Over on Sin Aesthetics, I posted My Gaming Census which gives a demographic profile of the people I play with and the games we play. I'm interested in other people's gaming census data, so thought I'd nudge folks on SG to post them here, or at SA or back at your home blog.

My demographic is as follows
I have no active game group.
When I game back up north on annual or less visits it is me, 44, doug, 43, al 44, jeff 43. Jeff is a boardgamer, us other three also do Trad RPG Gaming. I have know all these guys since HS and are the remnants of our HS Gaming group. Mostly down to boardgames such as Game of Thrones, LotR ones, etc. Otherwise it is Doug, Al and myself.
Al is divorced, the other three are married. Jeff does not have kids. 50% with college degrees.

Posted By: JonathanWaltonA lot of our answers are going to be similar to yours, but some of them are rather different, since we're a slightly younger crew (a couple years out of college)

Age! Doh! I forgot age!

This is great stuff guys, I'm glad to get a glimpse of what gaming life is for everybody out there. Keep it coming!

I'll lump my three groups together as well.

17 gamers total.
15 male.
2 female.
2 married couples in the groups.
100% hetero, as far as I'm aware.
Only 3 people are not married; two are single (one in a committed relationship, one not), one is recently divorced.

All are between 30-40 years in age, tending toward 35+.
Middle to upper-middle class economically.
9 are employed in some realm of IT.
4 have theater experience.
All but 1 have somewhere around 20+ years of gaming under their belt.

All of us are "white"; I'm half-Punjabi, and comprise pretty much all of the "color" in the groups. :)
All of us are Christian, Pagan, or agnostic/atheist.
I believe everyone has at least an undergraduate degree; a few have master's.
Most everyone grew up near a city of significant size.
Politically, the majority are typical Democrats, with a few Republicans and 1-2 self-identified Libertarians.

About 7 had extensive friendships or relationships with each other prior to the formation of the groups.

4 are regular GMs, 2 others are occasional GMs.
0 have any experience with hippy games, other than what I've attempted to force upon them. :)
5 probably enjoy tactical/strategy games (e.g., Axis & Allies, M:tG) as much, or more, than they do TRPGs.
6 enjoy CRPG/MMORPGs as much or more than they do TRPGs.
4 participate in online RPG forums on a regular basis, but none more than myself, by a wide margin.

The games we've played, in toto and order of frequency (most to least): D&D and HERO consistently; SWd20 and M&M1e 2-3 sessions each; d20M, IH, Buffy, BW, and BE were all one-shots. Serenity is going to start in a few weeks.

One D&D campaign has been playing consistently, every session, for going on four years. One HERO campaign has been playing mostly consistently for going on four years, another for 1-2. Other D&D and HERO games have been sporadic. Any and all other systems were one-shots or campaigns that died after 2-3 sessions.

The two long-running games were homebrewed. The sporadic campaigns are a mix of homebrew and published adventures.

The long-running D&D game has been tactically-focused, though an overarching goal emerged after a few years of play, and the whole game is now building to the completion of that goal.

The long-running HERO game has been a sprawling Marvel-like ongoing story, with many plot points surfacing over the years, and no end goal in sight.

The D&D games (and some of the d20 one-shots) have been heavily emphasized on fighty miniatures play. There is no emphasis on character or story.

The HERO games have had heavy emphasis on character and story, with little emphasis on fighty miniatures play.

None of the games, afaict, have ever been adapted to fit the social contract. They are what they are, and you like 'em or you don't.

Okay, time to spoil the sample.
I took on a challence almost a year ago to get a group of curious kids into gaming, and they comprise the core of my gaming group. This sample is not near to the same as if you had asked me previously:

9 players, including myself.

