( this got long. Oooops )
As to whether Traveller is being played a lot lately... tough to know, yea?
I believe sorting out the metrics of play are even more complicated than your thoughtful post suggests.
There is, of course, no correlation that we can be certain of between
purchase and
play. Plenty of people buy RPG materials that they never play. And there are plenty of people who have been playing consistent RPG campaigns that have been going for decades based on nothing more than some rulebooks the bought 25 to 35 to 40 years ago. Again, I point to the example of
several active DragonQuest campaigns in Illinois I just read about. There hasn't been a new
DragonQuest product for 30 years.
The fact is certain RPGs were designed to run for years without the need to purchase anything but the core rule book. Some of these games are old. Some are more recent. The original
Dungeons & Dragons rules were designed this way. As were the original rules for
Traveller. And the rules for
Sorcerer, Burning Wheel, Primetime Adventures, Apocalypse World, and more.
So, if the desire is for more
play for a particular RPG that is one thing. And if the goal is for more
sales for a particular RPG that is another thing. But there without clear correlation between the two.
Further, posting online about a particular RPG is not a necessarily a metric for determining if
play is occurring. Posting online can be done in lieu of actually playing... though it is not a given that posting means one is not playing.
I can guarantee you there are plenty of RPG players (probably the majority) who never bother to post anything online. They are playing their game or games and are content with that. It is a hobby activity, taking up a few hours on the side and that's that.
Going back to sales, sales of what? New editions in print? Or older editions? When it comes to D&D lots of folks are using the rules of original D&D or B/X D&D after having never touched them or years. Some people using these rules today
have never played them before. And they are using PDFs that would never be found at a game store, or using older copies they pick up from used bookstores or Amazon or eBay.
Mongoose is not
Traveller but only a piece of
Traveller. On my blog I have received kind comments of people saying, "I always wanted to play
Traveller but I fell away from it. But because of your blog I'm playing again with the original Traveller rules and having a blast. Thanks!"
I am not making grandiose claims on the number of comments like this. It is only about half-a-dozen, maybe a few more. The point is, how to measure these people? I'll probably never interact with them again. They might have owned a copy of the Classic Traveller CD-ROM for years and done nothing with it until now. Or they might have gone to DriveThruRPG and picked up the PDF of LBBs 1-3. Or they might have bought the original boxed set a few decades ago and its been sitting on the shelf unused for many years.
So, how do we measure this? Even if we were tracking all the sales, if someone is picking up a game they haven't played for years because of new insights, is that part of a
Traveller Renaissance or not?
Finally, I want to ask:
Is this really a concern about playing or knowing wha the sales are? Or is it really about wanting to know other people share the same interests we do? If it is the second, I get that. We like to know that we are not alone and that we are a
part of something. But these are ultimately separate issues.
The fact is, as I've stated, playing
Traveller is a matter of playing
Traveller. If you set up a game and are playing then you are playing
Traveller and the game is being played. Worrying about or being concerned with whether or not other people are playing.
I personally don't understand the need or worry for whether or not people are playing a game I want to play. I understand it happens. I simply don't get it.
But I think it's worth stating clearly that it isn't an issue if playing the game is the concern. To play the game you set up a game. That isn't issue of sales or internet chatter. What matters then is the gathering of folks to share an imaginative and social activity. And for me (and perhaps only me!) that is enough.