&D club. I can't imagine such a thing operating overtly, at least, at my high schools when I was a student, 30 years ago or so.
Apologies if that digression wandered too far afield.
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I think what we are seeing is a circular "whiplash" effect involving kids who started with video games. Games like FALLOUT and SKYRIM got them into the RPG side of gaming but let's be honest, those games are limited in their choices because they are video games with animations and code. After a while, killing monsters, brewing potions, and forging stuff all become monotonous because you have been doing it for hundreds of hours in the game. You begin to crave something different.
Thus, the next logical step from them would then be a TTRP, where you can pretty much do whatever you can imagine. I believe that is where your "surge" is coming from.