Gender
M = 8
F = 1

Ages:
29 = me
16-18= 4
19-20 = 4

Education:
BA= 1
HS Diploma = 5 (Pursuing college = 3)
In HS = 3

Religion & Religious Heritage:
Unknown = 3
Wiccan = 1
Strong Athiest = 1
Christian = 4

Ethnicity:
White (of various flavors) = 6
Native American (Cherokee IIRC) = 2
African-American = 1

Game experience:
Myself: Trad TRPG (some blending into Hippy) and Wargames.
New to TRPGs = 5
Coming from MMORPG: 2
Coming from freeform LARPing: 1
Coming from other Trad Games: 3
Coming from Wargaming: 1
No RPG experience: 1
Currently play CCG's: 6
Currently play MMORPGs: 5

GM's = 2
Never GMed = 7

Occupation:
Student = 6
Admissions = 1
Retail = 2

Political Affiliation:
Difficult to color because it's so fluid and because they haven't formed their own opinions yet:
Right = 1
Left = 1
Youthful Rebelion against their elders = 7

Here's my two regular gaming groups. I could do another one on the "player pool" I have - a 50 or so people whom I can draw into one-shots or campaigns and whom I LARP with, but numbers with them would be really rough estimates.

People:

7 players
5 male, 2 female
Ages:
28-30 3
30-33 4 (me)

2 players married, with children (including me) - 2 others in stable relationship (together)
I'm not very aware of the sexual side, but I'm guessing that two have bi-sexual experiences.
All white caucasian, six Finns, one Finn-Swede.
All atheist (two might be habitual lutherians, I don't really know)

3 working in IT sector (incl. me), one completing her doctoral studies, one has recently been admitted to dramaturgy studies, two doing translation & publishing work. 5 out of 7 have written for roleplaying and computer gaming magazines both.
Three have done university studies, three have bachelor's degrees, one high school graduate.
Five come from capital area, one from other large city, one from mid-sized city/countryside. All currently living in the capital area.

One person has studied (and still is studying) theatre and dramaturgy, and has published plays. One or two have some amateur-theatre background. Two have roleplaying publishing credits (two games and contributions to source books). Two former presidents or vice-presidents of the national live-roleplaying society.

Gaming:

All have played tabletop RPGs for 10+ years, four 15+ years .
All have LARPed 10+ years, in 50+ games.
Four (or five?) have organised one or more LARPs.
Most (4?) play board games irregulary, usually playtesting for a review.
3-4 play a lot of MMORPG's, at least two write about it and review games.
1 (me) has some MU* experience.
1 is active on online gaming forums (me), 2-3 are semi-active. Others might browse, but rarely participate.
One has published an online roleplaying manifesto.

Games played in last five years (that I've been involved in):

Campaigns: Fading Suns, Hârn, Unknown Armies, homebrewn scifi-thingy.
Short, or one-shots: Various homebrewn.

Mike,

Believe it or don't, that actually is useful. The one thing I'd ask for more detail about is how those 100 people break down in terms of how you've played with them. How many were at cons, how many online, how many in one shots, how many in ongoing games?

Rough guesses are fine, I'd just like to get a picture here of trends rather than hard data points.

Quintin,

As an old Pod person, what was the Heavy Gear episode?

Christian,

Yea, that's one of the reasons that when Mo was doing the census I didn't kick in all the people we play online with. It was just TT. I've thought about doing another one for online, but I'm not sure how accurate I could be in it. (More girls than boys, more games that are either very short run plot based or long and meandering life-based, more geographic diversity... other than that....)

However, would you say that most of your gaming happens online? And do you think that effects the way you approach game and the types of things you want game to do?

Posted By: Brand_RobinsQuintin,

As an old Pod person, what was the Heavy Gear episode?

I believe it was The Paxton Gambit. I'll double check with the GM.

Edit: Yup, Paxton Gambit.

My datapoint should sit right on the median, i'd imagine.

My sample here is the core of the group i began rpging with in highschool, and although all of us have played regularly with other groups since (including my only traditional "campaign" game) i have continued to game with them off-and-on to the present day. (I think everyone else we gamed with in HS has quit tt-gaming.) We seem to have adapted regularly & readily to new developments in gaming, including adopting d20, and are currently playing Burning Wheel & Iron Heroes.

