Nearby Gamers and popular RPGs

[akiyama]

I was curious about the relative popularity of different editions of D&D - dreaming of that day in the not-too-distant future when S&W: WB will be the worlds most popular RPG and wondering how many competitors it would have to overtake - and it occurred to me that one way of finding out would be to look at the tags on Nearby Gamers.

In case you've never heard of Nearby Gamers, it's a site where people can find nearby gamers. Apparantly there are no other gamers in Slough, where I live (that doesn't surprise me), but there is a Traveller player in Windsor, a few miles away.

nearbygamers.com/

Anyway, here are some of the tags from the site, in order of the number of people using them.

2030 - D&D
708 - Call of Cthulhu
563 - GURPS
320 - Traveller
264 - World of Darkness
180 - Runequest
179 - AD&D
166 - Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
118 - D&D 3.5
113 - D&D 4e
68 - Hackmaster
54 - True20
52 - Castles & Crusades
43 - Gamma World
37 - Tekumel
28 - D&D Rules Cyclopedia
27 - D&D 3e
25 - Basic Fantasy RPG
24 - Conan
23 - Classic D&D
20 - Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed
18 - Blue Rose
16 - Dying Earth
16 - Tunnels and Trolls
15 - Boot Hill
14 - Labyrinth Lord
12 - Empire of the Petal Throne
10 - Encounter Critical
10 - Original D&D
9 - Pathfinder
6 - Mutant Future
5 - En Garde
5 - Mazes and Minotaurs
5 - Metamorphosis Alpha
5 - Wiz-War
3 - Arduin Grimoire
3 - Bunnies and Burrows

I think we have to assume that most "D&D" players are players of recent editions who don't feel any need to specify which edition they play.

[Max]

I use the D & D tag just to signal general interest in the game -- I have my preferred versions but will sit down and play just about any with the right group.

When I've done tag searches I've been amused at how many folks I could recognized from these boards and the old school gaming blogs!

Hasn't helped me find an OD&D, Gamma World/Mutant Future or Encounter Critical game so far, but I've had some leads on a few other interesting games.