I'm going to go ahead and sound like the sour old bastard I am here. Basically, the "news" here is that some rich and famous people just got substantially richer, and will become even more famous.
Whenever I hear a news headline that amounts to "stupendously popular thing gets a million dollars in less than an hour" my thought is almost always "why am I supposed to be happy about that?".
They got rich and famous in the first place for...streaming themselves playing D&D while being voice actors? Meh. I don't feel like I'm going out a limb when I say I've played better D&D with better D&D players. As a matter of fact, a couple of them were probably better voice actors, too, in spite of that not being their vocation. Is this supposed to be some kind of triumph for the game of D&D or the gaming hobby? Again...meh. What I care about is actually playing D&D. When I walk into a game store and there are eight tables with eight DMs packed with eight or more people each, that's what I care about, and 5th Edition has already done that. I don't think this is going to grow D&D. I think it's going to grow the ranks of non-gamers who lurk on the periphery of the hobby now that it has some social cache, watching streams or whatever.
Are we excited because a D&D related thing is going to maybe be the biggest Kickstarter ever? I guess that I can see being exciting at least a little bit. It's still an obscene amount of money that would help society more if it were put anywhere else, with the exceptions of professional sports and various political lobbies.
I'm just jealous of Critical Role? OBVIOUSLY I'm jealous of Critical Role. Did you read the topic title? They made A MILLION ACTUAL DOLLARS IN AN HOUR. If you're not jealous of that, I think you're probably certifiable.
So they're going to make a D&D cartoon? Again...meh. I'm not 12. That's money that could go towards real things where it's far more sorely needed if nerds weren't throwing it at other nerds to make nerd stuff. There are exceptions, I will admit. If something that I have been a rabid fan of for years is also something I've perceived as a genuine underdog, or underappreciated, then I will climb on the hype train and toot the horn as loudly as possible. The first and last example of that I can think of, off the top of my head, is Delta Green.
Okay, let me also throw in a "bah, humbug!" for good measure and I'm done grinching for the moment. Don't even bother responding to this post. Scrooge McDuck will remove himself from the premises and you can resume your jubilation and fiscal speculation.
