This myth of the median ding-dong who supposedly can't understand games is so ahistorical & bizarre I don't know what to do with it. Kids can learn draughts, chess & mancala at 5. I play 'hobby' games with my 8 year old all the time. In the 80s 50% of UK adults played cards at least fortnightly.
I regularly tell customers, "Once a kid is around 9 years old, they can learn any board game they want to. The trick is that they have to want to."
Even at dedicated tabletop cons, plenty of games are too weighty & ambitious for most attendees. They want to keep moving. It's not that they don't enjoy or understand Twilight Imperium, they just want to see a bunch of stuff. But board & card games are everywhere, across all cultures.
Some hobbyist gamers seem to imagine we're nuclear physicists or something. Like modern games are impossibly recondite & arcane & no outsider could ever learn them. Nonsense! Demonstrably untrue. The vast majority of people are more than capable of understanding.
The question is whether you think our job is to evangelize or to lay a place at the table. If you want strangers to purchase a game from you, of course you have to go for instant gratification. But I don't think the heart of gaming is generating economic events. It's community.
The thread is about selling games to people who think they don't like games. That's all it claims to be. It is not a thread about introducing people to games who think they don't like them. That is not a sale. It is an invitation. Most of us did not first encounter play in a shop, thank God.
I learned to play games with my dad. I still play games with my dad. I wanted to play because it was a space of connection, imagination & love. People of all ages play games of all complexities. I don't find teaching non 'hobby' people (such a weird term) any harder than seasoned veterans.
In my experience, all that matters is willingness, & welcome. Would the person like to play? Have you made them feel welcome? That's it. Pensioners learn Bridge & Mahjong. Kids I teach on creative writing retreats learn boardgames & Pathfinder (first edition, for goodness sake!) in moments.
Thanks for speaking up Tim. I totally agree—the original thread sort of engages in the common narrative that people are too meager-minded to play games. Even when I’m “selling” at a con or a table, I’m always just trying to make connections with the people I’m talking with.
Even selling is so much more than an exchange of commodities. Both parties should feel engaged and brightened by the end. Don’t hold any expectation that they will receive you. People can tell when they’re being targeted for a sale. They can also tell when you’re connecting with them as a person.
Just so, they can feel your genuine personal excitement when you offer to show them something cool. Honestly, it’s just about treating people decently. All people play. We can’t help it. And gaming is so normalized now—on phones, computers, iPads, etc.
And almost everyone has an experience playing games as a child as cards, marbles, pawns, or otherwise. I think most times when people try to sell a game to someone (and even make a game for them), they aren’t nearly as empathetic to the context that person belongs in as they ought to.
If I were stopping people in Norwich City Centre & offering to teach them A Feast for Odin I'm sure I'd struggle. But my wife learned Agricola: All Creatures Big & Small in minutes despite having never played a worker placement game before. How? Because she's an adult & was up for it.
Your mileage may vary on this. Remember I'm autistic so if I've snagged any invisible social tripwires by speaking my mind please don't hear what I didn't say.
FWIW I don’t think you’ve snagged any invisible social tripwires. You’ve spoken your mind and what you say makes lots of sense.
The problem I encounter is that although I’m not trying to sell people a game in a transactional sense, I am still trying to sell it to them. I need people who don’t think they’ll enjoy something to be willing to spend their time trying. How do I do that?
Back when we made Rosetta: The Lost Language we got a weird cross-section of players. Folks who found games too hard & hobby players equally were like ‘this is great’ or ‘this is too complicated for its own good’. Change in genre exposed something about identity there over actual connection…
… like being ‘into games’ or ‘not into games’ was useful social shorthand but didn’t catch the nuances of the human underneath. ‘Hardcore hobbyists’ who resist change and experimentation. ‘Non-gamers’ who latched onto the joy of play rather easily and without fuss.