UPDATED REVISION: DECEMBER 31ST, 2020.

https://www.rpgresearch.com/gamer-floater-theory 

The summary of this theory is that 90% of the gamers seen by the public are less than 10% of actual active gamers. Furthermore that the players and game masters that stand out most in the public’s collective memory and perception of gamers, are actually the most dysfunctional members of this population, though they are less than 5% of the total active gamer population in any given region. This small, but highly visible minority, stands out due to their extremely dysfunctional behaviors, and so are unable to remain in any long-term gaming group, so they “float” from group-to-group, location-to-location, and event-to-event, craving the gaming experience.

The numbers are regularly being revised as further data is accumulated. As of 2020, the current revision of this theory postulates that approximately 3.2% (2.2% to 4.2% (+/- 1%)) ((1 per 33, 16 (+/- 5) per 500, 32 (+/-10) per 1000, 320 (+/- 100) per 10,000 gamers. ) of active gamers are highly dysfunctional and highly (negatively) visible “gamer floaters”. This can be per region or per large event, and is the percentage chance that any given new or pickup gaming group may have 1 or more of these highly dysfunctional participants. Note that, as the theory postulates, this number does NOT hold in most longer-running established groups, as per the theory’s understanding of the selection and removal process for repeatedly disruptive groups. Groups that either contain a larger than average number of this population, or that attempt to hold on to 1 or more in a group, generally end up dissolving withing a few weeks or months, if they do not remove the disruptive factor. In the case of game masters that fit this population, this shows up as a GM that shows an exceptionally high turn-over rotation rate of players.

The theory proposes they are getting bounced from group-to-group, and event-to-event, reinforcing the negative stereotypes about gamers even though research shows none of the stereotypes are true.

This theory has not yet performed an analysis of gamers in live-streaming on Youtube, Twitch, and similar services. This number is based on physical real-world locations at game stores, gaming conventions, schools, neighborhoods, etc.

 However, the gamers that most stand out to the public are the most dysfunctional gamers leading to ongoing perpetuation of the negative stereotypes about RPGers. Through decades of observations in multiple regions:

Locations where more in-depth observations have taken place:

    • Bay Area California (Peninsula and East Bay)

    • Sacremento

    • Greater LA region

    • San Diego region

    • Tucson region

    • Pheonix region

    • Norther Utah (“Intermountain West”)

    • Greater Spokane, WA region and Greater Post Falls and Couer d’alene (“Inland Empire”) region

    • Seattle/Tacoma region

    • OKC region

    • Dallas region

    • Portland region

    • Indianapolis region

    • Chicago region

    • Upper peninsula MN region

    • Atlanta, GA region

    • London, UK

    • and others, 

This may be biased by more in depth observation in countries and cultures that are more individualistic vs. less socialistic (such as USA vs. China & Japan). It will be interesting to see if the social conformity rules of more socialistic cultures alter this number in any way.

Note: Mental health and other issues do not automatically equate to a “gamer floater”. There are many gamers with life challenges, mental health, and other issues, that do not display the highly dysfunctional and disruptive behavior of gamer floaters.  I really want to find a better name for this population, and welcome input.

Originally beginning with the anti-gaming movement of the 1980s. This really started to solidify as a more formal concept when RPG Research and RPG.LLC's founder, W.A. Hawkes-Robinson, moved to the Northwest USA in the early 2000's. From the observations of the gamers encountered early on, this concept take on verbal and written formality.

This has continued to develop with more clarity and observational data in the decades since. It is hoped that in the near future RPG Research will have sufficient staffing, funding, and global reach to be able to undertake this as a formal study to disprove, modify, or validate this theory. If found to be validated to some degree, then research experiments should be undertaken attempting address this issue and try to improve the plight of these "gamer floaters", and simultaneously address the public perception.

Thoughts on RPG player stereotypes.

 published Oct 14, 2012 11:00 AM
This was in response to some of the comments at the youtube PBS Idea Channel topic on D&D, but of course the very limited 500 characters to respond was insufficient to provide much detail other than just my summarized opinion. Here I hope to elaborate a bit more regarding role-playing gamer stereotypes over the past 30+ years, and the variants I have observed...

This was in response to some of the comments at the youtube PBS Idea Channel topic on D&D, but of course the very limited 500 characters to respond was insufficient to provide much detail other than just my summarized opinion. Here I hope to elaborate a bit more regarding role-playing gamer stereotypes over the past 30+ years, and the variants I have observed...

