How can we get more people playing?

Today’s question has been the topic of discussion more than once with some of my fellow gamers over the years. So I look forward to talking about it here today. How can we get more people playing?

Now I will be the first to point out that depending on where you live not all of these ideas may work for you. these are some of the things that have been discussed in the past to get more people playing locally.

So I have seen a lot of people today talking about making games more diverse as well as changes that the gaming industry should make to help get more people playing. I am not going to go that route today with this question. Instead, I am going to propose some ideas to get more local people playing in your area. Back when we were running Storm-con often we would discuss things that we could to do increase our visibility in a positive way in our community to attract more people to the hobby.  The following are some of the things we did as well as a few that we considered I hope you find them as useful as we did!

Play in Public 

This turned out to not only be a ton of fun but one of the best ways we attracted new players when we were doing it. Understand I am not talking about playing at your FLGS like adventure league. Were talking busting out a game at the food court, or playing at a local coffee shop. We even played regularly at a few bar and grills and a restaurant for nearly two years.  If you understand that it is not only curious but expect that you should be buying some food and drinks while you are taking up their space. You will find that tons of people will want to learn more about what you are doing. We When we began to draw to an end of our play in public campaign we regularly had 15 to 20 people attending a week.

Host Meet-Ups, Start/Join a Facebook Group

This might sound like a very simple thing but you would be surprised that it works better than you realize.  I am an admin on a local RPG and we get new area member requests all of the time. A few times we have hosted Gamer Meet n greets at FLGs with their permission with the goal of just trying to get gamers looking for games to see new faces.

Run a Gaming for Charity Events

An excellent way to attract new people is by running an event. Before we did Storm-con we hosted events out of our community center called “Gatherings in the Park”. We would bring gamers together and host games for new or experienced players in a mini-convention format. It was a great way to meet people but we also doubled it as an event to help the community by asking for canned food donations. You might be surprised how interested in gaming some people will become when they realize you are your fellow gamers can be a force of good in the community.

Until next time!

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