So, stats:

- 5 players, all male, ages 19-25, all americans of ~ western european extraction, upper middle class, all roughly single & probably straight
- all students (2 chemistry, 1 computer security, 1 linguistics, 1 biology), although i already hold a BS degree
- religion: 3 atheist or agnostic, 1 unknown, 1 fairly devout christian
- politics: i'd say left & anti-authoritarian leaning over all, but with lots of specific & pragmatic variation; i'm probably the most "liberal", with respect for Green, Libertarian, & Socialist ideology
- as for art, we've all dabbled with bad genre fiction - not so bad at all in one case - and two are quite good at online comic art, but son't have regular strips (yet)

gaming:

- all but 1 have GM'd various games we've played together (and i'd say that one is the best role-player of the group)
- i've larped, once or twice, but i don't think anyone else has
- we all started playing RPGs, CCDs, & Warhammer together, and we all readily play various boardgames (cosmic encounter & risk, especially)
- we've all (except one?) played MMPOGs - Ragnarok, Final Fantasy, Anarchy Online, Ryzome, Guild Wars, WoW - and two are still WoW fanatics; (while I've pretty much given up on MMPOGs)
- i think only i hang out on online gaming forums!

games:

- in chrono order: AD&D, GURPS, Storyteller, more GURPS, D&D3e, more GURPS, more D&D3e, Exalted, Hunter (hacked with forgey goodness), Burning Wheel, Iron Heroes
- we've done deliberate one-shots, mini-campaigns, tpk scenarios, and several attempts at campaigns that fizzled, but never a long term game; our most common theme is three-session games
- typical sessions are intense: 5 hours or longer, fri, sat, sunday affairs
- we've only used pre-written modules for our beginning AD&D games, but did do a loose interpretation of Luke's "Sword" BW demo last year

Larry, I never noticed your icon. It makes me sad. :(

This info is terrific! It really underlines some strong themes and some wild diversity too. In a couple of days, I think I'm going to spin off a thread about how you think your census data affects and informs your play preferences.

Justin -> That rocks! I'd been considering going and volunteering to do a program at my local Y. That's really cool. You should totally let us know more about what you've learned from the experience.

I keep noticing how many of us are in IT. From what I'm seeing there's a *lot*. Why is that, I wonder? An affinity for systems? Generally a populous geek profession, I dunno. Interesting to discover. I think I've always known that there were lots of us, but not just how *alot* of lots of us there were.

From my regular group + HolmCon (yearly con, my house), a total of 19 people:

Gender: 13 m, 6 f
Age: 19-45, most in their mid-twenties
Ethnicity: 18 white, 1 "mixed" (for lack of a better word)
Nationality: Norwegian, whaddayaknow.
Married: 5, all with children
Religion: I have no idea. Norway is pretty secular, and a lot of people are semi-christian, in that they go to church occasionally, but it's not a huge part of their life. I know 2 or 3 of the crowd are, or have been, atheists. No muslims, buddhists, wiccans, catholics, mormons or jews that I know of.
Politics: Most would lean left of center, though a few are right-wing. (Compared to US standards, we're all pretty far left, I believe).
Work etc: I dont' know for everyone, but from what I know...

* 2 work in IT
* 3 work with people (school psych councellor, addict work, teacher)
* 1 journalist
* 1 human rights (or similar)
* 1.5 writer
* 5 students (nordic languages, technical, psychology, 2 unknown)
* 1 fan organization employee.

