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

[Dausuul]

I hate to imagine that 50 years later, Corporate Gary has won out over Hobbyist Gary in the end. But that's what it looks like. And through no real effort on WotC's part, either, even though it's obviously in their interest.

Much of the DIY culture in early D&D arose because--to put it bluntly--the rules were an insane mess. You had to hack them up and retool them if you wanted a good game. On top of that, TSR itself released all kinds of variations and customized rulesets, starting with the Basic/Advanced split, so even if you were determined to play by the book, you still had to decide which book to play by! The DIY culture was simply making a virtue of necessity.

Over the last three editions, however, Wizards has steadily improved D&D's ability to work out of the box. 3E standardized the ruleset; 4E got a handle on balance; 5E streamlined chargen. You no longer need a binder full of house rules to make the game work. And so now a whole lot of people are playing by-the-book 5E, and it is no longer taken for granted that every table is going to have its own customized game.

This isn't because Wizards has gotten more corporate. It's because they've done a better job! They made the game better and this is the result.

Now, it is an unfortunate truth about humans that many people like to condemn anyone who does things differently. Thus we hear a lot of cries that DIYers are perpetrating badwrongfun on their playgroups. Which sucks. But remember that just because you see it on social media, doesn't mean it's a majority view, or even a substantial minority. Social media amplifies the loud and obnoxious few over the quiet and reasonable many.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I had the weirdest interaction with someone who was thumping their chest about DMing for five whole years and they seemed genuinely horrified that people were changing the rules, using homebrew stuff, and making house rules. It was an incredibly odd moment of dissonance.

A lot o' people don't realize what's really going on. They view life as a bunch o' unconnected incidents 'n things. They don't realize that there's this, like, lattice o' coincidence that lays on top o' everything. Give you an example; show you what I mean: suppose you're thinkin' about a thief-acrobat. Suddenly someone'll say, like, thief, or acrobat, or thief-acrobat out of the blue, no explanation. No point in lookin' for one, either. It's all part of a cosmic unconsciousness.

 

[fearsomepirate]

Now, it is an unfortunate truth about humans that many people like to condemn anyone who does things differently. Thus we hear a lot of cries that DIYers are perpetrating badwrongfun on their playgroups. Which sucks. But remember that just because you see it on social media, doesn't mean it's a majority view, or even a substantial minority. Social media amplifies the loud and obnoxious few over the quiet and reasonable many.

Whoa whoa whoa. You're saying different can be better? This sounds like crazy talk.

 

[HJFudge]

Now, it is an unfortunate truth about humans that many people like to condemn anyone who does things differently. Thus we hear a lot of cries that DIYers are perpetrating badwrongfun on their playgroups. Which sucks. But remember that just because you see it on social media, doesn't mean it's a majority view, or even a substantial minority. Social media amplifies the loud and obnoxious few over the quiet and reasonable many.

This is certainly true that social media tends to amplify the loudest, most persistent voices. However the converse I guess would be 'just because you see it on social media, doesn't mean it ISN'T a majority view'.

In other words, its not just my social media experiences that have led me to agree with the idea that there is a very insistent group of players who are overly focused on 'officialness'. Heck, I got told just the other day on here that having any sort of time travel in my campaign meant I wasn't playing D&D. You see things like this in any group of 'fans', where they try and assert dominance and ownership of the thing they are fans of, because they've tied so much of their identity up into the idea that "Im a <x> fan" whether that x be D&D, star wars, a music group/genre, a book series, whatever. And while perhaps a bit off topic, it is why I sometimes get real uncomfortable with fanfics.

As to the OP's point of selling out, as others have said: That happened a long time ago. And while most use the term as a pejorative, I would not in this case. It's a company, it's trying to make money, it is what companies do. At this point we've several rule sets to pick from when it comes to D&D (I prefer 4E or 13th Age) and they are all pretty customizable. So even the continued commercial success of D&D doesn't really matter to me, personally. It gains me so little since I almost never use official settings.

 

[Dausuul]

This is certainly true that social media tends to amplify the loudest, most persistent voices. However the converse I guess would be 'just because you see it on social media, doesn't mean it ISN'T a majority view'.

In other words, its not just my social media experiences that have led me to agree with the idea that there is a very insistent group of players who are overly focused on 'officialness'. Heck, I got told just the other day on here...

ENWorld is just as much social media as Twitter and Facebook, and subject to the same dynamics. How many threads have you seen that have maybe 10 pages of discussion, followed by 90 pages of the same five people rehashing the same argument over and over?

The mods keep this place from turning into the cesspool you see on many of the bigger sites, but the loudest voices still tend to dominate (he said, loudly).

 

[Zardnaar]

Gen-X isn't holier-than-thou about anything. It's a defining feature.

Ah see I disagree. "We didn't do it" isn't the same as "We blame everyone else for doing it." To Gen-X, it's just a thing that's happened. Maybe someone is to blame, maybe nobody is to blame, we just know we didn't do it.

Gen X is more about telling everyone to F off and up yours to "the man".

Until you but a house/have kids etc.

 

[Hussar]

Right here on EN World, there was a thousand-post thread not too long ago where one side of the argument seemed to be arguing that it's not okay to disallow officially published races or classes in your home campaign because reasons.

Well, yes, this is true, if you actually ignore the actual arguments being made in favor of the arguments that you fashion in your own head and probably the primary reason WHY that thread was a thousand posts long. It's less about orthodoxy and more about folks failing basic reading skills.

 

[Hussar]

Gen X is more about telling everyone to F off and up yours to "the man".

Until you but a house/have kids etc.

Saw a comment the other day that resonated. When The Simpsons first came on, it was a condemnation of post-Reaganomics America in the same vein as something like Rosanne. Now, these shows are aspirational. You can afford a house, three kids and a stay at home wife with a high school education? Good luck with that. What was once seen as lower class, near poverty living, is seen as an impossible to achieve dream in today's economy.

 

[Zardnaar]

Saw a comment the other day that resonated. When The Simpsons first came on, it was a condemnation of post-Reaganomics America in the same vein as something like Rosanne. Now, these shows are aspirational. You can afford a house, three kids and a stay at home wife with a high school education? Good luck with that. What was once seen as lower class, near poverty living, is seen as an impossible to achieve dream in today's economy.

Yeah we're watching Simpsons atm off and on. Did season 6-8.


My country doing better than most in a lot if things but that's a similar problem. Housing crisis California style with prices surging up to 20% overall 40% in some places. Per year.

OSR D&D fantasy. You can buy a house/castle.

 

[Scribe]

Now, these shows are aspirational. You can afford a house, three kids and a stay at home wife with a high school education? Good luck with that. What was once seen as lower class, near poverty living, is seen as an impossible to achieve dream in today's economy.

So funny, this thread had me thinking of a conversation with a friend years ago. Discussing home ownership (he was just moving out to live with his GF) I had to break down how unattainable it was going to be for him as he had never looked at the numbers.

No way I could buy into a home today, even 12 years ago, vastly different environment.