While half of the role-playing gamers I knew from the 70's and 80's did NOT fit the stereotype, and about half did, they ranged widely in their eventual professions from becoming lawyers, computer scientists, actors, authors, bankers, etc. to newscasters, jocks (football players, basketball players, hockey players, wrestlers), various blue collar workers (mechanics, welders, plumbers, construction workers, etc), though most were generally more intelligent that average, many did not (other than enjoying RPGs) manifest other geek/nerd related attributes. Most became happy, healthy, successful contributing members of society. And though maybe falling back into the stereotype realm, when I lived and worked in Silicon Valley / Bay Area (California), there were very few of the many successful people I met and worked with there that were _not_ avid role-playing gamers either currently or in their past.

In the past decade or so it has seemed that more of the newer gamers I have met _have_ been closer to the media stereotype. I think this is because of the (artificial) stigma that has been generated over two decades, scaring off those that do not fit into the stereotype.

In the long run, I think it became a somewhat self-fulling prophecy that only “freaks and geeks” play role playing games. I suspect the alienation is purely artificially induced from individuals like Patricia Pulling (B.A.D.D. - Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons), and the pop media providing the anti-rpg extremists with a megaphone to spread their misinformation, rather than anything due to the games themselves. Since role-playing games are by their very nature strongly social cooperative activity, social alienation would be the complete opposite effects of participation in the activity. I've calling it a Gamer Floater Theory. But I'm not yet sure how to turn it into a testable specific hypothesis yet due to the nature of the theory.

I cover much more of this in detail in my analysis of the paper "Analysis of Personalities and Alienation of Dungeons and Dragons Game Players" -http://rpgr.org/documents/rpg-research-documents/older-drafts/analysis-of-personalities-and-alienation-of-dungeons-and-dragons-game-players

Your comments are welcomed.

Theory of the Role-Playing Gamer "Floater"

 published Jun 04, 2013

I have a new theory as to why the stereotypes about role-playing gamers have become stronger over the decades rather than being disproved over time (as all the research indicates). I call it a hypothesis of the "Role-playing Gamer Floater"...

My working hypothesis has two parts, one, that the now inculcated social assumption about role-playing gamers and gaming drives away more "normal" people from the hobby and attracts the stereotypes because people are increasingly buying into the media and apocryphal stories the longer they are reinforced. The second half is because the gamers that fit the stereotypes are the rejects from the regular groups.

The "mature", "normal" players are already in their groups, that typically stick together for years, even decades. Generally the make up of the group only changing when people move and such. Then there is the percentage of role-playing gamer "floaters" that get kicked from group to group because of their various dysfunctions. These are the gamers that are most often seen in public as they go to pick up games at comic book stores, hobby stores, conventions, and new-member invites. Since they are so dysfunctional, they keep getting kicked out after a few sessions, and being the cycle again.

Meanwhile the "normal" gamers are happily meeting regularly at home or in closed game rooms, and most of the public never see the "normal" players, and instead generally just see the dysfunctional floaters.

Though occasionally some of the players I gamed with in the 70's, 80's, and 90's fit the stereotypes, MOST of those I gamed with were successful, well-adjusted, functional people, with none of the anti-social and dysfunctional aspects claimed about role-playing gamer stereotypes.

The research done on role-playing gamers (correlative and meta studies) shows the stereotypes generally disproved.

Most of the gamers I gamed with regularly didn't have any more trouble getting dates, girlfriends, wives/husbands, etc. than anyone else. They were from all walks of life and interests, and over the years most of them were professionally successful.

There are very few gamers I have gamed with (once they are adults) long enough to get to know more about their personal lives, that fit the dysfunctional, anti-social, unemployed, living in their parents basement stereotype.

Though everyone has various foibles and challenges, most of them did not map to the stereotypes any more strongly than other groups (non-gamers). That being said during about that time period, more recently about half of the gamers I have met since about 2004 to current have been fitting the stereotypes. I have had to move a few times over the years when I was building my professional career, including Utah, California, Oklahoma, Idaho, Washington, and elsewhere, and as I moved it took a while to put new groups together.

When I moved to Spokane, Washington, I began seeing a LOT of the stereotypical gamers. At first I thought it might be an issue with Spokane (I haven't completely ruled that out yet), but as I have gone to Seattle and elsewhere, I developed the aforementioned alternative hypotheses.

What do you think of these ideas?

