companies staying away from rpg gamers

thecasualoblivion · Jun 23, 2010

BryonD said:
Except....

The blog claims this is a special characteristic of tabletop gamers.

Thus, if your LotR movie example is plausible, then you must disagree with the premise of the post.

The blog doesn't claim that this is a special characteristic of tabletop gamers, it claims that this behavior is much more common in tabletop gamers than in other places.

pawsplay · Jun 23, 2010

FireLance said:
Let me give an example of the kind of behavior that I think is being talked about.

Imagine, if you will, a fan of the Lord of the Rings books who is upset that the first Lord of the Rings movie did not include Tom Bombadil.

In any internet site that he frequents, whenever the Lord of the Rings movie is discussed, he will add his comment that he thinks it's a bad movie. Or rather, he will say that it is a bad movie as if it was an objective fact instead of presenting it as his opinion.

He will probably have a signature that makes disparaging comments about the Lord of the Rings movie, and the intellectual capacities of the writers, the directors, and the people who liked the movie, so that his dislike of the move is repeatedly referenced in every post that he makes.

In any thread which discusses the next two movies, he will post how bad the first movie was, and attempt to steer the conversation in a negative direction with questions like, "What are they going to ruin next?"

If he becomes aware that the directors or the writers of the Lord of the Rings movie are going to be involved in any other project, he will post comments explaining how they are terrible people and how he hopes that their project fails.

If any of the above seems vaguely plausible to you, then you have an inkling of the issues (real or perceived) that are behind the original blog post.

And remember, we are talking about fictional works here! At least in discussions about politics and economics, there are real lives and livelihoods which could be made better or worse depending on the final outcome arrived at.

That is, of course, what basically happened with the LOTR movie. It was a wild success.

pawsplay · Jun 23, 2010

"The opposite of love is not hate; it is indifference."

ggroy · Jun 23, 2010

An earlier article by Malcolm Sheppard on the same topic.

Where Did You Go, Tabletop Joe? | Mob | United | Malcolm | Sheppard

Hussar · Jun 23, 2010

I think if you want a fairly concrete example of exactly what's being talked about here, look at the commentary to the recent D&D Tries to Lure Back Players on CNN

I mean, here's an article about D&D on one of the most mainstream media outlets on the planet, yet, the first three comments I can currently see read:

MrAsheSin
"you'll be handed a character". That sums up 4th edition. You don't 'Create!' like with all the other versions. You just do. That's it. Take the pregen, jump into a fight, and bammo, go home.Wait, how is this role playing? Sounds more like roll playing.I've been a DM now for 14 years, and a player ... more

arioch
I've played D&D since 1980 and our group gave 4th edition a fair amount of time 1.5 years, but we had to call it quits. Final conclusion 4th edition is crap. Its way to combat focused, and because you spend ungodly amounts of time in combat as compared to previous editions there isnt much time to ... more

jontherev
4th suffers from some bad mechanics just as 3.5 did. You spend less time in 4th arguing about rules, due to it being less complex...BUT, you end up spending even more time in combats because monsters have *&^%tons of hitpoints. In 3.5, iterative attacks made combats crawl...in 4th, the players hav... more

I mean, these aren't even particularly negative, but, they're certainly not positive. And it's pretty much exactly what Eyebeams is talking about. People who don't play the game, presumably don't buy the product, telling all and sundry how the product sucks.

Yeah, that paints a pretty picture of the hobby.

FireLance · Jun 23, 2010

BryonD said:
Except....

The blog claims this is a special characteristic of tabletop gamers.

Yup, as thecasualoblivion said, the blog post suggests that this type of behavior is more common among tabletop gamers than people in general. In other words, whenever you encounter this type of behavior on the internet, the person in question has a better than normal chance to be a tabletop gamer.

Erik Mona · Jun 23, 2010

[No message]

FireLance · Jun 23, 2010

pawsplay said:
That is, of course, what basically happened with the LOTR movie. It was a wild success.

The fact that they succeeded despite the malice of people like that (which, as the blog post suggests, have a greater than normal chance of being tabletop gamers) does not mean that we should condone or accept the malice.

FireLance · Jun 23, 2010

Erik Mona said:
I'd rather imagine something like Green Lantern fans running ads in magazines and posting crude sigs and running campaigns to get writers fired over the death of Hal Jordan and the new Kyle Rayner Green Lantern. That actually happened, and was at least as persistent as any RPG edition war.

I think the real question is: what proportion of those Green Lantern fans are also tabletop gamers?

But I don't see any sort of media at all, really, running away from superheroes.

If, indeed, what the blog post suggested is true, and there is something about tabletop gamers that causes a greater proportion of them to become toxic customers, then it would only be a key issue for industries where tabletop gamers form a significant proportion of the customers. Presumably, even though some tabletop gamers are consumers of superhero-related media, they could be only a small proportion of all consumers of superhero-related media.

pawsplay · Jun 23, 2010

FireLance said:
The fact that they succeeded despite the malice of people like that (which, as the blog post suggests, have a greater than normal chance of being tabletop gamers) does not mean that we should condone or accept the malice.

I think it does, actually. "The malice" in this case being human nature in all its cantankerous glory, not original sin or something dramatically overblown. Compared to soccer riots or what passes for civic discourse on my Senator's Facebook page, I think we'll be okay.