by Eric McColm
There are any number of studies, of wildly varying validity, on why role-playing games are popular. Instead of asking a valid sample of people who might not understand why they themselves like role-playing, I base the following on my opinion. This is not a scientific view; it is a personal view.
Role-playing games have a long tradition of being adolescent male power fantasies, like comic books. Much of the game systems focus on violence, like comic books. The better games provide help and guidance toward designing a fantasy world that might be interesting to visit. Unlike comic books.
Role-playing games have acting because people like make-believe. Role-playing games have combat systems because conflict figures large in myths and legends, adventure stories, and other popular make-believe. Role-playing games have rules because somebody has to lose a conflict, and nobody wants to be that somebody.
Role-playing game characters are props used to tell an epic, fairy tale, or horror story. There is little difference between a role-playing game character and an action figure or a doll. Except of course that someone makes and sells the action figure, while the role-playing game character is intellectual property only.
For those who ask why there are no purely romance or travel role-playing games...if you don't have conflict, you don't need rules. Just players.
Role-playing games are a vehicle aimed toward epics, fairy tales, and horror stories. We as a species love these tales, and suburban America as a society has a great appetite for these stories. Role-playing games grew in the shadow of Lord of the Rings and X-Men, and these epics and serial adventures have profoundly directed the games. Alas, the depth of characters found in a book are rarely present in the actual role-playing games, but that may be because the players are teenagers.
My best guess at the phenomenal popularity of gaming in general, and combat-centered fantasy gaming in particular, is that it addresses several unfilled needs in the target audience (male teenagers):
There's also sex and violence as motivations, but more of either are on network television these days than in most role-playing games.
Role-playing games are less popular among pre-teens than among teens. To explain why, I point to Magic: The Gathering being more popular among teens, and Pokemon among pre-teens. The younger audience has less patience with the more intricate rules.
Role-playing games have complex rules to achieve a rich game. Just as Magic is a richer and more complicated game than Pokemon, so role-playing games are richer and more complicated than their pre-teen competitor: video games. This game complexity is a barrier high enough that most pre-teens will not cross it.
The average role-playing game rules for the player is 150-250 pages, usually of many interconnecting rules or a lot of algebra. This works about as well as brussels sprouts at keeping pre-teens out of the game.
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