thread: 2012-03-15 : Monster Mania Con
On 2012-03-16, Jay Loomis wrote:
Something to remember, as one tries to bring roleplaying to non-gamers, is that games of any sort (except for video-games, which are more or less mainstream now) are not widely culturally accepted for adults in our (US) society. It was *revolutionary* in the '80s when Trivial Pursuit and Pictionary gained popularity for adults—the idea of "normal" adults playing games without children was weird. Catan and the wave of Euro games that followed it in the '90s did a little to change that, but there is still a huge chasm out there in the culture between playing, say, Ticket to Ride and playing something even remotely like a roleplaying game.
Which is just to say, there's a lot of work to be done. Even games with minimal counterproductive procedures of play are likely to be looked at askance.
I would think that there is lots to be learned by way of strategy from hobby boardgame companies. How is, say, Rio Grande Games trying to get non-gamer adults to try playing fun, well-crafted boardgames? Once you leave the realm of the micro-niche of roleplaying gamers, you have a larger (though still niche) pool to explore.
