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The Monetization of D&D and other Role Playing Games
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<blockquote data-quote="Willie the Duck" data-source="post: 8718783" data-attributes="member: 6799660"><p>Fundamentally , I agree with Oofta's point that people want to make money, and that people want to be able to buy things that give them pleasure. Also to point out that D&D, like all other leisure activities, is entirely an optional luxury product -- if you cannot afford it, you should not buy it (and, conveniently, there are massively multiple ways to play TTRPGs without spending a dime). D&D is also pretty good about things in that, while that accessory material does open new doors to the game, it is imminently playable with only the basic or even only the free material. Compare that to a lot of recent video games* that are theoretically cheap or free, but if you don't drop several times the starting cost on DLC, you basically can't complete them.</p><p><span style="font-size: 9px">*From what I hear. my personal knowledge ends in the SNES era</span></p><p></p><p>Regarding NFTs and collectables: look, collectables in generable are a confidence game people play on themselves (often with help from others). Every economics course will tell you the same thing -- unless you are gambling on being the outlier, there is a better return on taking the funds you would put to collecting and instead put it in diversified stocks over the same time period. Sure, we all know the guy who had went back to their childhood baseball/basketball/MtG collections and found that Willie Mays/Michael Jordan/Black Lotus* card and sold it for a mint, but that's selectively neglecting the 49 other people you know that dropped serious money on Spellfire cards, Beanie Babies, or Death of Superman issue thinking that would be the next great thing. Unless you enjoy the process, collecting is foolish, and I've yet to meet anyone who enjoyed the process of collecting NFTS (except when they thought that made them the smartest person in the room, see how well that went in the long run...).</p><p><span style="font-size: 9px">*I don't know how old people here are, so I'm doing an assortment</span></p><p></p><p>Regarding luxury gaming products -- Here I mean the gilded mahogany gaming tables and such (not an investment, just a high-value purchase). I have odd mixed feelings about this. I am a manager in a tech department, and I have a lot of people below me that are young, well-compensated nerd-aligned individuals, and boy do some of them spend on these kind of things. I have noticed over the past decade or so some behavior I would summarize as <em>"I didn't know this product exists, but now it is something I have wanted my whole life,"</em> and also, <em>"two other guys at work have one of these, I have now convinced myself I am lessor for not having one."</em> In a small way, this makes me upset, because, even at their income, this (along with the non-gaming related things where this behavior shows up, such as in cars) is clearly going to come out of the saving for retirement, first house/upgrade from bachelor pad when they decide to family-up. However, it is not my job (or my place) to tell them what to do with their own damn money, and as I said, it's not exclusive to luxury gaming products.</p><p></p><p>On a lower tier, there's just the whole D&D branded can cozies, caps, t-shirts, ampersand waffle irons*, dice bags, posters, and so forth. These... well, it's the same stuff you have for your alma mater or your favorite local sportsball team -- you want to advertise that you are part of team <fandom> even when you aren't actually doing said fandom activity. I lump this under conspicuous consumption that is probably not the best use of your money, but eh, you probably aren't breaking your own budget to do so.</p><p><span style="font-size: 9px">*probably don't exist, and would be one of the few things I would buy just because the idea amuses me.</span></p><p></p><p>Back to D&D/TTRPGs as a DIY hobby -- From he get-go, there have been people who have grabbed the core rules, never bought anything else, and gone on to homebrew amazing things. There have also been people who buy everything that comes out, as it comes out. There have also been, since day one, people who have fallen in love with the hobby and decided <em>'there's got to be a way to make my living doing this.'</em> And there's always been just a few too many people with that idea compared to how much people really need to spend to play the game. That's why being an indie game developer is (on average) a pretty risky venture, but also why there are so many more kickstarters for resin products and fancy dice and knick-knacks and so on than just games.</p><p></p><p></p><p>For me, the real heartbreaker is all these art students (or self-taughts in the same vein) that post a fantasy art picture on reddit wanting you to then commission them to draw yours as well. Each one seems to have made about three sales, are spamming the gaming reddits (and annoying the heck out of everyone that isn't interested), and don't seem to be making a living (or even recouping the efforts the spend on selling themselves) off the deal.