D&D 5E Sell Out: Hasbro and the Soul of D&D

[payn]

So, TSR didn't want to be Duran Duran, they wanted to be Roland?

That makes some amount of sense.

I'd see the system as the instrument, the settings and modules are just sheet music. Organized play is just company supported lesson sessions.

 

[darjr]

Uh... let’s post a provocative title, then a huge, possibly good or even great, wall of text, then complain about knee jerk responses?
You guaranteed the very thing you lament.

but, it isn’t an excuse on my part, meaculpa (or whatever)

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Oh, no, I’m not blaming Gen X for destroying the economic future. I’m 100% blaming the Boomers for it. I’m just expressing jealousy that Gen X had the opportunity to gain a modicum of financial stability before the economy imploded, and consternation at their holier-than-thou attitude about “selling out”

From the OP:

Whether you think about the protest against selling out in terms of 90s slackers, or 70s punks, or 60s beatniks

Selling out as a concept, comes from the late 1800s (think of La Boheme ... weird, huh, given I name-dropped Rent); it's not for nothing that when you think of Kerouac, one passage that leaps to mind is, "Better to sleep in an uncomfortable bed free, than sleep in a comfortable bed unfree.”

Thinking that GenX was the origin of the protest against commercialization, as opposed to the last dying breath, is ... an interesting take.

 

[billd91]

Oh, no, I’m not blaming Gen X for destroying the economic future. I’m 100% blaming the Boomers for it. I’m just expressing jealousy that Gen X had the opportunity to gain a modicum of financial stability before the economy imploded, and consternation at their holier-than-thou attitude about “selling out”

News to me. We weathered big recessions in the 1990s and the 2000s so exactly what financial stability we were supposed to gain and then get holier-than-thou about selling out is a mystery to me.
I'm also not sure the critics are right that Rent speaks to Gen-X like Hair spoke to Boomers. Avenue Q seems a better fit to me, honestly.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

News to me. We weathered big recessions in the 1990s and the 2000s so exactly what financial stability we were supposed to gain and then get holier-than-thou about selling out is a mystery to me.
I'm also not sure the critics are right that Rent speaks to Gen-X like Hair spoke to Boomers. Avenue Q seems a better fit to me, honestly.

Well, except that Avenue Q is post-9/11 (it premiered in 2003).

 

[DEFCON 1]

As is most often the case... it really all just comes down to one thing. Ego.

The people who actually care and get upset when something has "sold out" are doing so because they've tied their ego to the item or person or thing. They believe with all their heart and soul and mind that the person / item / thing is theirs (even though it's actually not.)

But then when the true owner / creator of said thing does something with it that goes away from the person who cares... that person's ego can't handle that they're being "abandoned" and they feel betrayed.

Well, hate to break it to you... but too bad. It never actually was yours to begin with, you only fooled yourself into thinking it was. So your ego has to take the hit and should take the hit and no one should feel bad for you that you are taking the hit.

And yes... that includes D&D and the rules therein. They ain't yours.

 

[billd91]

Well, except that AvenueQ is post-9/11 (is premiered in 2003).

So? It's also primarily written by Gen-Xers while Rent was primarily written by Boomers.

 

[Charlaquin]

Thinking that GenX was the origin of the protest against commercialization, as opposed to the last dying breath, is ... an interesting take.

I don’t. I used a simple metaphor to explain why the concept doesn’t resonate with people beyond Gen X.

 

[prabe]

I'd see the system as the instrument, the settings and modules are just sheet music. Organized play is just company supported lesson sessions.

I was always more comfortable doing originals than playing covers, and I'm more comfortable running homebrew than published settings/adventures. Unsurprisingly, I didn't think of either end of your sheet music metaphor, and went straight for an instrument maker (that was big in the 1980s).

 

[Charlaquin]

News to me. We weathered big recessions in the 1990s and the 2000s so exactly what financial stability we were supposed to gain and then get holier-than-thou about selling out is a mystery to me.

I did say “a modicum of.” Obviously Gen X also got dealt an awful hand financially, but you were still better-poised to take advantage of the rapidly deteriorating social safety net than we (millennials) were, and we in turn were better poised than the poor Zoomers are now.

I'm also not sure the critics are right that Rent speaks to Gen-X like Hair spoke to Boomers. Avenue Q seems a better fit to me, honestly.

Yeah, I agree.