Car News

I had come across the article previously as well, but was frustrated
that the magazine didn't give much in the way of hard numbers to answer
a number of possible reasons for the increase in sales numbers.

In conversation with the local (largest in the area) hobby/comic store
here in Spokane (Merlyn's), the owner indicated that the price of RPGs,
and the other hobby games the past two years have sky rocketed due to
paper and other costs going up so much. He had noticed sales were okay,
but not especially remarkable at least in this area. He attributes that
to online sales instead tending to be taking more and more of the market
share.

What we both wondered was were these increase numbers gross sales in
dollars or units sold, or net profits? Any idea on any of those numbers,
I do not see that level of detail in the Internal Correspondence, maybe
I just missed it?

Thanks!
-Hawke Robinson
RPG Research Project Founder
http://www.rpgresearch.com

On Monday, October 25, 2010 07:51:47 pm Mike "Talien" Tresca wrote:
> Hi Scooter,
>
> I write articles pretty quickly so I sometimes don't back them up
> with as much data as I should. I do in fact have data to support my
> argument. To address your concerns:
>
> Using the references below, I infer that game sales are tied to time
> and money, and that teenagers these days have more time and less
> money. The Bureau of Labor Statistics data indicates that 16-19 year
> olds have a much higher unemployment rate, and this is the same group
> that normally experiences a dip in hobby gaming (see below). Since,
> as you pointed out, hobby games have a much higher value per dollar
> than other forms of entertainment (i.e., movies) I believe it's
> reasonable that teenagers who play RPGs might game more -- both
> because they are economically restricted due to lack of income and
> because they have the time to play that RPGs require. A full-time job
> increases money and decreases time, so I would expect those two
> variables to be adjusted accordingly by unemployment.
>
> I can't prove this of correlation of course. I can base it off of my
> own experience, which was that I was gaming twice a week in excess of
> six hours at a time until I got a job. Work severely curtailed gaming
> because we had more competing entertainment factors to spend money
> on, like movies and women. :)
>
> I agree with all your points (as does Internal Correspondence, which
> arrived in the mail today, coincidentally). I do not believe all
> gamers are jobless teenagers who game out of boredom or poverty -- I
> do think that, given the chance, avid gamers would game MORE if they
> had the opportunity to do so.
>
> Please don't be offended. My goal was to provoke exactly the kind of
> discussion we're having!
>
> =====================
>
> Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0 by Ryan
> Dancey
>
> http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/wotcdemo.html
>
> 3. Adventure Gaming is an adult hobby
> More than half the market for hobby games is older than 19. There is
> a substantial "dip" in incidence of play from 16-18. This lends
> credence to the theory that most people are introduced to hobby
> gaming before high-school and play quite a bit, then leave the hobby
> until they reach college, and during college they return to the
> hobby in significant numbers.
>
> Second Person: Role-playing and Story in Games and Playable Media
>
> Narrative Structure and Creative Tension in Call of Cthulhu by
> Kenneth Hite
>
> p. 38
>
> "The first is the rapid turnover in the role-playing hobby as a
> whole. Role-playing gamers traditionally enter the hobby around ages
> 12 or 13, before high school. They pay until 16 (dropping out with
> the availability of a car, and the concomitant expansion of
> available competing activities) and enter the hobby in college (when
> mobility and choice are artificially constrained again) and drift
> out of it after graduation, marriage, childbirth, or other life
> changes. By this understanding, a typical gaming group lasts only
> four years at the most."
>
> Internal Correspondence #73, September 2010
>
> A Secular Change in Gaming? Or is it the Economy
>
> p. 4
>
> "A lot of people would rather spend $60 for a board game that they
> can play with their family so they get their social interaction,
> their parenting in, and they don't have to worry about their kid
> sitting in front of the TV playing videogames," Procell told us.
> "They're out there buying games that they normally wouldn't buy.
> They're out there looking for stuff to do with their kids."

--
--Hawke
Founder Spokane Tolkien Society Smial
http://www.tolkienscholars.org

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