EzekielRaiden
Follower of the Way
I don't think there's any real difference, leastwise not a difference that wasn't already present.
With large numbers of new DMs coming in, the knock-on effects of "many new, inexperienced people" are going to be more obvious. I'm sure that, over the next decade, interest in homebrew content will grow. Things like Critical Role, Paizo APs, and Acquisitions Inc. will ensure that some interest in premade content remains, but I think anyone who sits behind the DM screen eventually gets the itch to make things their way.
Pretty sure you have the right of it. Newer DMs are often less confident, so a canned adventure or a premade setting to riff off of are ways to take off some of the pressure. Likewise, everyone has reason to buy reasonable-quality adventure paths just to reduce the overhead, feed nostalgia or see what the "old ways" were like, or other things.Yeah, by and large people start out with book based campaigns and adventures, then move on to creating more specialized settings that are more tailored to the stories they want to tell.
But even us old hats at the game sometimes love to pull out a pre-written adventure to save ourselves time and get right into the fun with our friends.
With large numbers of new DMs coming in, the knock-on effects of "many new, inexperienced people" are going to be more obvious. I'm sure that, over the next decade, interest in homebrew content will grow. Things like Critical Role, Paizo APs, and Acquisitions Inc. will ensure that some interest in premade content remains, but I think anyone who sits behind the DM screen eventually gets the itch to make things their way.