The gaming industry is in a state of flux right now. We are in a transition that will usher in a new golden age of gaming. This will lead to great opportunities to those of us who are passionate about providing gaming material to the masses. I have seen the signs, and I am willing to make a very optimistic forecast of what I see happening over the next five or so years. I see three major developments in the near future. I see the opportunity to bring a lot of new blood into our gaming groups. I see more gaming stores opening to handle these new gamers, and I see new companies bringing huge changes to the way we play our favorite games.
Right now, as we speak, there are more people playing an RPG in one form or another than there ever have been. This boon comes from what many perceive as the enemy of tabletop role playing games. MMOs have generated a surge of new blood for all of us to tap into. These games have been attracting players from all walks of life, and the gaming industry would have completely missed them if the mega popular MMOs out there had not pulled them in. These players are primed and ready to graduate to a more sophisticated gaming experience, one that only a game master can provide. They are being exposed to the core elements and genres that we are also familiar with. They now associate these themes in gaming with entertainment, and have possibly spent thousands of hours engrossed in a game that has done the imagining for them. I know many gamers who have been lured away just to return, trying to reconnect to the special qualities that tabletop role playing games possess but are missing in MMOs. It is only a matter of time before life’s priorities push players into unplugging and they start looking for quality over quantity.
Scanning their towns for a suitable replacement they will encounter the Friendly Neighborhood Gaming Store. Here they will actually be able to see the face of their guild mates, or maybe the enemy they are fighting with plastic and paint as war games seem to be the first game they are engaging in. At least this is what I have noticed at our local gaming store. To experienced tabletop gamers, these new players will seem weak, and flabby minded shells compared to who we have grown accustomed to playing with for the last two decades. MMO defectors are accustomed to being fed a diet of empty pixels and meaningless catch the flag scenarios where they only need keyboard skills to survive. Now they are being forced to think, to imagine, to engage in actual human contact. Isn’t it glorious? They are coming, like a horde of zombies who have recently emerged from their MMO tombs. One by one they must be brought into the fold. This is going to mean that stores everywhere are going to need GMs. Store owners should prepare for the need to include so many new players into their social environment. They should organize players into groups and encourage a sense of belonging for these lost souls.
Gaming companies, who are responsive to this and provide a community for their customers, will have the advantage over those who do not. We may see older companies overturned in favor of newer companies who can make the most of this trend. We may be seeing that right now. These companies will focus on community support with well monitored forums that provide official responses from company representatives. They will find new ways to organize play and work closely with stores in providing a sense of involvement at the personal level. They may even bring flat screens into the local store to stream gamer television informing players of current events and promoting sales.
I know that there are mixed opinions about this subject. For my part, I am excited! I feel a sense of renewal in the industry that I haven’t felt since the eighties. Like there is a renaissance beginning in gaming that will produce remarkable things. We will see new players that will add needed energy to the gaming industry. We will see the local comic book stores revitalized as they begin to give players a place to gather and become gaming stores. Finally, we will see advancements in the systems, in the tools we use to play, in the way we organize ourselves. We are coming out of the darkness, into a new golden age of gaming.
I couldn’t agree more. The advent of new materials, open source and more affordable materials bodes incredibly well for the things to come!