Is TTRPGing an "Expensive Hobby"

[TheSword]

For me, my disposable income is what's sat in a bank account after bills are paid. So yeah, that's literally how I think of it.

I wish you'd have read the rest of my post.

Sorry that isn’t how most people pay for stuff. Food bills come through out the month, petrol, car breakdowns, etc. that’s even assuming all you bills come out at the start of the month. If you have a point at which everything afterwards is fun fun fun, that’s a good set up. But I think that conflates disposable income with savings. If I’m saving for a house down payment the money in that account is not free to spend on goodies.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Sure, I don't see how that justifies dismissing peoples concern about cost.



Often this is the case. It depends on the game. I think most people like being able to buy the core book at a price that feels good to them. What they are willing to spend is a factor publishers have to consider.



Sure inflation is real. But it also doesn't matter if a person has adapted all their purchases to RPG books costing a certain amount. Whether inflation is the cause or not, to a lot of people, who don't feel their salaries have gone up with the cost of inflation, such changes are going to hurt. I am not saying companies are bad for charging more. I recently had to charge 50 bucks for a 270 sandbox adventure. I wanted to charge 29.99 or 39.99 at the very most. But it just wasn't feasible. However if people tell me it is not affordable, I understand. I don't spend that kind of money on a book casually myself

And I am not singling out D&D as being expensive. I just think in these conversations the argument that people shouldn't worry about the cost is dismissive. People in this hobby vary considerably in their financial situation and there are a lot of people who make less money than others, or who have other expenses they need to prioritize. We shouldn't be telling people they ought to buy a book because somebody else thinks the price is reasonable. If they find the price unreasonable, they find it unreasonable

Yeah, honestly I'm seeing a lot of dismissive comments here from folks who are perhaps not making the attempt to look at this question from someone else's point of view.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The finances of first run theaters SUCK... most only make a profit on concessions, not tickets. That's been true since the 90's. Unless the house is 90% full, it's usually break-even on attendance. So, to be able to pay better than minimum, they have to make it up somewhere... and concessions are where

That has nothing to do with people's willingness to pay $17 for popcorn and a soda.

 

[Ondath]

It really depends on how you're playing, IMO. If you just take the core SRDs for your system of choice and some pen and paper, the only thing you'll probably need are the dice, which can be pretty cheap. But if you want to get the special edition boxed sets of your system, deluxe referee screens, dice towers, metal dice, special-made table with an inlaid screen to project your battle map, minis... I guess the spending can get astronomical pretty quickly.

For my spending habits, even things like hardcover books feel a bit expensive, but ultimately I do think the goods are usually worth the price (and I prefer to make sporadic purchases that fairly pay their contributors than getting lots of cheaply made slop). I also think that there's a trend towards the hobby becoming more (potentially) expensive as the people who are part of it become older and older (more discretionary income), and that is something to consider.

 

[overgeeked]

Sorry that isn’t how most people pay for stuff. Food bills come through out the month, petrol, car breakdowns, etc. that’s even assuming all you bills come out at the start of the month. If you have a point at which everything afterwards is fun fun fun, that’s a good set up. But I think that conflates disposable income with savings. If I’m saving for a house down payment the money in that account is not free to spend on goodies.

Sigh. No. Separate accounts for savings and disposable income. This is too tedious to bother with. Tschüss.

 

[Mannahnin]

Yeah, honestly I'm seeing a lot of dismissive comments here from folks who are perhaps not making the attempt to look at this question from someone else's point of view.

People legitimately have different subjective experiences, that's for sure.

But if they state that D&D is less affordable today than it was in the 70s or 80s, from a factual standpoint they are simply mistaken.

And if they think that TTRPGs are an expensive hobby, then they are definitely not comparing to the vast majority of hobbies.

 

[TheSword]

Sigh. No. Separate accounts for savings and disposable income. This is too tedious to bother with. Tschüss.

You gave an example of someone with $50,000 to spend. Are you suggesting their income was $50,000 a month or are you suggesting they were drawing on savings?

 

[overgeeked]

People legitimately have different subjective experiences, that's for sure.

But if they state that D&D is less affordable today than it was in the 70s or 80s, from a factual standpoint they are simply mistaken.

And if they think that TTRPGs are an expensive hobby, then they are definitely not comparing to the vast majority of hobbies.

The bit people keep skipping over is real wages don’t keep up with inflation. Our grandparents could buy a house with a single middle-class income. Most people struggle to buy houses today with two incomes. Inflation is not the whole picture. I wouldn’t say it’s intentional, but it is deceptive to only mention inflation.

 

[Mannahnin]

The bit people keep skipping over is real wages don’t keep up with inflation. Our grandparents could buy a house with a single middle-class income. Most people struggle to buy houses today with two incomes. Inflation is not the whole picture. I wouldn’t say it’s intentional, but it is deceptive to only mention inflation.

It's not deceptive. Your argument about wages applies to literally every consumer good.

D&D, unlike most other products, has actually gotten cheaper. Even ignoring all the ways to play for free.

 

[Micah Sweet]

People legitimately have different subjective experiences, that's for sure.

But if they state that D&D is less affordable today than it was in the 70s or 80s, from a factual standpoint they are simply mistaken.

And if they think that TTRPGs are an expensive hobby, then they are definitely not comparing to the vast majority of hobbies.

Less affordable to them. An expensive hobby in their experience. All of this is subjective.