Whatever ideas I have for developing testable hypotheses run into the problem of self-selection and selection. With enough funding it is theoretically possible to find a sample of people that do not go to conventions or books stores or public gaming venues but do game with friends, through random polling and selection datagbase services like InfoCo USA. But a lot of money would be needed to find a large enough sample size to make it testable.  Once these non-prominent gamers were found, they would need to be wiling to undergo a battery of psych, demograhpics, and other assessments, and then compare and contrastd those with those in the "floater" category, vs. those just in public gaming venues and public sys, versus the general non-gaming public.  So, this could be done, but would need real money and resources to make into an actual testable hypothesis.

Mockery of Gamers

published Jan 20, 2016 11:15 AM,

In a Facebook group posting, someone stated: "I question why America sees LARPing as something to be mocked". Here is a response...

It isn't just the US, but considering the intensity to which RPGs took off in the 70s and 80s in the US, and all the media generated, it does become the most visible.

Also, I think my "Hypothesis of the Role-Playing Gamer 'Floater'" may be applicable, though I don't know how I could ever test/prove it. http://www.rpgresearch.com/blog/hypothesis-of-the-role-playing-gamer-floater

The mockery of gamers and gaming goes back (at least) decades. And LARPing, especially the popularity of "boffer" LARPs in the US are the most visible form of RPG.

A combined line from the movie "The Gamers 3: Hands of Fate": "Furries are people LARPers make fun of, LARPers are people [tabletop] gamers make fun of, and gamers are people that people make fun of." -- https://youtu.be/mFAX-_CZ2bM?list=PLwDmZhGpP6STJJfNqCdQ2IOTHaHSydmJ1&t=485

(and here is her later counter to the mocking: https://youtu.be/Wq1rfvg0h08?list=PLwDmZhGpP6STJJfNqCdQ2IOTHaHSydmJ1 

The whole stigma against gamers in all forms (including video games for a long time), has been going on since at least the 70s (and arguably even the early 1900s with H.G. Wells Wargaming book "Little Wars" - http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22777029 ), and really peaked in the US in the mid-to-late 80s.

For some areas, it took decades for the popularity of various forms of RPGs to spread throughout other countries.

While nowhere near its previous peak in the US, it is still quite prevalent, and there are now  thoroughly inculcated myths that the general population accepts and is further fanned by popular culture (for example The Big Bang Theory: https://youtu.be/4aNUuGOUreg?t=59 ).

Here are several articles on the topics (including other countries), covering tabletop, LARP, computer-based, and related topics:

• Hypothesis of the Role-playing Gamer "Floater" - http://rpgr.org/blog/hypothesis-of-the-role-playing-gamer-floater
• Comments on Pat Robertson's Style of Christian Stigma Against Dungeons & Dragons and Role-playing games - http://rpgr.org/blog/comments-on-pat-robertsons-style-of-christian-stigma-against-dungeons-dragons-and-role-playing-games
• Anecdotal Experiences of Stigma as a tabletop role-playing Gamer - http://rpgr.org/blog/anecdotal-experiences-of-stigma-as-a-tabletop-role-playing-gamer
• Thoughts on RPG player stereotypes. - http://rpgr.org/blog/thoughts-on-rpg-player-stereotypes
• Analysis of the report ALIENATION AND THE GAME DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS - http://rpgr.org/documents/rpg-research-project/analysis-of-the-report-alienation-and-the-game-dungeons-and-dragons
• Why The Popular Negative Stereotypes About Role-Playing Gamers are Important to Address - http://rpgr.org/blog/why-the-popular-negative-stereotypes-about-role-playing-gamers-is-important-to-address
• "Knock it off" Shows and Writers Still Perpetuating Negative RPG Gamer Stereotypes, Even in Webisodes - http://rpgr.org/blog/knock-it-off-shows-and-writers-still-perpetuating-negative-rpg-gamer-stereotypes-even-in-webisodes
• The Battle Over Role Playing Gaming - http://rpgr.org/documents/rpg-research-project/the-battle-over-role-playing-gaming
• The Defamation of Role-playing Gaming and Gamers. - http://rpgr.org/documents/rpg-research-project/the-defamation-of-role-playing-gaming-and-gamers
• http://rpgr.org/blog/yet-another-example-of-inculcated-stigma-regarding-role-playing-gamers - http://rpgr.org/blog/yet-another-example-of-inculcated-stigma-regarding-role-playing-gamers
• Various Articles and Discussions on Role-playing Game Stigma - http://rpgr.org/blog/various-articles-and-discussions-on-role-playing-game-stigma

 

Here is the FB thread of the original conversation:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/147092455420/permalink/10153646067805421/

kitsune361 says:

"A combined line from the movie "The Gamers 3: Hands of Fate": "Furries are people LARPers make fun of, LARPers are people [tabletop] gamers make fun of, and gamers are people that people make fun of.""