[Life]

- PEOPLE: [7] Groups, [47] Players
- GROUP SOCIAL DYNAMIC: [9] Only hang out to game, [36] Hang out outside of gaming
- MET GROUP THROUGH: [9] Friends, [1] Family, [8] School, [1] Work, [18] Online, [1] Gaming store, [9] Convention
- GENDER: [37] Male, [10] Female
- AGE: [6] 18-27, [36] 28-37, [5] 38-47
- ETHNICITY: [2] Asian, [1] Black / African descent, [2] East Indian, [3] Latino / Hispanic, [1] Middle Eastern, [0] Native American, [0] Pacific Islander, [38] White / Caucasian, [0] Unknown
- SEXUAL ORIENTATION: [39] Heterosexual, [2] Homosexual, [4] Bisexual, [2] Undecided, [0] Unknown
- INCOME (net annual): [5] $0-$30,000, [5] $30,000-$45,000, [18] $45,000-$60,000, [8] $60,000-$75,000, [5] $75,000-$100,000, [1] $100,000-$150,000, [1] $150,000+, [4] Unknown
- RELIGION: [13] Agnostic, [9] Atheist, [1] Buddhist, [11] Catholic, [3] Christian - other, [0] Hindu, [0] Jewish, [0] Mormon, [2] Muslim, [0] Protestant, [0] Scientologist, [0] Taoist, [0] Wiccan, [0] Other, [8] Unknown
- MARITAL STATUS: [2] Swinger, [6] In a relationship, [6] Single, [2] Divorced, [26] Married, [5] Unknown
- CHILDREN: [39] 0, [6] 1, [2] 2, [0] 3, [0] 4+, [0] Unknown
- BODY TYPE: [9] Slim / Slender, [6] Athletic, [13] Average, [6] Some extra baggage, [11] More to love!, [2] Body builder
- HOMETOWN: [7] Rural, [13] Suburban, [12] Urban, [15] Mix, [0] Unknown
- TRAVEL: [3] Never, [6] Infrequently, [24] Frequently, [9] Lived in multiple countries, [5] Unknown
- EDUCATION: [1] High school, [8] Some college, [1] In college, [22] College graduate, [4] Grad / professional school, [8] Post grad, [3] Unknown
- OCCUPATION: [2] Accounting, [4] Administrative and Support Services, [6] Advertising/Marketing/Public Relations, [9] Arts, Entertainment, and Media, [1] Banking, [1] Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical, [9] Computers, Information Technology, [1] Construction, [2] Education, Training, and Library, [2] Executive Management, [1] Government and Policy, [1] Human Resources/Recruiting, [1] Law Enforcement/Security Srvs, [1] Legal, [1] Nonprofit, [4] Publishing/Printing, [1] Restaurant and Food Service, [1] Sales
- POLITICS (economic): [20] Left, [18] Moderate, [7] Right, [2] Unknown
- POLITICS (social): [35] Left, [9] Moderate, [1] Right, [2] Unknown

[Tabletop Role-Playing Games]

- EXPERIENCE (years): [5] 1, [3] 2-5, [12] 5-10, [22] 10-20, [5] 20+
- FREQUENCY: [2] Quarterly, [3] Bi-monthly, [5] Monthly, [17] Bi-weekly, [13] 1/week, [6] 2/week, [3] 3/week, [2] 4+/week
- GAME LENGTH (average/hours): [2] 1-3, [31] 4, [5] 5-6, [7] 6-8, [2] 8+
- GAME MASTER: [23] Often, [6] Sometimes, [18] Never
- MODULES: [12] Often, [28] Sometimes, [7] Never
- SHORT TERM GAMES: [36] Often, [11] Sometimes, [0] Never
- LONG TERM GAMES: [16] Often, [19] Sometimes, [12] Never
- GAMES PLAYED: D&D, Shadowrun, Call of Cthulhu, Marvel, DC, Star Wars, Mutants and Masterminds, Deadlands, Burning Wheel, Burning Empires, Vampire, Mage, Werewolf, Buffy, Angel, Rifts, Ninjas and Superspies, Gamma Word, Gurps, Cyberpunk, Spycraft, Iron Heroes, Champions, Heroquest, Riddle of Steel, Unknown Armies, TMNT, Blood of Heroes, Feng Shui, Alternity, Weapons of the Gods, Dread, With Great Power, Dogs in the Vineyard, Sorcerer, My Life With Master, The Mountain Witch, Afraid, The Shadows of Yesterday, Mortal Coil, and many more Indie Games. I'm sure there is much more.
- GAMES BOUGHT, NOT PLAYED: Godlike, Serenity, Lord of the Rings, Exalted, and probably dozens of Indie Games. I'm sure there is much more.

