D&D 5E Sell Out: Hasbro and the Soul of D&D

[Umbran]

So? It's also primarily written by Gen-Xers while Rent was primarily written by Boomers.

Mostly Boomer, singular. Larson was born in 1960, and died on the day of Rent's first preview performance on Broadway, at the age of 35.

 

[Charlaquin]

If I had to guess, it would be down to the difference between development levels across the world, and how these brackets are defined.

That would be my assumption too, but that’s also kinda covered by calling it Eurocentric, so I was curious if they had a different reason to call it racist or if that was just meant for emphasis.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

My band back in the 90s never sold out...we're also not even a footnote in music history. No one's likely to discover us years down the line. I'm reminded of all the time people spent slinging the word poseur at each other back then, too. We cared way too much about this, with all the surety of youth, in hindsight.

But ... I don't buy the premise. The band you liked is still the same band even after they "Sold out and became popular". D&D is still just a goofy game I play to socialize and have a few laughs.

Growing popularity just means a wider audience, I don't see why it hurts. The games I run won't really change, with a larger audience there will be plenty of room for niches.

But back to the original subject, I don't know that D&D can ever sell out. It's a unique form of art that exists in its fans as much as its creators. Just as D&D in the beginning was monetized from the very beginning, D&D still has a hobbyist core today. It's always going to be a little weird. No matter how many great big epic campaigns Wizards releases, there's always going to be someone that decides that they want to run a world where everyone is a mushroom, or stat up a two-butted dragon to fight their PCs. It's a game that invites creativity in this beautiful perpetual motion machine.

 

[Umbran]

Discussing so-called generational differences is incredibly racist and Eurocentric.

Mod Note:

And joining to post such stuff within minutes is fairly obviously looking for a fight. While you are correct that the typcial generational attributes have issues, this was not the way to start that conversation.

 

[jmartkdr2]

My band back in the 90s never sold out...we're also not even a footnote in music history. No one's likely to discover us years down the line. I'm reminded of all the time people spent slinging the word poseur at each other back then, too. We cared way too much about this, with all the surety of youth, in hindsight.



But back to the original subject, I don't know that D&D can ever sell out. It's a unique form of art that exists in its fans as much as its creators. Just as D&D in the beginning was monetized from the very beginning, D&D still has a hobbyist core today. It's always going to be a little weird. No matter how many great big epic campaigns Wizards releases, there's always going to be someone that decides that they want to run a world where everyone is a mushroom, or stat up a two-butted dragon to fight their PCs. It's a game that invites creativity in this beautiful perpetual motion machine.

I mean, mushroom kingdom attacked by tortles is a classic trope at this point, yes?

 

[Mallus]

D&D, like people, has no soul.

I was going to say the soul of D&D is people, but this works, too!

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

D&D, like people, has no soul.

The ocean's dying. The friendly local games stores are dying.

It's people. Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons is made out of people. They're making our TTRPGS out of people!

You tell everybody. Listen to me el-remmen! You've gotta tell 'em! DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS IS PEOPLE!!!!!!! We gotta stop Hasbro! Somehow!

 

[loverdrive]

The only question that I have on my mind after reading the OP is... "So what?".

Ok, so it's 2030, dinosaurs rule the earth, post-USSR countries still use AK-74M, D&D is officially Fallout 4 tier of sold out naughty word... Aaand? We play Boneheads&Basements. Or Grognard World. Or Forks in the Night.

D&D is a subset of hobby, not even the best specimen ever. And it's not like Hasbro owns the exclusive right to make TTRPGs.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Uh... let’s post a provocative title, then a huge, possibly good or even great, wall of text, then complain about knee jerk responses?
You guaranteed the very thing you lament.

but, it isn’t an excuse on my part, meaculpa (or whatever)

Well, if you look at any recipe posted on the internet, you will always see that the comments have the following:

1. "I didn't have any eggs, so I decided to use left-over lamb chops. It was awful, so the recipe sucks."

2. "I just started a keto diet yesterday; is there anyway to make these decadent chocolate chip cookies without the ingredients or flavor?"

3. "Best recipe ever! I just added my homebrew beer, a little kimchee, some dried star fruit, some hand-picked quinoa from the east side of the Andes, and a few left-over mooseburgers I had from that car accident near Bangor and it was good to go!"

Nevertheless, despite the inevitability of the comments ... people still post their recipes. C'est la vie!

 

[Azzy]

As is most often the case... it really all just comes down to one thing. Ego.

I'd say self-entitlement, but ego goes hand in hand with that.

The people who actually care and get upset when something has "sold out" are doing so because they've tied their ego to the item or person or thing. They believe with all their heart and soul and mind that the person / item / thing is theirs (even though it's actually not.)

But then when the true owner / creator of said thing does something with it that goes away from the person who cares... that person's ego can't handle that they're being "abandoned" and they feel betrayed.

Well, hate to break it to you... but too bad. It never actually was yours to begin with, you only fooled yourself into thinking it was. So your ego has to take the hit and should take the hit and no one should feel bad for you that you are taking the hit.

And yes... that includes D&D and the rules therein. They ain't yours.

Exactly. I was a huge Metallica fan. However, they chose a direction that I didn't care for. Did they sell out? No, I don't believe so (I'd say, instead, that they allowed their producer to have too much say in their musics, but that's just my opinion). If they were happy with the musical direction they took and were writing what they wanted, they weren't selling out—they just chose a direction that didn't interest me. (Though I will slag them for their respose to Napster, but I digress.) ¯\(ツ)/¯

The whole "selling-out" thing is so eyeroll inducing.