RPG Market

[42]

So I have a theoretical question. If you were the owner/producer of an RPG game, how would you market it to a general audience?

Perhaps it is simply illogical to think that an RPG game could be as popular with the masses as a blockbuster movie, but it would be cool if there was one. Then my enjoyment of lesser known RPGs can be even more elistist.

So according to WotC, there are about 6-10 million RPG players in the world. How could it be a 100 million or more. (That would have to include a diverse demographic of Blacks, Jews, Latinos and girls)

[Entsuropi]

Lots of PR work. TV ads that concentrate on it's aspect as a fun way to pass time while exercising your mind. Rope it in with CRPG's, point out the connections.

Remove the stigmata attached to the hobby.

Get books out of the comic shops and into the highstreet bookshops. Push for good placement in waterstones, in a prominemt position. The more people who see the nice cover of the PHB, the more players you are likely to get. Many people will pick it up just to see what it is really like. Some, or most, of those will become players.

Set up clubs, where people can form gaming groups. Kinda like what GW has done with the club network.

Interestingly enough, GW's mission statement says that they are aiming to have copies of warhammer in every home in britain. Seems like the entire spectrum of games within the hobby are pushing for mainstream.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

I have a few questions before I can answer.

How much money do we have?

Has our check to the printer cleared?

Are we wanted for bank fraud?

Do we have an offshore bank account on an island that doesn't extradite?

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

I would sell it to schools.

As heinous as that sounds I would create a system that is easy to play, non-threatening, adaptable and visually attractive and market it to schools (the same way channel 1 does) targeting 4th-12th graders. I think It can be done if you lose the roleplaying game monniker and call it something educational.
Backed up with an intense media blitz on the net, Radio, TV and in print I would make my game the most accessible and preferred system for gamers.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I don't think you can. It's like comic books. Surely people would enjoy them, but I don't know I believe they ever will, because they're stubborn. My parents once role played with my brother and I, made they're own characters and everything. Once. Not ever again. They just didn't want to.

As for putting them in mainstream bookstores... they're already in Barnes & Noble and Borders, where else do you want them?

I do think a prime time ad campaign might help; featuring of course good looking kids, who might look like they play sports or cheerlead or whatever instead of looking like chess club members.

Also diversify the subject. Name an RPG (still in print) that doesn't focus on non-fantasy/science fiction/horror subjects. With a few WWII exceptions, I can't think of any.

BESM is probably best positioned for that spot, since the core book already references sport fantasy settings, but really, how many jocks are going to want to play an Anime setting. You'd have to repackage it with photos of Steve Young, Ty Detmer, and Tiger Woods instead of girls with cat ears.

Basically, you're looking at a decades long project, one that I think has already started. Note the lack of nudity in the D&D 3E as opposed to 1E. Look at the general production quality of RPGs over the last few decades. Nerds will deal with stuff that looks cheezy if it's still interesting (I point at Fell's feelings about Palladium). But the mainstream wants a nice package, so RPGs are starting to deliver that. However, before we have 100 milllion role players, and before I can go to work and just ask some employees if they want to play like the other guys do with B-Ball, we're looking at a LOT of change.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

You would also have to have a game that does not need violence as its core component (D&D is out) but does embrace conflict of emotions skills and talants.

[Entsuropi]

You would also have to have a game that does not need violence as its core component (D&D is out) but does embrace conflict of emotions skills and talants.

Ah. That would be Nobilis then. But such a game is very limited in it's appeal.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

And too complex for Joe Six-pack.... We are talking TWERPS level involvement here.

[Fellfrosch]

The obvious model for this type of project is The Sims, the most popular game in video game history because it was able to appeal to a mass market. It's actually more popular with women than men, and a lot of the reasons for that have already been mentioned: it's easy to learn, has strong media support, and deals in a non-violent way with a non-fantasy subject. In many ways it's a lot like an artificial life where you just do the stuff you do in real life--that sounds boring to us, but we're obviously not the mass market. Strange as it sounds there are apparently people out there who will spend hours playing a game where you go to a pretend job and decorate your pretend house.

The problem is that this exact formula won't translate into an RPG. A computer game give you a visual structure and "solid" rewards for everything you do: if you put a green couch right THERE, it will stay there and look good next to your purple lamp. You can do that in an RPG, but you can't see it in anything other than your imagination--you can't show it to other people or come back later to admire it. Most people have no experience with the level of imagination required to play an RPG.

I would suspect that a mass market RPG would deal with the relationships of real people doing real things, and beleive it or not I think that such a game would be a LARP. Look at things like "How to Host a Murder," and then expand the idea to cover the types of situations you see on television dramas--business partners discussing a deal with a rival business, doctors trying to save someone's life, high school sweethearts meeting again after ten years. None of that sounds very interesting to me, to be honest, but neither does The Sims, so what do I know?

[Mr_Pleasington]

As already mentioned, since you're dealing with a niche market with a lot of stigma attached it's going to be difficult to push anything into the mainstream.   It's hard enough to have a successful game just marketing to gamers, I can't imagine trying to win over the uninformed public.

That said, your best bet is to market big liscences and kids.  If you had a lot of money you could do some really crazy stuff.

Imagine just before Episode III there's a commercial on the screen.  A Jedi, a noblewoman, a wookie, and a scoundrel embroiled in the action of intrigue in the Star Wars Universe.  It would look like a preview for a new film.  Then, in a flash, we're at the gaming table.   "You, too, can live the Star Wars universe!"   How many copies of the SW RPG would that have sold???  Get it on the bookshelf with the other tie in products and you're golden.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I think Fell has hit the nail. I can't think of ways I disagree. I think MrP has got it right too. Obviously, product tie-ins alone won't do it (SW, LOTR, MIB, a host of others). But if you tie them in to all the OTHER products and incorporate the TV ads.... Well then, maybe you got something.

[42]

I'm suddenly seeing Coca-Cola the Role-playing game.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

And force kids to play them in schools while they are watching channel one and drinking mind control cola.

Soylent RPG is People!!!

[42]

Actually, the school tie in is a great idea. Children are the gift that keeps on giving, particularly since people can't stop having sex so there is always new generation of children to by your product.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

Kids are a good idea if you keep with the expanded genre. Otherwise, you're really only getting the same people, just sooner. So yeah, your sales increase, but not wide enough to fit the answer we're seeking.