Almost 50 Years of Academic Research on Tabletop Role-Playing Games: Historical Evolution and Bibliometric Analysis

Almost 50 Years of Academic Research on Tabletop Role-Playing Games: Historical Evolution and Bibliometric Analysis

https://pmartinolli.github.io/JDR50bibliometrie/index-english.html

This descriptive study offers an in-depth historical and bibliometric analysis of academic research on tabletop role-playing games. It examines the evolution of publications across various academic formats (conferences, monographs, theses, peer-reviewed articles) and explores new trends in scientific dissemination, including preprints and literature reviews. The analysis reveals a marked growth in scientific output since the origins of role-playing games, with a notable acceleration over the past decade. While research remains primarily based in North America and Europe, new hubs are emerging in Latin America and Asia. Several major themes are explored: the dominance of Dungeons & Dragons, the moral panics of the 1980s and 1990s, therapeutic applications, issues of diversity and representation, as well as the phenomenon of actual plays. The study also includes an analysis of theoretical reflections developed by the gaming community outside of traditional academic publications. It examines how these high-quality, para-academic contributions might be integrated and validated by scholarly institutions. Finally, it highlights the influence of academic practices and values, particularly in terms of citation, on role-playing game culture.  

This translation is to be submitted to a journal. It is a translation of the presentation in French made in the colloquia “Vous êtes dans une taverne…” Retour sur cinquante ans de jeux de rôle (27-28 mars 2024, Metz, Université de Lorraine) that will be published as a chapter in a monograph. The translation relies heavily on Claude 3 Haiku by Anthropic and ChatGPT 4o by OpenAI.

On the Shoulders of Cloud Giants: dataviz with JavaScript in Observable

 

My project On the Shoulders of Cloud Giants which attempts to describe citation practices in tabletop role-playing publications is a bit dormant at the moment. I am testing a new technique which consists of creating automatic citation indexes but it takes time.

Here it is : https://observablehq.com/@pascaliensis/on-the-shoulders-of-cloud-giants

• The code queries Wikidata and returns the data in a structured manner in the form of (mainly) a series of pairs between a citing tabletop role-playing game and a cited TTRPG.

• The data exists in Wikidata thanks to property P2860 (cites work).
• The code is in the appendix (at the very bottom of the Observable page) in the variable query=
• Other data is repatriated along the way: date of publication, “movement” to which the role-playing game belongs (The Forge, OSR, etc.), publishing house and game mechanics.

• This data in the form of a table is encoded in JSON format. This is important because as we are going to do JavaScript visualizations, we need to structure the data in this format so that it is absorbed correctly by the JavaScript visualization libraries.
• Then this JSON table is transformed into a JSON hierarchy, this is an organization of information specifically designed for network/relationship visualizations.
• Basically, the structure of this JSON hierarchy is divided into two parts: a part describing each game independently (nodes part) and a part listing each relationship (edges part).
• The transformation was done by a function named table2hierarchy
• The variable containing this file is located in data_citingCited
• From there, most of the work is done because the JavaScript libraries do all the rest of the work. You just have to modify them a little each time to have the desired effect (like filtering the data or coloring it). Several visualizations are thus made:
•         Undirected graphs
•         Chord diagrams
•         Classic bar charts, etc.

https://observablehq.com/@pascaliensis/on-the-shoulders-of-cloud-giants

R Studio & Javascript to analyze your Zotero reference library

My proposal to present the conference “Vous êtes dans une taverne… Retour sur 50 ans de jeux de rôle ” [You are in a tavern… A look back at 50 years of role-playing games] was accepted. Entitled “Historical evolution and bibliometric analysis of academic research on tabletop role-playing in academic publications”, it mainly consists of carrying out a descriptive study of the academic publication on tabletop role-playing since the 1980s.

