TheSword
Legend
Which is why it’s pointless discussing value in terms of what people can afford, because it’s an utterly arbitrary consideration.The cost could be more or less significant to different people depending on their income, and how much of it they are willing/able to allot to hobbies and leisure activities. The cost/benefit ratio may be very heavily weighted in favor of benefit for you, and equally weighted in favor of cost to someone else.
Instead value can be based on comparison to other hobbies - take films, war games, fishing, following a sports team, knitting, painting, cooking, travelling, the gym… DND in its simplest form is cheaper than all of those. Advances in tech have made it even cheaper. My £30 purchase on Roll 20 can be viewed simultaneously by all
my players at their leisure. It’s cheaper now than it ever was to play this game in real terms.
We can diss WotC about a lot of things but making the hobby expensive or price gouging isn’t one of them.