[Other Games]

- LARP: [4] Often, [7] Sometimes, [36] Never
- CCGs: [2] Often, [4] Sometimes, [41] Never
- WAR MINIATURE GAMES: [6] Often, [11] Sometimes, [30] Never
- BOARD/CARD GAMES: [35] Often, [7] Sometimes, [4] Never
- MMORPGS: [6] Often, [9] Sometimes, [32] Never
- PLAY BY EMAIL: [5] Often, [4] Sometimes, [38] Never
- PLAY BY POST: [3] Often, [7] Sometimes, [37] Never

Unfortunately, my gaming has been too spread out to easily censize. :-( This is an amazing thread, though.

yrs--
--Ben

I think we'll have to do the SGBoston census on a day when 1) there's not a blizzard and 2) people aren't gonna be off having sex. Maybe next week we can send you figures?

P.S. Jenskot's survey looks hot. I might just steal it.

Let me elaborate:

The only group that's actually censible is the Shanghai Group:
Four men, one woman.
All white.
Two Americans, two canadians, one Brit
Played: PTA, Shab al-hiri, AG&G, Face of Angels, Polaris, 1001 Nights, Dogs in the Vineyard, Hero's Banner
Economically diverse, but pretty well-off by China standards.

There is also my home gaming group, which is an assortment of white guys and the infrequent girlfriend. We're all young and poor.

Then there's Chris Chinn's group, that I play with in Oakland, which counting me, is one chinese guy, one filipino, one mexican, and one white guy. Again, all male. Young and broke, mostly.

Then there's two different groups in Boston, both of which are huge and amorphus.

yrs--
--Ben

Mo, you probably already have, but if not, you need to listen to Fear the Boot's interview with Ryan Dancey, given the subject of this thread. I'm listening to it now for the second time.

Mike,

Cool. Thanks for the info.

Posted By: andrew_kenrick
EDIT: I also have an online group, made up of friends from uni, but for the sake of brevity I've discounted it here.

Nice to know I'm so easily discounted for brevitiy's sake ;o)

Ok, I'll give it a whirl:

- There are 20 people, roughly comprising three groups (with some crossover) that I've gamed with in the last year, including me.
- 13 are men
- 7 are women
- Ages range from 26 to 40, with the biggest cluster around 30-32 -- I don't know everyone's specific age, so I can't do an average
- 19 are some permutation of white, one is black
- I know that 10 of us identify to some extent as "queer" or gay; it wouldn't surprise me to learn the number was higher.
- Historically, we're clustered around the lower and middle range of middle class; many of us are students or non-profit workers, which puts us in the lower middle class at the moment.
- Religion-wise, at least five of us are culturally Jewish, and I know we have at least two practicing pagans. At least two of us have a religious fundamentalist background, and now identify as agnostic or atheist.
- There are five couples who game together, so half of us are in committed relationships and game with our partners. 13 total are in committed relationships.
- The majority have at least undergraduate degrees, several of us are doctoral students or hold graduate degrees.
- All of us are politically left of center; several have socialist or anarchist leanings.
- I was friends with 11 of the folks prior to gaming with them, and we all socialize outside of gaming contexts.

- 5 have GM'd games in which I was or am involved (4 men and me)
- 5 of us, including myself, are relatively new to gaming, having started in the last year.
- All of us have experience with indie games of one stripe or another.
- The games I've played in the past year with these folks: The Shadow of Yesterday (2 different games with two completely discrete groups), The Mountain Witch (1 game), Corvus's homebrew game, and in the near future we'll be playing Dark Ages Vampire. All of these were/are relatively long-run games of several months, with the exception of The Mountain Witch, which was completed in 4 sessions. We all tend toward what could be termed Narrativist play.

