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AnarionZelle
Underboss
1069 Posts
    
USA
 | | 10/11/2007 12:02 PM |
| A lot of folks seem to believe that 4E is being marketed primarily to a young (12-18?) demographic, and that older gamers who have been with the game from the beginning are effectively being shut out. My question is: What, if any, influence do older gamers have on the promotion of the game, and is it possible to actually qualify what that influence would be? For example, I have read that one way older gamers affect the promotion of D&D is to encourage their children to play. Would something like this be applicable in a gaming store setting? Also, is there a mystique or aura of experience and wisdom that actually encourages interest in new gamers, and is that being set aside in the pursuit of quick profits? Or is this a false perception that a change in edition often brings? | |
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Zenako
Commander
3443 Posts
| | 10/11/2007 12:56 PM |
| Well a few quick thoughts.
Older gamers probably have a LOT more disposable income to spend on gaming so that they might buy more, however, by the same token they have probably already invested a lot in the current systems and have a reluctance to spending that much again just to change rule sets.
Younger gamers not as much available money to spend, but they probably do not have the same sort of sunken costs based on the previous game system so are more willing to try and buy the new system.
Once you have sold a rules set to a player or DM, they have little incentive to keep buying new rulesets. You need to find fresh blood to keep growth and to expand the reach of your product line. So to try and grab future buyers, you need to market to those most likely to buy, not just browse and complain about how things are no longer like they used to be. | |
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Corim Danex
Warlord
6560 Posts
West Valley City, Utah
| | 10/12/2007 4:38 PM |
| | Since I am not a teenager, I guess I am an older gamer. I try to introduce new people to the game fairly often. I think that having an established player introduce the game to you helps out, since there's someone there who can teach. If a group of teens (or any group, really) picks up the core books and tries to learn it, the learning curve is more challenging. | |
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Choco Monster
Ghendar
Warlord
10836 Posts
In the constellation of Cygnus, or Central Connecticut
| | 10/12/2007 6:05 PM |
| Posted By AnarionZelle on 10/11/2007 12:02 PM A lot of folks seem to believe that 4E is being marketed primarily to a young (12-18?) demographic,
My guess is more like 18-26, or possibly 20-29.
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zenthrus
Commander
4591 Posts
SLC, UT
| | 10/13/2007 1:54 AM |
| Posted By Ghendar on 10/12/2007 6:05 PM Posted By AnarionZelle on 10/11/2007 12:02 PM A lot of folks seem to believe that 4E is being marketed primarily to a young (12-18?) demographic,
My guess is more like 18-26, or possibly 20-29.
In any of those scenarios, I'm not the target demographic  | |
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vanrulzz
Underboss
2294 Posts
¯\(°_o)/¯
| | 10/13/2007 1:10 PM |
| | I am 13 and got drawn in by 3.5 the week it came out (there were advertisements and stuff) I don't know from what i have seen but i don't think D&D targets a demographic. Maybe they made it more "cool" so people outside of gaming would pick it up, but not everyone who gets drawn in by that stuff is kids, not even enough of a majority to say that it is targeted at kids. | |
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| The Great
Choco Monster
Ghendar
Warlord
10836 Posts
In the constellation of Cygnus, or Central Connecticut
| | 10/13/2007 3:59 PM |
| Posted By zenthrus on 10/13/2007 1:54 AM Posted By Ghendar on 10/12/2007 6:05 PM Posted By AnarionZelle on 10/11/2007 12:02 PM A lot of folks seem to believe that 4E is being marketed primarily to a young (12-18?) demographic,
My guess is more like 18-26, or possibly 20-29.
In any of those scenarios, I'm not the target demographic
Neither am I. A sad reality I have been forced to confront.
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On vacation 6/29 - 7/5
Leaning towards giving 4e the Digitus Impudicus
Champion of the Spider Eater with rider.
I actually love to be swallowed. - Posted By gss_000 on 09/04/2007 2:32 PM
How many times in life do you get to eat your own Ctulhu? - Posted By Pedro on 03/31/2008 2:29 | |
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Fun Guy from Yuggoth
Cthulhufnord
Warlord
10556 Posts
Umass Amherst Baby!
| | 10/13/2007 9:58 PM |
| I'm planning on aging back a year next Aprill so that would just qualify me...  | |
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Vrecknidj
Warlord
9938 Posts
United States
| | 10/14/2007 7:11 AM |
| As Almalik pointed out, over on Hordelings, I'm now closer in age to 60 than to 20, so this drops me out of the target audience on any of those assumptions.
However, I think we should probably also look at GenCon attendee numbers. I'd guess there are very, very high numbers of 30-somethings that attend GenCon, and quite a few of them play D&D. So, While WotC may have a "core" demographic, they also have to be aware of the bell curve of ages of their purchasers.
All of that said, there is an influence of older gamers. The Old Guard keeps traditions alive, has repositories of experiences that the newer players do not, can serve as wise moderators of disputes, etc. Old timers will continue to have an influence on this game for the decades to come.
Dave | |
Knowledge Arcana editor issues 5-9, Phoenix Lore Magazine editor, assistant editor for Rite Publishing;
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Kaya Kenobi
Underboss
1296 Posts
San Jose, California
| | 10/16/2007 3:36 PM |
| I dunno...
DnD targets us geeks and nerds. Not a particular age group.
That aside, it targets whomever wants to play, not an age group. I may not care for 4e, but that's because I haven't seen enough to care. I will say this, give me easy compatibility and I'm in! | |
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Skyscraper
Sergeant
659 Posts
Montreal
| | 10/17/2007 8:05 AM |
| Hmm. We're in the late '30s. 'Dont belive we're geeks either :)
We haven't introduced the game to a younger audience yet, on the other hand our kids will become of age in the near future. We do introduce the game to other friends every once in a while. But we did that more often when we were younger (10-22).
Otherwise, we're not very active at our LGS which is mostly frequented by much younger players (which is fine - however they gaming preferences often differ from ours). I've always thought that it's not easy to satisfy everyone's preferences in D&D games (e.g. role vs roll players, for those that do fall more into one of those categories), and consequently i try to target players of a similar age group than mine (25-45) to increase the likelihood that the gaming group's cohesion will work out in a campaign. I wouldn't close the door entirely to a group with a different age repartition however.
Not much to help you in your question here, is there? :)
Sky | |
The wise man doubts often. The ignorant, sometimes. The fool, never. | |
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Awesome Sauce
Teflon Jeff
Warlord
6234 Posts
Idaho. Yes, we have Gamers in Idaho.
| | 10/24/2007 2:01 PM |
| Posted By Kaya Kenobi on 10/16/2007 3:36 PM
I dunno...
DnD targets us geeks and nerds. Not a particular age group.
That aside, it targets whomever wants to play, not an age group. I may not care for 4e, but that's because I haven't seen enough to care. I will say this, give me easy compatibility and I'm in!
My sentiments exactly.
I would say the target audience is more on preference than age.
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| Knight of the
Round Table
Thenameless
Warlord
8472 Posts
The Fortress of Solitude
| | 10/24/2007 2:10 PM |
| | For the reason Zenako noted (older players having much higher disposable income) I don't think Wizards is ignoring older gamers in favour of younger gamers. My opinion is that they feel that 3/3.5 has reached full maturity, and that they can make more money by offering a new (and hopefully better) rule set. | |
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