I like the release of actual sales figures for the Starter Set. 126,000 in North America in 2014 (from the July release); 306,000 in North America in 2018. I wonder what we can extrapolate from that!
Really, it's similar to cooking a meal for a bunch of friends versus going out to a restaurant together: but this feels weird, like witnessing the first restaurants come into being. Absolutely nothing wrong with it, just alien to the down-home DMing I'm used to.
That's a good way to put it.
To further the analogy: the articles I've read seem to focus on the ambiance of the restaurant, the music that's played, the parking, the aesthetics. But I can't help but wonder is all that to make up for bad food?
Except there is a fundamental difference between a cooking show and serving a meal.
In a home game my primary audience is the players. If I was streaming a game my primary target is the audience, since the more of them I get the more money I make.
It may be possible to serve both groups at one time, but I do think focusing on one comes at the expense of the other.
For example, I think Critical Role is a pretty decent show, though I prefer HarmonTown because t's funnier, and shorter. But out of the two I'd rather play in the Critical Role campaign. But compared to a homegame, I don't think critical role is that good because the DM and Players are fundamentally performers performing for an outside audience rather than making the choices that are most fun for the people at the table.
Still I suppose it's possible that this DM's stream is exactly like what I would experience if I paid for a session with them.
Good point! I still think it's most like professional event planning, though. I'd absolutely hire someone to throw a really good party.
This is where the analogy breaks down, IMO. It's easy to write about how food tastes in a fairly brief article, and people pay for mediocre food all the time.
People aren't going to go back to that DM is the experience isn't good, and it isn't that easy to explain to people who don't play dnd what even makes a good game. Everyone eats. We all know roughly what "too salty" means, even if we don't share the same threshold for defining the phrase exactly.
Actually, on the contrary, I'd say that Critical Role's success is largely in that they are playing for each other and ignoring the audience while in game.
That's old enough: the service economy wasn't the dominant paradigm yet.Not quite. I am a child of the 70s - born in the mid 60s. I was right in the middle of the transition.
I thought of another example. Mercer will have all but one of the players leave the room so secret backstory stuff can happen. This can last up to a half hour. If I did that it would kill my home game.
I do in fact see it happen with a table I'm a player at. You can see everyone but the player involve lose interest and get on their phones for up to 10 minutes while the DM elaborates on the intricate part of the characters story arc and it's always an effort to get everyone pack into the game. I know it's a habit this DM picked up from watching streaming games.
That is actually an example of something taken from their home game that Matt was worried wouldn’t work in a stream, and thus didn’t use it in the first stream campaign. He used to go into another room with that player, but same thing.
In my home game, this has been a thing for at least a decade. Generally we work it into a snack and pee break. (Smoke break back in the day, but none of us smoke these days)
That's old enough: the service economy wasn't the dominant paradigm yet.
Quite right. Sorry about that.Morrus said:The pro DM discussion has arisen twice a year for the last 20 years at least.