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Should we send our condolences to your spouse, or is this their secret plan to have the rest of the house to themselves? <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite7" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue :p" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":p" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Willie the Duck, post: 8718783, member: 6799660"] Fundamentally , I agree with Oofta's point that people want to make money, and that people want to be able to buy things that give them pleasure. Also to point out that D&D, like all other leisure activities, is entirely an optional luxury product -- if you cannot afford it, you should not buy it (and, conveniently, there are massively multiple ways to play TTRPGs without spending a dime). D&D is also pretty good about things in that, while that accessory material does open new doors to the game, it is imminently playable with only the basic or even only the free material. Compare that to a lot of recent video games* that are theoretically cheap or free, but if you don't drop several times the starting cost on DLC, you basically can't complete them. [SIZE=1]*From what I hear. my personal knowledge ends in the SNES era[/SIZE] Regarding NFTs and collectables: look, collectables in generable are a confidence game people play on themselves (often with help from others). Every economics course will tell you the same thing -- unless you are gambling on being the outlier, there is a better return on taking the funds you would put to collecting and instead put it in diversified stocks over the same time period. Sure, we all know the guy who had went back to their childhood baseball/basketball/MtG collections and found that Willie Mays/Michael Jordan/Black Lotus* card and sold it for a mint, but that's selectively neglecting the 49 other people you know that dropped serious money on Spellfire cards, Beanie Babies, or Death of Superman issue thinking that would be the next great thing. Unless you enjoy the process, collecting is foolish, and I've yet to meet anyone who enjoyed the process of collecting NFTS (except when they thought that made them the smartest person in the room, see how well that went in the long run...). [SIZE=1]*I don't know how old people here are, so I'm doing an assortment[/SIZE] Regarding luxury gaming products -- Here I mean the gilded mahogany gaming tables and such (not an investment, just a high-value purchase). I have odd mixed feelings about this. I am a manager in a tech department, and I have a lot of people below me that are young, well-compensated nerd-aligned individuals, and boy do some of them spend on these kind of things. I have noticed over the past decade or so some behavior I would summarize as [I]"I didn't know this product exists, but now it is something I have wanted my whole life,"[/I] and also, [I]"two other guys at work have one of these, I have now convinced myself I am lessor for not having one."[/I] In a small way, this makes me upset, because, even at their income, this (along with the non-gaming related things where this behavior shows up, such as in cars) is clearly going to come out of the saving for retirement, first house/upgrade from bachelor pad when they decide to family-up. However, it is not my job (or my place) to tell them what to do with their own damn money, and as I said, it's not exclusive to luxury gaming products. On a lower tier, there's just the whole D&D branded can cozies, caps, t-shirts, ampersand waffle irons*, dice bags, posters, and so forth. These... well, it's the same stuff you have for your alma mater or your favorite local sportsball team -- you want to advertise that you are part of team <fandom> even when you aren't actually doing said fandom activity. I lump this under conspicuous consumption that is probably not the best use of your money, but eh, you probably aren't breaking your own budget to do so. [SIZE=1]*probably don't exist, and would be one of the few things I would buy just because the idea amuses me.[/SIZE] Back to D&D/TTRPGs as a DIY hobby -- From he get-go, there have been people who have grabbed the core rules, never bought anything else, and gone on to homebrew amazing things. There have also been people who buy everything that comes out, as it comes out. There have also been, since day one, people who have fallen in love with the hobby and decided [I]'there's got to be a way to make my living doing this.'[/I] And there's always been just a few too many people with that idea compared to how much people really need to spend to play the game. That's why being an indie game developer is (on average) a pretty risky venture, but also why there are so many more kickstarters for resin products and fancy dice and knick-knacks and so on than just games. For me, the real heartbreaker is all these art students (or self-taughts in the same vein) that post a fantasy art picture on reddit wanting you to then commission them to draw yours as well. Each one seems to have made about three sales, are spamming the gaming reddits (and annoying the heck out of everyone that isn't interested), and don't seem to be making a living (or even recouping the efforts the spend on selling themselves) off the deal. Should we send our condolences to your spouse, or is this their secret plan to have the rest of the house to themselves? :p [/QUOTE]
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