Since 2014, I have undertaken to collect academic references relating to the study of tabletop role-playing games. This approach resulted in the creation of a database freely accessible via Zotero, comprising a total of 2400 references. Among these, there are 460 peer reviewed articles, 180 books, 300 theses, and many others.

The bibliographic database is freely accessible at: https://www.zotero.org/groups/446523 . Since 2019, Michael Freudenthal has joined me to manage this database.

Last Christmas, I gave you my R

In order to carry out a well-reproducible analysis, not only do I provide open access to the data but I also provide the algorithms that allow them to be analyzed. Everything is posted on GitHub at https://github.com/pmartinolli/ZoteroRnalysis

First, I chose to use the R Studio software because I learned to use it in the context of my work, also because it is powerful and free software, and finally because it is easy to request to ChatGPT 3.5 from OpenAI to fix my coding bugs (which I do very often).

The principle is simple:

• I export the bibliographic references from Zotero in the formatcsv
• I import the data into R Studio
• I grind the data in R Studio
• R Studio produces nice graphs and other tables for mecsv
• Along the way, I align my data with that of Wikidata to augment my data (in a process called "reconciliation", done by the OpenRefine software ). For example, with the list of names of academic journals, I will look for the date the journal was created and its country of origin to spot trends.

Secondly, my co-worker Philippe taught me how to use the platform ObservableHQ and JavaScript. I decided to translate part of the R code in JavaScript to benefit from the very user-friendly interface and visualisation functions of this platform. Anybody can make a fork of the code, upload their references and analyze them (in the open with a free account).

The code is here: https://observablehq.com/@pascaliensis/zoterojsnalysis

All I want for this graph is you

The original post was in French for Christmas (to explain the silly titles).

Here are some nice extractions in graphic form. Note that these are not the final versions because, between now and the conference, I will still “shampoo the data” to correct and improve it.

For the rest, I will meet you in Reims (I will be by Zoom), or on this blog, or later in a more definitive publication.

Appendix: text of proposal at the conference

“In the presentation, I will explain how the compilation of peer-reviewed articles and works published since the 1980s, both in English and French, is almost exhaustive and makes it possible to generalize the analyzes that will follow. I will also highlight possible selection and indexing biases that may be present.

“My project consists of carrying out a historical and bibliometric analysis of publications such as peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. This analysis will highlight the variations observed over the years, in various disciplines, for different research subjects, as well as the issues surrounding publication (notably pre-publications, systematic reviews, potentially predatory publications, retractions, etc. .). I will show, for example, how the first publications of the 1980s aimed to explain the rise in popularity of this passion and to respond to the moral panics of the time. Likewise, I will illustrate how recent publications focus more on themes such as gender, actual play and psychotherapeutic aspects linked to the practice of role-playing. I will also highlight the great diversity of academic fields addressing the study of role-playing, ranging from traditional disciplines such as sociology, psychology and the humanities, to more atypical fields such as music, neuroscience and the philosophy. This presentation also extends internationally, encompassing Europe, North America, as well as other parts of Latin America and Asia. I will highlight the predominance of the game Dungeons & Dragons , while identifying other games studied or mentioned alongside this preponderance.

“To enrich this analysis, I will discuss the theoretical and practical reflection of the gaming community on their leisure in parallel with the academic environment. I will also review conferences, congresses and symposia devoted to role-playing, as well as dissertations and theses addressing this subject. Finally, I will discuss citation practices in tabletop roleplaying, in its study, and in its communities of practitioners. »

 

 

How the Cease & Desist orders reduced the citation practices in the TTRPG publishing industry

Cease-and-desist orders are an important element in the history and culture of intellectual property of the tabletop role-playing game industry. I will show how these legal actions had a negative impact on citation practices and how they hampered the explicit dedications, tributes, attributions and acknowledgments in the published works.

Definition

The purpose of a cease & desist letters is to precisely, explicitly and formally warn a person or an organization about a conflict. It can be written by anyone (a law firm can bring a little more credit and potentially more legal precisions). It also often contains a way to resolve this conflict, usually ceasing an activity (cease) and making a commitment not to undertake it again (desist).

