Youth and gamers

I've been reading a lot of comments among the OSC (Old School Renaissance) that are worried about the future of gaming. There seems to be a fear that young people aren't introduced to the game by them, meaning the average gamer gets older and older. Furthermore, if they are somehow introduced to gaming apart from existing groups, it would be the most obvious choice; the latest edition of D&D.

However, in my experience, this isn't true. I have been introduced by another gamer, Devid, who was a few years older than me. Through him, Kevin, his grilfriend, my sister, and I were all introduced to gaming. Not only D&D, but also Deadlands, Rifts and Ars Magica (possibly more, but if there were, I've forgotten them). From them, only Kevin and I are still regular gamers, but that's life. In the meantime, Devid has also mostly stepped away from gaming, altough he still keeps his Rifts and Deadlands books close.

Kevin and I moved on, recruiting new gamers from our mutual friends. It took me a couple of years before I realized there were other gaming groups out there, playing in the same city, even frequenting the same FLGS. For some reason, I never knew they were out there, and if wouldn't have made any difference if it did. The other groups were older gamers and I didn't really want to be the "baby players" among them. I doubt they knew of our group before I was aware of them.

A few years later, and I'm in SWAMP (Society of Weird and Mad People). Every year, we see new people joining up in our society. Every time, we found out that among them are a few (not many, one or two) rpg'ers. Most of them are not interested in joining one of our on-campus groups, as they are happy playing with their current group. They're not all D&D players, either, although they're usually D&D, d20 or WoD-based.

In all, I'd say that there is a steady influx of new gamers into the hobby. Not enough to ever make ours a mainstream hobby, but enough to ensure its survival. There is probably a difference in style (which can be expected), the hobby will survive. In a different shape, maybe not old school, but rpgs anyway, which is the main thing. The style of rpg doesn't matter, since in the end, the game's the thing.