Clinton, if it helps out any with your bi-weekly group census, I'm married, a lapsed Catholic, libertarian, a programmer, a college drop-out, and 33.

Posted By: Clinton R. NixonThis thread makes me wonder how much we really know about the people in our groups.

Too true. Even with my weekly group, comprised of my closest friends, there were several details I only had to guess at. I didn't even bother trying to do a census for the bi-weekly group because there's so much I just don't know about them. They're great guys and I'd like to think we've become friends over the time we've been playing, however we haven't gotten together outside of gaming.

Clinton,

I've been wondering the same thing myself. It's also made me realize how much I know about the people I know.

I mean, it just makes me realize how different the different friendships people have are. I can probably tell you about the time everyone I know questioned or changed their religion and politics, and others don't know if members of their group are married or not.

People are so cool to have such diversity.

Mo,

I did! I've moved a lot, actually, which is one reason I don't know my game groups as well as some people do. My groups in Seattle and New Orleans were together longer, though, so I got to know them even better.

As a side note, this is an odd thread, because my local players read SG. Anyway, to talk about them more: Jason mentioned that we don't discuss politics or religion. That's true, but strikes me as weird: I enjoy my time with that particular group outside of gaming, as much, if not moreso, than when we are gaming. I'm not sure why we have certain lines, but it's interesting.

I am definitely looking forward to having another group like my Seattle groups: that is, a group of primarily friends that also play hard. I remember going out for beers with those guys and talking - expressing reality about problems at home, or in my heart, or whatever. Those groups take a lot of time, though.

Clinton - then no shame at all in the people you're getting to know being your best friends in the area. It's a credit to you that you managed to hook up with players so quickly.

I have at any given time 4-8 regulars, depending on the games I am currently running. These people come from a pool of maybe 50 or so (which overlaps Merten's pool significantly, I suspect). Right now there's 8 (including your truely).

Life:
- Age late twenties to early thirties.
- Nationality and native language: Finnish.
- Married with children: 1.
- Living together with significant other: 5.
- Atheist or as practically atheist: 8. (I am not aware of anyone being devotional.)
- Politics: generally greenish left liberal.
- Men: 6.
- Women: 2.
- Sexuality: While the norm is heterosexual, bi- and homosexuality is also represented, and BDSM inclinations are not exactly rare. (This refers to the pool of 50, not to current group.)
- Jobs: plenty of IT people, several people in academia (both humanities and hard sciences), some journalists, some artists/writers, some retail, some odd jobs. (Referring to the whole pool.)
- Education: Pretty much everyone is at least an undergraduate, several graduates, a few doctorates. (Referring to the whole pool.)
- Several people in the pool hang out outside gaming, but this has varied greatly over the years.
- Almost all live in an urban area.

Gamewise it depends how you split it: only games I currently run or play in are a homebrew, Earthdawn, Call of Cthulhu, and Warhammer FRP. If you count games that have made appearances over the years, or games that other people run -- the list pretty much explodes.

Almost everyone in the pool has played more then one game, most have 10+ years of gaming, several have 20+. Most have played in several LARPs, some have written and organized LARPs. Several play MMORPGs. Most play boardgames irregularly.

Posted By: tadkWhich begs the question I guess - how much do you have to do with your gaming group beyond the gaming table?

Clinton, I totally counted you as a musician!

Not to be a boaster, but watch me boast - Tuesday we all got together - with our spouses and GFs, along with Andy K and his wife Orie - and took Blake, a cool guy I met at Dreamation who was in town for work, out to our favorite Korean restaurant for a family-style dinner. There was nerd talk (Nerdly talk, anyway), but also house talk, cat talk, and so forth.

Amusing anecdote - in my other, long-time gaming group we're all friends in and out of gaming, but there's this one guy who's a little .... mysterious. He doesn't talk about himself much, and we've always, always just given him plenty of space and never asked any questions (even though we game at his house!). One time we all went to a drive-in, and my wife Autumn rode with him on the way. In a twenty minute car ride, she learned more about him by asking friendly questions then we'd learned in five years.