Critical Role Critical Role's Kickstarter Breaks $1,000,000 In About An Hour!

BookBarbarian · Mar 12, 2019

CleverNickName said:
Someone called "The Gatekeeper" once told me that I wasn't a "real" grognard. Maybe that's what he was talking about? I dunno, I was trying to listen to Critical Role and ended up tuning him out.

Someone called "The Gatekeeper" once asked me if I was "The Keymaster".

Things got pretty weird after that.

AndrÃ© Soares · Mar 12, 2019

CleverNickName said:
Someone called "The Gatekeeper" once told me that I wasn't a "real" grognard. Maybe that's what he was talking about? I dunno, I was trying to listen to Critical Role and ended up tuning him out.

I love that a person called "The Gatekeeper" was gatekeeping you... Makes sense

Bagpuss · Mar 12, 2019

and Polygon's take on it...

https://www.polygon.com/2019/3/11/18256668/critical-role-kickstarter-animated

Critical Role is too white.

:erm:

AndrÃ© Soares · Mar 12, 2019

Bagpuss said:
and Polygon's take on it...

https://www.polygon.com/2019/3/11/18256668/critical-role-kickstarter-animated

Critical Role is too white.

well, they are not worng. I found the article to be interesting, and it's a good thing to bring up this kind of discussions. I really liked the info about the hobby and how much money there's in it. The only thing I think they didn't do in the article is mention that CR is trying to shoutout small RPG kickstarters, and more diverse games...

CleverNickName · Mar 12, 2019

Bagpuss said:
and Polygon's take on it...

https://www.polygon.com/2019/3/11/18256668/critical-role-kickstarter-animated

Critical Role is too white.

There's a lot to unpack in that article.
Yes, "Critical Role’s massive crowdfunding success is kickstarting some interesting conversations."
It's clearly kickstarting some rather boring ones too.

The Polygon Article said:
According to industry publication ICV2, retail sales of TTRPGs accounted for only $55 million of the $1.5 billion hobby games category in 2017. If those estimates are true, then Critical Role has already earned more than 12 percent of the revenue of the entire TTRPG retail sector in just a few days.

How much of that will Wizards of The Coast (WoTC), publisher of Dungeons & Dragons, receive? According to Critical Role’s Kickstarter page, nothing.

*groan*

Parmandur · Mar 12, 2019

AndrÃ© Soares said:
well, they are not worng. I found the article to be interesting, and it's a good thing to bring up this kind of discussions. I really liked the info about the hobby and how much money there's in it. The only thing I think they didn't do in the article is mention that CR is trying to shoutout small RPG kickstarters, and more diverse games...

Critical Role has been extremely diverse in guests they have brought on the show, and several of the cast members would not have been accepted as "white" a few decades ago.

CleverNickName · Mar 12, 2019

Parmandur said:
Critical Role has been extremely diverse in guests they have brought on the show, and several of the cast members would not have been accepted as "white" a few decades ago.

The core cast of Critical Role is diverse in ways that a lot of other similar content creators aren't. Nearly half the cast is female. Taliesin came out as bisexual back in 2017. Like [MENTION=6780330]Parmandur[/MENTION] said: they have been extremely diverse with the guests to the show, as well. The cast is white, but I wouldn't say they lack diversity.

gyor · Mar 12, 2019

Who cares, diversity is good, but as long as they didn't discriminate against anybody, it's fine if it's not. Japanese movies, Bollywood Movies and so on aren't exactly know for racial diversity, no one complains. Don't get me wrong, I like diversity, but not everything has to have it, they have mistreated no one.

Hussar · Mar 12, 2019

CleverNickName said:
There's a lot to unpack in that article.
Yes, "Critical Role’s massive crowdfunding success is kickstarting some interesting conversations."
It's clearly kickstarting some rather boring ones too.

*groan*

Wow, it's almost like people deliberately cherry pick quotes and ignore context. The fact that the article spends about half the time fanbois gushing over Critical Role doesn't seem to matter. They said something bad about CR??!!?!?!? THEY MUST BE CRUSHED!!!!!

Gimme a break.

Here's the full quote that [MENTION=50987]CleverNickName[/MENTION] left out:

According to industry publication ICV2, retail sales of TTRPGs accounted for only $55 million of the $1.5 billion hobby games category in 2017. If those estimates are true, then Critical Role has already earned more than 12 percent of the revenue of the entire TTRPG retail sector in just a few days.

How much of that will Wizards of The Coast (WoTC), publisher of Dungeons & Dragons, receive? According to Critical Role’s Kickstarter page, nothing.

Now, don’t get bent out of shape on WoTC’s behalf. It’s sitting on the most iconic franchise in TTRPG history, one that’s incidentally enjoying the biggest growth period in its history. The reason for that success? D&D’s designers tell me that it’s streamers like Critical Role.

But when one group of streamers, all by themselves, start pulling down more than 12 percent of the revenue generated by the entire hobby, people start to get anxious. That’s why there’s been a lot of chatter on social media about this project.

And, an even more telling couple of quotes:

This doesn't mean that the designers hate Critical Role, the people behind it, or their fans. They're just upset some streamers make more money off RPGs than the people who actually make the games, and fans don't support the designers the same way they do streamers.

So who are the most popular actual play performers out there? Comparative numbers are impossible to come by, but if we dig just a bit into the comments from the Diana Jones folks, we can begin to form a list. They mention Critical Role, of course, but also The Adventure Zone from the McElroy family. There’s also Maze Arcana, the Acquisitions, Inc. performances from Penny Arcade, and the One Shot and Campaigns podcasts on the One Shot Network.

Taken in the aggregate, all of these shows have something in common: They’re all pretty white. While women are well represented in the most popular actual play experiences, people of color are not. In fact, the team behind the Critical Role Kickstarter may be the least racially diverse group of the bunch.

“Nobody is ‘turning’ on critical role,” writes a TTRPG podcaster. “If you think that pointing out that things could and should have diversity especially with the ability the cast has to promote it is ‘turning’ on them then i really don’t know what to tell you. ppl have been pointing it out for years.”

By and large, the tenor of the conversation is that the folks behind Critical Role are good people. They’ve done incredible work to carve out a niche for themselves, and in so doing they’ve helped legitimize the hobby of role-playing.

But they could, and should, also do better.

So, [MENTION=6670153]gyor[/MENTION], if your models for diversity are Japanese or Indian cinema, well, I really don't know what to say.

No one is "getting out the pitchforks". It's a comment that yes, as a public entertainment, some of us at least think that diversity is important. Is CR doing well? Absolutely. Does that mean that they get an automatic free pass just because we like them? Nope.

CleverNickName · Mar 12, 2019

My apologies, I didn't mean to imply that racial diversity wasn't important.

Critical Role Critical Role's Kickstarter Breaks $1,000,000 In About An Hour!

BookBarbarian

Expert Long Rester

AndrÃ© Soares

Guest

Bagpuss

Legend

AndrÃ© Soares

Guest

CleverNickName

Limit Break Dancing

Parmandur

Book-Friend

CleverNickName

Limit Break Dancing

gyor

Legend

Hussar

Legend

CleverNickName

Limit Break Dancing

Similar Threads

Related Articles