D&D General D&D's Utter Dominance Is Good or Bad Because...

[Snarf Zagyg]

It's just live and let live and be generous. D&D players profit from a huge player-base and tons of public recognition. So I think you can't begrudge us others to occassionally grumble "yeah, well, everyone's always talking about D&D, why won't play anyone Tales of the Bamboo Toothbrush Knight with me? It's just so much cooler."

To a certain extent, that's true in almost everything.

For example, if you live in America, you know that if you like sports, you're going to have a lot more support if your favorite sport is the NFL. You can watch the games, you can watch people talk about it endlessly, you can gamble on it, you can talk to almost anyone about it, you can play fantasy leagues with your friends, and so on.

If, on the other hand, you're into F1, you have less support.

If you're into D3 college football, even less support.

If you're into Serie C, even less support.

If you're into high school cross-country running, even less support.

If you're into World Croquet Federation matches, even less support.

...and so on. That doesn't make any sports better, or worse, but you're probably going to find that there's a more robust ecosystem around the NFL, and you'll have to put in extra work to get people to join you in watching (and following, and talking about) lesser-known sports.

(Of course, one saving grace is the internet- it's always easier to find people remotely due to the ability to find people from a much larger pool.)

 

[Zardnaar]

There is a theory that the more popular something becomes, the more they have to "sell out" what made them good to achieve that popularity. For example, the truest expression of a band is their indie era before they get signed because once they do, they sacrifice their uniqueness for an album and even more for a hit single. It's called Hipster Theory and it exists because people who believe it think popular and good have an inverse relationship.

Couple that with Nostalgia Theory (things were always better in the past, when you first were exposed to something) and you get the Grand Unified Theory of Fandom: the point you discovered something is the peak of that thing's quality and it is destined to only get worse the longer it goes. Bands change sounds, media evolves, etc. The answer is of course a paradox: for something to remain good and "pure", it must die. Bands break up. Games stop getting updates. It lives in a perfect state in our memory, nostalgia buffing off the rough edges. We move on to the Next Thing which goes through the honeymoon of discovery, the disappointment of aging, the death of resentment and the eternal life of memory. Live fast, die young, and leave a good looking corpse.

Bands becoming popular isn't selling out. Changing their sound arguably is.

Not all bands do that either.

 

[HomegrownHydra]

I disagree. It sets their gaming expectations to high. When you start the dial at 11, it's hard to turn it back to a pleasing 6. Always chasing that high.

But I get what you are saying, it's not D&D5E's fault for being a power fantasy. I'm just saying it's sad that some people can't find enjoyment in anything else because other games don't want to make their games so.... player super powered.

You are assuming that people are conditioned by D&D to want a D&D experience rather than people liking D&D because it provides the experience they want.

 

[Zardnaar]

What we need is a return to the era when RPGing was a niche hobby for geeky white guys to establish social dominance through system mastery.

Bring back the gatekeeping! (And chainmail bikinis!)




No, not really.

I would be happy if they used deodorant.

 

[Oofta]

Bands becoming popular isn't selling out. Changing their sound arguably is.

Not all bands do that either.

So changing their sound, being innovative is a bad thing? I thought being innovative was always positive!

On a more serious note, I feel for bands that have people that latch on to a specific song or even album. Sometimes you simply can't catch lightning in a bottle again. On the other hand, there have been bands that I enjoyed in the past that became "uncool" simply because they had a song used in a movie or similar. Some people value being, or at least appearing to be, unique and different more than what band they listen to or products they buy.

 

[HomegrownHydra]

I dont think it's a matter of candy v healthy its more of "I only want candy and am unhappy to try even other kinds of candy because it's not as pink as the one I prefer."

People only have so much free time whereas everyone eats multiple times a day and there is a lot more overhead in learning a new system than eating food that has been put in front of you. That people want to spend their limited free time doing something they know they enjoy rather than learning a new system and doing something they likely won't enjoy as much is not some irrational attitude.

 

[Swanosaurus]

You are assuming that people are conditioned by D&D to want a D&D experience rather than people liking D&D because it provides the experience they want.

Well, I wouldn't assume that just any RPG could be as succesful as D&D by simply conditioning people into liking it.
But I also wouldn't assume that there a naturally occuring D&D-shaped hole in the lives of people and they were just waiting for something exactly like D&D to fill it.
Obviously, there is some reciprocity involved here, and a huge part of it certainly is that D&D just happens to be the dominant RPG (however it became dominant), making it the easiest choice to get into rpgs, and thereby setting assumptions about what RPGs are (and are not) for many people.

 

[Zardnaar]

So changing their sound, being innovative is a bad thing? I thought being innovative was always positive!

On a more serious note, I feel for bands that have people that latch on to a specific song or even album. Sometimes you simply can't catch lightning in a bottle again. On the other hand, there have been bands that I enjoyed in the past that became "uncool" simply because they had a song used in a movie or similar. Some people value being, or at least appearing to be, unique and different more than what band they listen to or products they buy.

Bands should change often its meh but you cant make great 100% of the time.

On radio you only hear 90s bands greatest hits. Some still release new albums though and some of them are even good eg Alice in Chains, Garbage.

Others like Pearl Jam maybe should have stopped a few years back. They only did 1-2 "grunge" albums anyway changed sound and became less popular. They're basically doing what they want though vs pure cash.

 

[Thomas Shey]

People only have so much free time whereas everyone eats multiple times a day and there is a lot more overhead in learning a new system than eating food that has been put in front of you. That people want to spend their limited free time doing something they know they enjoy rather than learning a new system and doing something they likely won't enjoy as much is not some irrational attitude.

Though I have to note the "likely won't enjoy as much" is a big leap, at least for people who've not had any real contact with other systems. That doesn't mean they're required to do so if they're enjoying D&D enough, but just because they find D&D okay doesn't mean it may not be worth it to find out if they'd like something better.

 

[Swanosaurus]

People only have so much free time whereas everyone eats multiple times a day and there is a lot more overhead in learning a new system than eating food that has been put in front of you. That people want to spend their limited free time doing something they know they enjoy rather than learning a new system and doing something they likely won't enjoy as much is not some irrational attitude.

Yes. But players implicitly telling their GM "I know that you would rather spend your time preparing and running other rpgs, but really, as a player, I can't even be bothered to take the time to and approach them with an open mind" is a pretty dismissive attitude as well. Usually it is the GM who has to do most of the work, often down to explaining the rules to and managing them for everyone at the table. So maybe people could stop whining about their dwarf druid and just say "Okay, I give it a go, maybe it's different, but who knows, I might like it; as long as I don't have to do more than show up for sessions and roll the dice when the GM tells me to."