Read on Twitter
"The RPG market is tiny. The last thing the hobby needs is gatekeeping based on play preference, it needs welcoming arms. If D&D has the economic power to grow the hobby, then that's good for all. Shooting down D&D isn’t going to help grow the hobby."
Found the cishet white guy!
Found the cishet white guy!
Also the capitalist who can only perceive issues through the lens of ~growing the hobby~, where "grow" explicitly means economic growth.
"The RPG market is tiny" — okay. And? (The OP throws round the figure "perhaps $45m pa", so, y'know, we're not talking "same five bucks endlessly circulating between starving people" tiny. We're talking "do megacorporations give a shit about it" tiny, which is...different.)
"Gatekeeping based on play preference" — is weasel goalpost-shifting; OP penned in response to people defending D&D as "a good game, Well Actually".
A lot of ink has been spilled by *game designers* talking about why D&D's *game design* is not good. That's neither gatekeeping,
A lot of ink has been spilled by *game designers* talking about why D&D's *game design* is not good. That's neither gatekeeping,
nor can it be refuted by "*I* like D&D."
See that goalpost-shifting relay race? "Bad game design" to "u just don't like something which i do" to "ur just an elitist hater trying to keep people out of The Hobby"?
(You can like D&D! That's orthogonal to any criteria for "good"!)
See that goalpost-shifting relay race? "Bad game design" to "u just don't like something which i do" to "ur just an elitist hater trying to keep people out of The Hobby"?
(You can like D&D! That's orthogonal to any criteria for "good"!)
"If D&D has the economic power to Grow The Hobby, that's good for all" — hahahaha.
D&D is operated as a loss leader for multibillion-turnover megacorp Hasbro. And you started by saying it *hasn't* grown The Hobby beyong a "tiny" market, bro.
D&D is operated as a loss leader for multibillion-turnover megacorp Hasbro. And you started by saying it *hasn't* grown The Hobby beyong a "tiny" market, bro.
Also: as has been extensively analysed and documented, new customers for the Wizards Hasbro game *do not* convert to new customers for *anything* else, so fuck your pontificating, you are *demonstrably* talking out of your flatulence hatch.
"Shooting down D&D isn't going to Grow The Hobby" — eh, maybe not. But 45 mil a year, *spread out* among more players than "a division of Hasbro", would be a more healthy industry than one where that *is* the case. No?
That's without even disputing the fundamental framing assumption that RPGs exist to enrich corporations via customer acquisition, or that Growth über alles is a hood, useful, desirable or defensible goal.
And, like I said back up top: found the cishet white guy. Because you know who *does* gatekeep the hobby? Them. Masses of them. Largely under the umbrella of D&D standom.
Wizards Hasbro indicate, loufly, that they *will not* fix the well-known problematic elements of their game;
Wizards Hasbro indicate, loufly, that they *will not* fix the well-known problematic elements of their game;
so yes, actually, D&D is a load-bearing element of hobby gatekeepery, and tearing it down *would let people in whom are currently kept out*, so...yeah.
Fuck that guy, fuck his smug, flawed, self-centred analysis, fuck Wizards Hasbro, fuck D&D, fuck its apologists.
Fuck that guy, fuck his smug, flawed, self-centred analysis, fuck Wizards Hasbro, fuck D&D, fuck its apologists.
(You're still allowed to like it. But if you want to stan it at me, bring better game than that or don't bother.)