Games copyright lawyer Zachary C. Strebeck estimated that in the United States a C&D letter sent by a lawyer costs between $ 300 and $ 1,000 (for 1 to 2 hours of work) in 2018. He said it can vary a lot between law firms (8).

C&D and D&D

Dungeons & Dragons was the first role-playing game released, and TSR's C&D were the firsts legal actions to impact the role-playing community (the company earned the nickname «T$R» or «They Sue Regularly»). Furthermore, TSR and WotC being the main players in the role-playing industry, their practices have had a significant influence. Later, the introduction of the Open Game License by WotC was a pivotal moment for intellectual property and it was a kind of reversal of C&D values.

Tactical Studies Rules (1973-1975)

TSR received a C&D in 1974 from the E.R. Burrough Estate Foundation for Warriors of Mars (15).

TSR sent a C&D in 1975 against Robert Ruppert, who was selling character sheets stamped “Dungeons & Dragons Character Sheet” for 2 cents (3, p.108).

TSR Hobbies, Inc. (1975-1983)

With Tunnels & Trolls

In the first edition of Tunnels & Trolls (1975), published by Flying Buffalo, its author Ken St-André mentioned ans scknowledged Dungeons & Dragons in his discovery of role-play gaming.

Tunnels & Trolls 1st ed. p. 4

TSR sends out a C&D circa 1975 or 1976 against the Flying Buffalo Company and Metagaming Concepts magazine for their advertisements and reviews of Tunnels & Trolls, defined as a game "like D&D".

«The lawyers claimed that using the words "Dungeons & Dragons" to help describe Tunnels & Trolls infringed on TSR’s rights. Flying Buffalo deleted any such comparisons from future advertisements. » (3, p.108)

Without surprise, the reference to D&D disappears in subsequent editions of Tunnels & Trolls.

With Tolkien

TSR receives a C&D at the end of 1977, from Saul Zaentz (via its Elan Merchandising division which had acquired the non-literary derivative rights from Tolkien) for the named creatures like Hobbit, Ent, Balrog, etc. (5, p. 29).

With Arduin Grimoire

TSR sends a C&D between 1977-1979 against David Hargrave for his Arduin Grimoire (4). In the preface to the first volume of Arduin Grimoire, David Hargrave is explicit about the change in tone and values in the role-playing community due to huge commercial success.

Arduin Grimoire, vol. 1. p. 2.

With Chaosium

Jeff Pimper and Steve Perrin approached TSR to publish a collection of monsters and they received a C&D letter from TSR in return (5, p. 250). Finally, they published their famous All the Worlds’ Monsters with Chaosium in 1977, a few months before TSR's Monster Manual. Since this success, Chaosium has grown into a major TTRPG publisher.

In 1978 and 1979, the authors of RuneQuest (Chaosium) dedicated the first two editions of their game to Dave Arneson, Gary Gygax and Ken St-André (discussed in a previous post).

RuneQuest 1st ed., p. 1.

RuneQuest 2nd ed., p. 1.

The second edition of RuneQuest included a full page of bibliographic references, among them : AD&D, D&D, but also Tunnels & Trolls and Arduin Grimoire.

RuneQuest 2nd ed. p.111

TSR received a C&D in 1981 from Chaosium for the inspired section of H.P. Lovecraft and Michael Moorcock in Deities & Demigods (9; 12).

The dedications and the bibliography disappeared in RuneQuest 3rd edition (from Games Workshop in 1984). The mention of D&D reappeared in the 6th ed. of the game (p. 4, 2012). A literary bibliography reappeared in HeroQuest - Roleplaying in Glorantha (p. 266, 2003).