A variation on a line that has been around forever, for every geeky outcast has relied on the adage, "at least I'm not as weird as THAT GUY." I found my original example in the 90s on the a comedy website called The Brunching Shuttlecocks, they archived it here:  http://brunching.com/images/geekchartbig.gif

I'm sure if you go back far enough you can find this kind of rhetoric as long as there has been geeky and fan communities.

Hawke Robinson says:

Indeed, not just "geeky" culture, but any "other" group.

Theory of the Role-playing Gamer "Floater" Variation

published Jun 04, 2013

Originally posted Jun 04, 2013 02:35 PM: I have a new hypothesis as to why the stereotypes about role-playing gamers have become stronger over the decades rather than being disproved over time (as all the research indicates). I call it a hypothesis of the "Role-playing Gamer Floater"...

From decades of observations, my working hypothesis has two parts or possible explanations as to the observed changes I have been seeing:

#1 - That the now inculcated social assumption about role-playing gamers and gaming drives away more "normal" people from the hobby and attracts the stereotypes because people are increasingly buying into the media and apocryphal stories the longer they are reinforced.

#2 - The players that are rejected from regular, generally not public, groups, are the players constantly trying to find games at hobby stores and Pick Up Games (PUGs), because the gamers that fit the stereotypes are so dysfunctional that they are the rejects from the regular groups, and because they keep getting kicked out, become the most visible representation of gamers to the public.

 

The functional players are already in their groups, that typically stick together for years, even decades. Generally the make up of the group only changing when people move and such.

Then there is the percentage of dysfunctional role-playing gamer "floaters" that get kicked from group to group because of their various dysfunctions. These are the gamers that are most often seen in public as they go to pick up games at comic book stores, hobby stores, conventions, and new-member invites. Since they are so dysfunctional, they keep getting kicked out after a few sessions, and being the cycle again.

Meanwhile the functional gamers are happily meeting regularly at home or in closed game rooms, and most of the public never see the "normal" players, and instead generally just see the dysfunctional floaters.

Though occasionally some of the players I gamed with in the 70's, 80's, and 90's fit the negative stereotypes, MOST of those I gamed with were successful, well-adjusted, functional people,from a broad range of "group association", with generally little to none of the anti-social and dysfunctional aspects claimed about role-playing gamer stereotypes.

The research done on role-playing gamers (correlative and meta studies) shows the stereotypes in the 1980s and 1990s generally disproved. I haven't seen any updated studies in the 2000s (most have been focusing on video games now).

Most of the gamers I gamed with regularly long ago, didn't have any more trouble getting dates, girlfriends, wives/husbands, etc. than anyone else. They were from all walks of life and interests, and over the years most of them were professionally and personally "successful", within the context of functional versus "dysfunctional" western societal expectations.

There are very few gamers I have gamed with (once they are adults) long enough to get to know more about their personal lives, that fit the dysfunctional, anti-social, unemployed, living in their parents basement stereotype.

Though everyone has various foibles and challenges, most of them did not map to the stereotypes any more strongly than other groups (non-gamers). That being said during about that time period (70s, 80s, and 90s), more recently about half of the gamers I have met since about 2004 (when I moved to Spokane, Washington) to current, have been fitting the stereotypes. Socially awkward to dysfunctional, poor hygiene/stinky, borderline homeless or living in their parent's home in their 30s, 40s+, etc.

I have had to move a few times over the years when I was building my professional career in computer science (before retiring in 2003 to raise my family full time), including Utah, California, Oklahoma, Idaho, Washington, and elsewhere, and as I moved it took a while to put new groups together. I didn't game much in the late 90's to earliest 2000s due to working so much, but when I did, I didn't really see an increase in the negative stereotypes.

Then when I moved to Spokane, Washington, in 2004, I began seeing a LOT of the stereotypical gamers. At first I thought it might be an issue with Spokane (I haven't completely ruled that out yet), but as I have gone to Seattle and elsewhere, I developed the aforementioned alternative hypotheses, as I saw similar patterns elsewhere.

What are your thoughts on this?

 

UPDATE 2016: Over the past 5 years, I have begun to try taking more semi-formal observational notes, observing from a distance rather than directly interacting, at game stores, gatherings, and conventions. I have observed more than 1,000 so far, and while the ratio at this more purely observational level isn't as high, it is still disturbing in number. The key factors I watch for include:

• Special needs individuals harassment, teasing, bias & exclusion
• Sexual harassment, bias, exclusion, inconsiderate and hurtful language
• Extreme lack of hygiene
• Very noticeably disruptive behavior at the table
• Non-in-game yelling at players/GM that is clearly upsetting by facial/body language of the others
• Storming off from the table or physical lashing out

With those much more limited criteria, in Spokane it has been around 1-2 players per table per session! Some tables are a majority behaving this way, others have none.

