FROM THE PAST: THE GROWTH OF ADVENTURE GAMING FROM 1981 - 1983 AND THE END OF THE RPG 'GOLDEN AGE'

 

From 1975 to 2017 Boynton & Associates, then Kalmbach Publishing, published a trade magazine, Model Retailer, devoted to the model industry but the contents included a Game Merchandising section, mostly devoted to the 'adventure gaming' (what is now called the 'hobby gaming') industry. From 1979 to 1983 the publisher had a separate Game Merchandising magazine in its stable, entirely devoted to the game industry, which did not survive the drop in sales after 1983 and so it was incorporated in Model Retailer. These magazines are a truly great and fascinating source of news and infos about the '80s game industry from a publisher, distributor and retailer point of view. In the June 1984 issue of Model Retailer Dana Lombardy (who was at the helm of the short lived Game News magazine and became editor of Game Merchandising) wrote a brief article devoted to the growth of the game industry in 1981, 1982 and 1983 which is very interesting from a 'historical' point of view.

In Chart 1 of Lombardy's survey we see the game industry growing, with over 100 companies releasing products (but Lombardy addds a caveat, nothing that "several major firms filed for bankruptcy"without giving any names) and we can already notice the RPG boom starting to fade in the decrease of of new role playing releases from 1982 to 1983. The health of the historical simulations market, especially if considered from today's point of view, is very impressive with 80 (!) titles released in 1983 (and this does not include the 13 releases in miniature rules, at least partially with a historical theme), higher than the fantasy and science fiction game releases which now are, by far, dominant in sales and number of products if compared to 'true' wargames. This strength should not be overestimated however: Lombardy writes that "a typical role playing product sells more units compared to a wargame product"and unsurprisingly adds that"there are far more role playing gamers than wargamers in the US".

In Chart 2 we can see the march of role playing to the top of sales charts: in 1981 they are 52,5% of new releases but in 1982 a whopping 64,3% (perhaps the peak of the so called 'Golden Age' of RPGs) dropping to 'just' 58,4% in 1983. It's important to note that in this chart 'wargames' is a term applied to everything: historical games (including games with a military theme such as Ace of Aces), fantasy and science fiction games in the largest possible sense and miniature rules. It's important to note that albeit the total releases in 1983 were 363 titles overall, Lombardy hinted to some worries about 'excess production' writing that "concern about a 'glut' of products is valid". Albeit the market for hobby games is today far larger, (Icv2.com gives a value of 1,8 billion dollars in 2019)  this is something amazing considering that the number of new releases in 2018 was, according to a very reliable source ("Publishers are treating games like a commodity and it’s going badly"), 5,000 titles (!) and in 2019 the number was surely higher. Lombardy says that this is anyway a portrait of a healthy industry "despite the recession" (he refers to the one starting in 1981 and 'officially' ending in July 1983) and that "interesting and innovative products" will "mantain consumer interest and steady sales for retailers".