TSR, Inc. (1983-2003)

TSR sent a C&D in 1992 against Gary Gygax and his game Dangerous Dimensions (DD) before its publication, renaming it Dangerous Journey. (5, p.101)

TSR sent C&D in 1993 against a large number of FTP sites or websites that contained material for D&D, even sites without copyright material (2).

"As the Internet exploded onto the public consciousness in the early-to mid-90's, D&D players naturally brought their chosen hobby online. TSR followed them, issuing dozens of cease and desist orders that shut down fan sites. The company even tried to prevent D&D fans from discussing the game in chat rooms and on message boards, earning derisive nicknames such as: “They Sue Regularly” (TSR) or “T $ R”, to stress the appetence for money of TSR managers ." (11). This caused significant animosity in tabletop role-playing communities (1, p.155).

Between 1991 and 1994, Shannon Appelcline, now WotC product historian, remembers being very angry when he received an email from TSR for a C&D website that he administered but which did not contain any content related to D&D (16, 9 min. 30 s.):

"Most of the people would have had the same reaction, hey we don’t like this already [T$R] and now they send these nasty letters for legal rights they probably don’t have, and they are doing it incorrectly too. (...) After receiving that letter, I didn’t touch anything related to TSR until 98-99 or so. (…) It pretty damages my relation with the company as a fan, yes. "

This wave of C&D seems to have been quite massive and has been dubbed “TSR vs. The Internet ”(17).

 

(Edit 2020-09-06: It seems that in the 90s «  it was a scary time for IP rights, there was a real concern about losing rights because of the assine way US law forces active defense to retain things. Case law didn't exist yet to protect rights-holders from fan-work. » (Armorlord).

 

(UPDATE: read more Games & The Law, Part Seven: The D&D Dilemma)

Wizards of the Coast (1997-now)

2000. WotC introduced a new practice in the tabletop role-playing games publishing industry: the Open Game License (v.1.0). It matches a spirit of the time : the free software licensing and copyleft movement. It also provides a counterpoint to the values ​​and damage done by TSR's C&D waves.

2008. WotC backtracking towards a more restrictive license (Game System License, GSL).

WotC sends a C&D in 2010 against Die Cast Games (6).

WotC sends a C&D in 2010 against Masterplan where a fan comments: “It’s almost a badge of fandom. Only the Real Fans of the game get C&D letters - the ones who genuinely care about and love the game so much that they’re willing to invest substantial time and effort into building tools, forums and sites which support it. (…) A friendly email request would doubtless resolve any issues born out of simple ignorance or over-enthusiasm. Using C&D as a first solution is like burning a Daily Power on a Minion - total overkill (…) ”.

2016. WotC reverts to a more open OGL license (v.1.0a).

Others Cease & Desist

By doing some research on the Internet, I spotted these few other cases. Like the facts listed before, there is a search bias and selection bias, so these facts are not representative.

The term Fanwork Ban from the TV Tropes wiki brings together several interesting cases.

Palladium Books is famous in the role-playing hobby for its numerous C&D letters sent to companies or individuals, especially to those who are converting its rules to other game rules (7; 14).

Games Workshop also restricts the distribution of fan material or homemade miniatures made by fans.

In 2001, Other Hands Magazine, made by a MERP fan, received a C&D from Tolkien Enterprises.

In 2007, the Fallout-based RPG Exodus received a C&D from Bethesda.

2011. 20th Century Fox sends C&D to a club of Firefly RPG fans.

2015. The amateur role-playing game Mass Effect RPG for Fate was removed from the Ennies Awards competition by a C&D from BioWare / EA.

Unknown date. C&D received by a GM for an online game of Harry Potter, from Warner Bros.

Impact on citation practices

In Colin Stricklin's memoir, he argues that role-playing games are incomplete products which require dialogue between the authority of the higher order author of the games and the authority of the lower order author, ie. game masters. Their interaction creates an equitable and more democratic culture of convergence. According to him, Cease & Desist are naturally less frequent there than in other cultural media (10, p. 67). I don't agree. No comparison study has been done with other media. Moreover, by seeing this review, it would appear that this is not the case. Finally, savvy hobby participants are familiar with the practice of C&D and know that it is not uncommon.

