As an avid table top gamer who has played extensively both in person and online I think that the effects of digital tools on table top gaming are worthy of investigation. A hobby that started out as a way to play structured make believe with your friends on a cozy Saturday afternoon, all gathered around a table eating delivery pizza with your noses buried in various rulebooks has begun moving towards an increasingly digitized future. While this can in some ways be a positive, allowing you to play with friends over vast distances or communicate with your fellow players easily outside of sessions I believe it has also diminished the social connection aspect of tabletop gaming that for me at least hold much of the appeal. Additionally as tabletop gaming has gotten more popular in recent years the once thriving creative scene of fans developing new ways to play has gotten increasingly corporate as investors smell money to be made.
Why am I interested in this question?
I have been an avid tabletop gamer for the majority of my life now. Because I lived through some of my formative years during the covid pandemic I am intimately familiar with both the digital tools used for tabletop gaming and how they can facilitate the hobby. Additionally I am also familiar with how the tabletop gaming community has shifted post covid to a more online experience. Because of this I am interested in engaging in more formal research about how digital tools are being adopted and how they are shifting the gaming experience. Although as mentioned I have my own experience to draw on I would like to pursue more unbiased data on how tabletop gaming has changed, especially over the past couple of years.
How does this add to the existing conversation
A lot of the discourse in the tabletop gaming community about using digital tools is very biased towards one way or another. On one side you have older gamers that are very much anti tech in tabletop gaming, seeing it as diminishing important aspects of the hobby such as collecting rulebooks, dice figures, etc. On the other hand you have a younger audience that never experienced a time when these tools were not available and see them as being as much a part of the hobby as anything else. I would like to add a more neutral voice to this conversation exploring both the ups and downs of these tools from a more nuanced perspective, not only as a tabletop gamer but also as a communication student interest in exploring how these tools are changing the way that we connect with one another.
Some existing voices on the topic
I would like to note that the following segments do focus on the Dungeons and Dragons TTRPG as it is the system and community I am most familiar with. The topics and tools discussed though do for the most part serve other systems or have equivalents for other systems. Although these sources do talk about dnd specifically their talking points are widely applicable to other games.
Some online gaming tools
Roll 20 is a free online platform that is compatible with dnd, pathfinder, and many more TTRPGs
Fantasy grounds is a paid online platform compatible with dnd and pathfinder by default with additional paid modules for other systems. Although their website claims they are “free to play” the vast majority of their features are locked behind a paywall.
Discord is an online community building platform designed to cater to video gamers and although they do not have inbuilt support for tabletop gaming they are still used by many tabletop gamers because of their excellent and free unlimited video and voice call services.
Tabletop gaming simulator is an online tool that allows users to play a wide variety of table top games as well as create their own.
Why is this important?
I think investigating this topic acts as a microbiome of the larger space of hobbies in an increasingly digitized and commodified environment. While this research can only speak for itself I believe it could give valuable insights into how the internet and digital tools are altering how humans engage with their passions and maintain social connections. I believe it could also speak to how the internet is reshaping how hobbies are monetized as physical products are replaced with digital ones.