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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Vanveen" data-source="post: 7743106" data-attributes="member: 6874262">I'd argue it's not so much about politics as it is about framing. But I do psych research, so. People associate Starbucks with a negative experience...and they judge it as negative because millions of people sent strong signals that it is negative. As apes who somehow learned to go to space, we still spend most of our time figuring out the world by looking at what the other apes are doing and how they feel about things.pming has got it right. Positioning the book as "Mordenkainen's" is intended to evoke a range of associations with branded D and D product, just as that famous white ribbon (and even a certain shade of red) evokes Coca-Cola. Much of this association happens at an unconscious or preconscious level--you don't think it's working, but it is, just not on a level you can think about using language. Many people resist this--"Ads have no effect on me!" But they do. Brand-focused advertising works, which is why you see so much of it. It doesn't work as well as advertisers want it to, a subtle distinction, but believe me it works. I've often said that 5e is a much better *product*, but not really a better *game* than the OSR. I don't like the "specified" or "precooked" flavor of much 5e products. "Gnomes are like this: here's what they say and do in great detail. Oh, and if you like gnomes, go read the adventures of Burglebut Arcanafeather, wacky steampunk tinker illusionist, in these 57 novels!" For a DM like me who spends a lot of time building emotionally resonant settings based on archetypes, this kind of thing is worthless at best, completely irritating at worst. It's crap by hacks, frankly. This stuff doesn't have to be great art, although it'd be nice to see someone try, but a lot of times it's like going to some hick high school play. With, inexplicably, $40 tickets.I'd prefer to think of the game as software. The rules are Linux (they'd have to be more complete and stable to get to Linux status, but I digress). The "programs" and "apps" are where you put all the meta-decisions about what gnomes are like (and where you make your money, not with trickling out "updates" to the OS that should have been handled in the first release). This kind of straightforward or "low flavor" rule set, like Gygax's earlier work, supports people like me AND people who are fans of Burglebut. That's healthier for the hobby, I think.</blockquote>

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