Thus, it can reasonably be argued that the issuing of Cease & Desist orders have had a profound impact on the role-playing industry and fan communities. More specifically, they have potentially negatively influenced citation, dedication, tribute, attribution, and explicit recognition practices in published works. Indeed, we often quote and cite to be part of a community. However, the exclusion and rejection outcomes of a C&D letter directly hurt this desire of belonging and being included.

I will elaborate in a future post how the Open Game License lead to systematic citation.

(UPDATE : read more at DMDavid Blog « 1994: TSR Declares War on the Internet’s D&D Fans»)

(UPDATE : 2021-01-06: a .csv file of these data is available here https://github.com/pmartinolli/OtSoCG/blob/master/data/ceasendesist_data.csv) 

(UPDATE : 2021-04-08 : A GREAT graph vizualization of the TSR C&D by Shannon Appelcline)

References

(1) Peterson, Jon (2012). Playing at the World. San Diego, California: Unreason Press.

(2) Brown, Janelle (1997). Disaffected Fans Cheer D&D Buyout. Wired. https://www.wired.com/1997/04/disaffected-fans-cheer-dd-buyout/

(3) Ewalt, David M. (2014) Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and The People Who Play It, Simon and Schuster. p.108.

(4) Hartlage, David (2015, juin 24). Once subversive, the Arduin Grimoire’s influence reaches today’s games. DMDavid. https://dmdavid.com/tag/once-subversive-the-arduin-grimoire-reached-into-every-role-playing-game/

(5) Appelcline, Shannon. 2015. Designers & Dragons: The 70s. 2nd ed. Silver Spring, MD: Evil Hat Productions.

(6) « Insidious (DCG1 Version) ». s. d. RPGGeek. https://rpggeek.com/rpgitem/79231/insidious

(7) Ninjafingers. 2010. « Why the Palladium Hate? » RPGnet Forums. https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/why-the-palladium-hate.516154/

(8) Strebeck, Zachary C. 2018. « How Much Does a Trademark Attorney Cost? [And What Do They Do?] ». Video Game Lawyer | Zachary C. Strebeck | Attorney at Law (blog). 2 octobre 2018. https://strebecklaw.com/trademark-attorney-cost/

(9) Collins, Daniel R. « James Ward on Deities & Demigods ». Delta’s D&D Hotspot (blog), 6 mars 2015. https://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/2015/03/james-ward-on-deities-demigods.html

(10) Stricklin, Colin. 2017. « Off the Rails: Convergence through Tabletop Role-Playing Modules ». M.A. English Literature, Laramie, WY: University of Wyoming. https://search.proquest.com/pqdtglobal/docview/1933767019/abstract/C78AFEE5079444BAPQ/14

(11) Demil, Benoît, et Xavier Lecocq. 2014. « ‪The Rise and Fall of an Open Business Model‪ ». Revue d’économie industrielle 146 (2): 85‑113. http://www.cairn.info/resume.php?ID_ARTICLE=REI_146_0085

(12) Hartlage, David. « The True Story of the Cthulhu and Elric Sections Removed from Deities & Demigods ». DMDavid (blog), 8 janvier 2019. http://dmdavid.com/tag/the-true-story-of-the-cthulhu-and-elric-sections-removed-from-deities-demigods/

(13) Peterson, Jon. 2013. « Character Sheets in 1975 ». Playing at the World (blog). 7 juillet 2013. http://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/2013/07/character-sheets-in-1975.html

(14) Alien Rope Burn. 2004. « The Palladium Megaverse Gigathread ». The Something Awful Forums. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3547622&pagenumber=1

(15) Steve Zieser. « Warriors of Mars », Iron Rationales, August 28, 2010; et James Maliszewski « Retrospective: Warriors of Mars », Grognardia, March 14, 2012.