In Seattle (smaller sample size so far, only about 400), it seems about 1 player per 2 to 3 tables per session.

This doesn't even take into account so many other stereotypes and dysfunctions that could come up with interaction and interview, this is just what an outsider would see, that would further reinforce the negative stereotypes about tabletop gamers.

What do you, the reader, think?

Whatever ideas I have for developing testable hypotheses run into the problem of self-selection and selection and of course research resources. With enough funding it is theoretically possible to find a sample of people that do not go to conventions or books stores or public gaming venues but do game with friends, through random polling and selection datagbase services like InfoCo USA. But a lot of money would be needed to find a large enough sample size to make it testable.  Once these non-prominent gamers were found, they would need to be wiling to undergo a battery of psych, demograhpics, and other assessments, and then compare and contrastd those with those in the "floater" category, vs. those just in public gaming venues and public sys, versus the general non-gaming public.  So, this could be done, but would need real money and resources to make into an actual testable hypothesis:

Harassment and Worse in RPG Industry & Community

A blog article was posted to the CAR-PGA (The Committee for the Advancement of Role-Playing Games) mailing list today, regarding terrible behavior by the RPG industry & Community...

Below is the message that was sent to the Car-PGA (The Committee for the Advancement of Role-Playing Games) mailing list. Regarding sexual harassment in the tabletop RPG industry & community. - http://latining.tumblr.com/post/141567276944/tabletop-gaming-has-a-white-male-terrorism-problem

While I have read the blog posting, I haven't researched it any further yet so I do not know more about validity of the source yet, but it was the occasional stories like these, for various orientations, ethnicities, disabilities, and other populations, told to me verbally as I was performing other RPG research, that lead to my starting research specifically on this topic years ago, which is currently undergoing analysis, to have some idea of prevalence as updated here: http://rpgresearch.com/blog/rpg-gender-bias-research-stage-2-status-update-1

This is also why I have been trying to build the RPG Trailer (http://gofundme.com/rpgtrailer) to provide a "safer" gaming environment, though most people have not understood what I meant by this (an unfortunate failure of communication on my part). Hopefully this article makes that clearer.

Much more needs to be done to fix the PUG (Pick-Up Gamer) environment at hobby stores, conventions, etc. See my points on the "Gamer Floater Hypothesis" for the long list of relevant issues: http://rpgresearch.com/blog/hypothesis-of-the-role-playing-gamer-floater While these dysfunctional players need help, and I believe a properly implemented gaming environment can help them, I believe they are driving away a much broader potential audience, and we as a community, industry, and PUG hosts, need to do more to address these issues.

The Car-PGA Email:
### BEING EMAIL ###
" A very long piece on sexual harassment in the tabletop community has been
brought to my attention:
http://latining.tumblr.com/post/141567276944/tabletop-gaming-has-a-white-male-terrorism-problem
Please note that there is an opportunity for direct action in the case of Wyrd;
their phone number and online contact form are at the bottom of the post.

CAR-PGa has a longstanding interest in increasing the number of women in
gaming and opposing all forms of harassment. Suggestions on new initiatives
to combat this problem are welcome.

CAR-PGa publishs one of if not *the* most complete gaming convention
schedules, and I'd be really interested in getting some volunteers to find
out which meet the Scalzi minimum-acceptable-harassment-policies (http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/07/02/my-new-convention-harassment-policy/).
An example of an acceptable harassment policy would be, for example, that
of the American Library Association's conferences (http://2016.alaannual.org/statement-appropriate-conduct).

Finally, while the subject does not normally come up, allow me to state for
the record that neither the Newsletter nor this discussion list will
tolerate attempts to harass people via them. —Alan"
### END OF EMAIL ###

 

UPDATE 20160403: Someone posted the following response: The person who posted the blog did get her Day in Court and did win: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/taking-a-stand-against-abuse-284204591.html

Mother to child: "Those kinds of people kill people"

(talking about role-playing gamers) March 15th, 2019.

Variations of this happen so often that I generally don't bother posting about it anymore. Typically anywhere from once per month to once per week, I encounter something in the ballpark of these negative attitudes about role-playing gamers/gaming from the inculcated myths. But this past Friday was exceptional, with 3 separate families forbidding their children!