Where Are the Gamers?

When I first started this (here on Blogger, I mean), I was all about gaming and gaming advice. As a lot of those companies have moved their businesses online - those that are still in business - it was hard to get much information from them and keep up with what they were up to. For the most part, especially back then, there was a lot of reluctance to be overcome; they had their PR departments and so forth and did not really want to diffuse those efforts.

Now of course, the "buzz" of the Blogosphere is well-known, but a lot of those companies still prefer to deal with established outlets, so a lot of the news I bring you comes from third-party sources and with everything else that I've been dealing with lately, I just haven't had the time to go hunting for news.

Instead, I have been devoting that time to finishing and publishing the RPG content I have. And while a lot of it that's up so far has been published before, and I have done no promotion or marketing, I really expected more gamers!

I realize the focus here has shifted almost completely away from that aspect; The Rundown focuses mainly on comic books and pop-culture entertainment from other venues, and we rarely have much gaming news. I also realize, sadly, that gaming itself is all but completely off the pop-culture radar these days... but seeing as there are so few resources out there, I really expected more interest.

I'm not discouraged - nor am I begging for hits or anything like that - I just wanted to mention it. It's part of what blogging is about, after all. Once the site (and the content) has become established (most of it's only been live since Halloween), I believe it will garner visits and I can report on how successful it all is then. But I wanted to note that, nearly two weeks after release, there isn't much activity... at all. And tabletop RPG-related posts here rarely get much action, either.

Maybe the hobby really is dead, but I hope I'm not completely out of touch - nor completely alone - when I say that there is nothing that can replace pen and paper role-playing games. I don't think there ever will be, either. Just as comic books are a medium unto themselves, tabletop role-playing games are an entire mode of gaming that simply can't be duplicated in any other form. And just like film hasn't replaced sequential art, I don't believe computer-based video games will - or even can - replace tabletop, pen and paper RPGs.

Because of time constraints and where I live, I no longer game at this time. I'm hoping to change that soon, but I haven't gamed regularly in years now and I truly miss it. I have a feeling a lot of other, former gamers are in a similar boat. And with computer and video games, a lot of younger people just aren't getting involved. So maybe the hobby is dying - and a lot of the formerly great RPG websites have dried-up and closed-down - but I'm pretty sure there is still a rabid group of die-hards out there... it's just a matter of them finding us.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008