(16) « RPG Historian Shannon Appelcline Told to Cease & Desist by TSR ». 2019. Plot Points. https://plotpoints.libsyn.com/rpg-historian-shannon-appelcline-told-to-cease-desist-by-tsr-ep166

(17) Vassilakos, Jim. 1995. « TSR vs. The Internet ». 1995. http://d7.pipemaze.com/tsr-vs-the-internet/

Citations practices in TTRPG publishing industry : Wikidata, SPARQL and R Studio

Disclaimer: the data are incomplete. This post is a midway tuning of my method and its results.

Introduction

My project On the Shoulders of Cloud Giants (I changed the name) is analysing the citation practices within the tabletop role-playing game publishing industry. For this purpose, :

• I selected and analysed TTRPG;
• I designed a database of citations within Wikidata and queried by SPARQL; 
• I started analyzing the data with R and R Studio.

Selection

The TTRPG selection is based on:

• All the TTRPG that have a Wikipedia page (estimated coverage: 95%) ;
• Plus all the TTRPG i heard about in my periodicals the last 10 years (blogs, podcasts, magazines) (estimated coverage: 80%) ; 
• Plus all the TTRPG cited by a TTRPG selected before.

The selection is moderately biased because the notoriety is externally attributed by a third party (Wikipedia contributors and periodical editors). Each TTRPG selected is validated by the fact, they all have a reference in the database RPGGeek (almost 99.9%).

Counting & Recording

Each mention of citation was saved as a PNG file nameofgame-pXX.png (where XX is the page the snapshot was taken).
I also recorded :

• the colophons, the credit pages, the acknowledgement page, the forewords, the afterwords, etc.;
• the bibliographies, the filmographies, the mentions of artworks;
• and epigraphs (all or some of them).

Database

I choose Wikidata, because it was simple, it was open and it was fulfilling most of my needs. Wikidata can be queried by R Studio. The properties used were:

• cites work P2860
• publisher P123
• movement P135
• author P50
• publication date P577
• RPGGeek ID P7226

Unfortunately, there was no property for : has a bibliography and has epigraph

Midway assessment

• May-december 2019 : 13 000 edits.
• 300 items created.
• 800+ links created between 140+ TTRPG.
  

SPARQL 

SPARQL is a language to query Wikidata and retrieve data. The main query is here.

R Studio Analysis

R and R Studio are very famous in the university around me. Its open, its quite simple to start, there is a lot of community support, its fashionable... so why not using it to process my data ?
I deposited the code of my R Studio project here on GitHub https://github.com/pmartinolli/OtSoCG

To have a look on a very drafty and preliminary graph displaying the data, please click on the picture below:

Bibliometry 101: role-play in PubMed

I recently read in the awesome Role-Playing Game Studies :

« By 1960, the concept [of role-play] had been introduced in settings ranging from schools (Gillies 1948) to industry (Bavelas 1947) to prisons (Lassner 1950). Many papers would follow. Having been wholly absent from psychology journals before 1948, "role-playing" appeared as a keyword in three Pubmed citations in 1960, rising to a hundred papers per year in 1975 and even more thereafter. » (Bowman & Lieberoth 2018, p. 245)

PubMed is an open access database. Researching the keyword "role-play*" leads to this result. It is possible to export a CSV file, import it in Excel and produce this:

"Role Playing" term was created as a MESH (Medical Subject Headings, the National Library of Medicine's controlled vocabulary thesaurus) in 1991. Before the term redirected to "psychodrama" (from 1975 to 1990).
____________

Bowman, Sarah Lynne, & Andreas Lieberoth. 2018. « Psychology and Role-Playing Games ». In Role-Playing Game Studies: Transmedia Foundations, edited by Sebastian Deterding & José P. Zagal, 245‑64. London: Routledge.