I don't see why that would change. Many DMs, like myself, enjoy DMing for friends but would never "go pro". Just because there's professional [insert just about any hobby or activity] doesn't mean people don't still do it just for fun.
D&D 5E How many players would use a service like this
- Thread starter Thomas Rainsborough
- Start date
I don't see why that would change. Many DMs, like myself, enjoy DMing for friends but would never "go pro". Just because there's professional [insert just about any hobby or activity] doesn't mean people don't still do it just for fun.
Going Pro is a pretty miserable experience. The biggest issue is slowly developing a healthy stable of reliable and reasonable clients who make the experience of running the game a moderately tolerable (and potentially even fun) one. But that takes time. Often a long time. Between then and now you have to handle full customer service issues, entitled crazies, and all manner of trap door spiders who seem reasonable during the initial player interview process, then transform into CR 26 monsters at the table.
That early development phase can take years, and it sucks. And especially today, $25 per player for a 4-5 hour game is barely enough to make ends meet even if you run the same campaign across multiple days with different player groups.
/rant
That early development phase can take years, and it sucks. And especially today, $25 per player for a 4-5 hour game is barely enough to make ends meet even if you run the same campaign across multiple days with different player groups.
/rant
MichaelSomething
Legend
If people are sure such a thing won't work, then they can sit back and let the free hand of the market take care of the issue...
It CAN work. I've done it. But it's a long and involved process that involves the full might of customer service burnout, combined with self employment tax, and potentially (in my case) turning a hobby you love into something unpleasant. I stopped before I was completely burned out, and regained my love of the hobby. But I have incredible respect for the amount of work it takes to go Pro, the emotional and financial consequences that entails, and facing an environment that doesn't think your efforts are worth much (because they are often available for free).
But I agree the free market will handle things as usual.
Vaalingrade
Legend
It is a game about imaginary things, after all!
Ondath
Hero
The problem is precisely that when the free hand starts reorganising things that were originally without a profit motive, good parts of that thing that are not profitable start to disappear. We've seen it with the video game industry where AAA games have become soulless samey stuff, and I'd really rather DMing didn't get the same treatment.
Paul Farquhar
Legend
It is doing, and has been since the 1970s. That's why we don't see much of it. There are very few people who are willing to pay anything approaching the rates required for a paid DM to break even, never mind make significant profits.
There are many times when it is necessary to redirect market forces (which are essentially blind), but this aint one of them. Nothing has essentially changed to make pro-DMing more viable now than it was in the 70s.
My mother used to sell her artwork. Everything she made she used to buy materials to create more art. The hobby paid for itself, but never made any kind of profit. I can't see paid DMing ever going beyond that point.
There is more creativity and diversity in the video game industry than there ever has been, simply because the barrier to entry is so low and access is so high. I don't think we have to worry about some pro DM conglomerate squeezing out the little guy running quirky campaigns or anything.
You may have heard of this thing called the internet...
Paul Farquhar
Legend
Yeah. I don't believe that it has much effect, other than making it more likely that people would actually get to hear about paid DMing. Even if you were running an online game and had significant demand, you can't DM multiple games at the same time, and a game of D&D lasts upwards of three hours. You earn more flipping burgers in McDonalds. And on-line play makes it easier to find a DM who doesn't want paying.
