[MUD-Dev] Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead

[Michael Tresca]

Ryan Dancey (Wizards of the Coast VP, Dungeons & Dragons brand
manager) was so kind as to provide some statistics

  http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=61&i=25462&t=25402

I'll paraphrase:

  * He estimates that Baldur's Gate sold to 1 million individuals.

  * He estimates that EverQuest's aggregated monthly players is
    300,000.

  * He guesses that total Ultima Online, DAoC, and other online
    games amounts to 400,000 to 500,000 that "would enjoy a
    subscription-based RPG experience."

  * Assuming every statistic for those online games are unique
    individuals, he estimates a total online gaming populace of 1.4
    to 1.5 million.

  * WOTC's market research found "more than 2 million people,
    between the ages of 12 and 35 in the US playing at least one
    tabletop RPG monthly, and nearly 5 million who reported playing
    at least once sometime in the past year."

The claim: there are more tabletop RPGers than online gamers.  Note
that he did not say this means the role-playing game industry makes
more money than CRPGs.

The entire study is online here:

  http://www.thegpa.org/wotc_demo.shtml

Mike "Talien" Tresca
RetroMUD Administrator
http://www.retromud.org/talien



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