Swords & Wizardry Light - Forum

Saturday, November 18, 2017

Basic Demographics - The Tavern, ENWorld and RPG.net

I was looking at The Tavern's demographics and started to wonder how similar (or different) they were to the "Big Two" RPG sites.

Not a huge surprise that The Tavern is an older, mostly male crowd. The initial D&D / RPG community was nearly all male and nostalgia for Old School Gaming is still strong.


How about The Tavern's Facebook Community?


Lets look at ENWorld:



ENWorld is a much younger community. The percentage of women is twice that of The Tavern yet still doesn't hit 8%.

How about RPG.net?


RPG.net hits 9% for its female audience. Much like ENWorld, it skews younger.

I couldn't find basic demographics for Roll20, which I think would have been the most insightful.

In any case, those are the numbers.

edit - this is the best I could find for Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds:




Also, this for Roll20:


and this for FG2


18 comments:

  1. So we're the old folks home. I'm OK with that. Now if you'll pardon me, I need to get these damn kids off my lawn.

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  2. Any way to go to a place like Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds and compare age/gender demographics? I've always thought women gamers are less interested in lingering in forums griping about games than men, but the only way I can think to test that is to look at sites with actual play data.

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    1. I couldnt find the demos for Roll20 - i can check on FG

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  3. added what little I could find for Roll20 and FG. Screenshots are from Alexa.com

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  4. Shame on you! How very gender-binary. A percentage-- unknown of course, but presumably a significant percentage-- of RPG.net members do not identify as either male or female. Your attempt to cram them into one of these two gender roles, or ignore them altogether, marginalizes and otherizes them. Be more inclusive in the future.

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    Replies
    1. How would you propose he do that? Do the sites in question provide data on how their users identify, or offer selections other than the historic male/female options standard on most user data forms? If not, then perhaps you could direct your ire towards them rather than bringing it over here.

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    2. For clarity I think the question should reference biological sex only, by which standard I expect RPGnet's female % would drop from 9 to to around 0.2.

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    3. That's, frankly, a ridiculous assertion, with absolutely no basis in anything other than wanting to spout rubbish because of some pre-conceived notion with no basis in fact.

      Seriously, you thought that facile comment was a good thing to post?

      Delete
  5. Replies
    1. Relevancy is in the eye of the beholder.

      I find it interesting that RPG.net skews youngest, ENWorld in the middle and The Tavern the oldest - well, the last didnt surprise me.

      I do find the gender breakdown interesting if not surprising.

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  6. This demographic information explains the Red Guard like atmosphere of RPG.Net

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    1. +1000

      The mods gave me a one day ban for defending this premise: "It is ok to use the male pronoun whenever an indefinite one is needed."

      They said one day, I said see ya later. I never went back.

      Delete
    2. Well, that's not what you said, what you actually stated was:

      The male pronoun. Him, he, his.

      Simpler than the combined male and female; more grammatically correct than the collective pronoun.

      From this point forward, the male pronoun shall stand in for anyone, not just biological males, in game books.

      Join me in eschewing the surplussage and imprecision brought about in the several years previous and reduce the common pronoun back to the male one our grandfathers used without guilt or fear of retribution.

      You have nothing to fear but the bleating of busybodies clamboring up the slippery slope of invented outrage to the perch of moral superiority.

      Therefore I shall step forward and withstand the first barrage of "how-sexist" and so forth. I only ask you, fellow game designers, to walk in my footsteps to a cleaner and simpler prose style which befits our games; one that bows not to modern gender conceits but cleaves into the traditional ways of speaking and writing.

      You have nothing to lose but your politically correct chains.

      Which amounts to a whole load of rubbish, and you got a 1 day ban for ' I could almost believe you really want to have a discussion about pronoun use and the (mistaken) impression that "he" is somehow gender neutral, but the last line, the tired old crap about "politically correct", pushes it over the edge. Take a day off, and when you return, knock that off.'

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    3. Thank you! I did a pretty good job on that!

      I can only add: calm your tits, Myron. This is how you get more Trump.

      #MAGA

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    4. And the politics had exactly what to do with it?

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  7. How did you get the fB community stats?
    I tried to check it for my German WoD community but couldn't find the info..

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    Replies
    1. In a community where you have "Moderator" rights, its just above "Manage Group" - "Group Insights"

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    2. Hm, apparently it hasn't been activated for my group yet :/

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