I think you are making the very point you seem to have missed. Video
gaming and radiosport AREN'T parallel activities. Video gaming is
popular with a broader range of people (particularly young people)
precisely because it is NOT the same as radiosport. Previous posts here
have listed all kinds of differences and the reasons they make a
difference ... you just choose to ignore them.
Most hams make the mistake of thinking we can draw more outsiders into
the hobby by publicity or trying to capture them at an early age (kind
of like brainwashing), and totally miss the point that if we can't make
radiosport accessible and interesting in the same way that video gaming
is we aren't going to attract anyone. We can try to persuade all we
want, but we have at least a couple of decades history that should show
us just how uninteresting our hobby is to to just about everyone else.
It doesn't mean we have to turn radiosport into gaming, but we sure as
hell should pay attention to the differences in mechanics that make one
so popular and the other so relatively insignificant (there is probably
a 100,000 to 1 ratio in active participation). If we don't change
radiosport in ways to make it more appealing, nothing else is going to
matter.
And maybe that's OK. There are hundreds of other niche competitive
hobbies out there ... competitive quilting, competitive BBQ, even
competitive hot dog and pie eating. Just because we once had a somewhat
mainstream hobby doesn't mean we always will, but those of us who enjoy
it can still enjoy it ... at least for a while. Most likely after we're
gone nobody else is going to miss it (radiosport) anyway.
73,
Dave AB7E
On 12/19/2016 2:33 PM, Rich K2WR wrote:
This thread started out with a salutory goal, but now, like many, it’s gotten
repetitive. A lot of useful points were made early on, but what is most clear to me now is
that we don’t know the answer.
I reject the comparisons with video gaming... I just don’t see the parallel. Maybe I
can’t, at age 65, with no interest in video gaming.
There is something (or many somethings) that is failing to attract the younger
generation(s) that nobody has quite identified yet.
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