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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 8902545" data-attributes="member: 59082">I remember a year or two ago, when we were all basking in the glow of D&D's unparalleled popularity. Some of us remember the Golden Age of the early 80s, when D&D experienced a similar-in-kind cultural blossoming, though in an era before the internet, and probably to a smaller degree, even adjusting for population increase (at the least, it is more international now, even if the overall player numbers relative to population aren't larger).I vaguely remember little snippets of conversation, regarding why people were happy about D&D's popularity - anything from feeling less ghettoized to the potential benefits that would be reaped: movies, tv shows, and simply more D&D all around.What I don't remember is talk about the potential downside. I'm sure it was discussed somewhere, but I think with OGLGate, we're experiencing it big-time. Increased popularity = more money = corporate interest increases = a game, formerly and mostly run by gamers for gamers becomes a commodity to be traded and sold; a profit-generating product for the rich to get richer on.And woe is us. Actually, I'm reminded of an Alan Watts quote, in which he said something to the effect, "If you want to make changes in your life, never speak it out too loudly, lest you draw the Devil's attention." Or it could be similar to when a person makes it rich and finds out who their true friends are, and who just wants to hang around them for financial perks.So the moral of the story is: Maybe there's such a thing as D&D being too popular. Maybe it isn't as great as we thought it would be.Now hold on a minute! The story is not over; D&D will continue, and no matter what happens, no one can take our books away or prevent us from playing the D&D we want to play. From my cold, dead hands, and all. And furthermore, we don't know how this will play out. Maybe D&D will become better for it; maybe WotC will remember that crucial fact: that it is the fans that make the game what it is, not the stock-holders. Or even if D&D becomes and remains heavily corporatized, maybe other games thrive and new communities are formed, and creativity flourishes.But...it does seem that we are on the cusp of an era in which there will be two RPG worlds: the corporate bubble of D&D and everything else. And ironically, it may be that we long-timers will be re-ghettoized as outsiders. But the main point, and to repeat the moral of the story: Maybe there's such a thing as too big? Maybe there's a happy medium in which D&D thrives, but doesn't become so large that corporate culture and ideology takes over its course? For certainly that seems like its fate, at least in the foreseeable future.</blockquote>

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