Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="TheSword" data-source="post: 8452742" data-attributes="member: 6879661">Tradition is wrapped up with identity. People who commit substantial time, recourses and energy to a hobby and build their social lives around it, are inevitably going to become invested in the the game. Some people may even be crazy enough to spend several hours a week discussing it on online forums. They become familiar, conversant, perhaps even expert in their hobby and the sum total of their experience and knowledge important to them. I think this applies to fans of football teams, TV shows and  as much as RPG’s.When you start to change the things that people identify with they are liable to get defensive. Particularly when change is imposed rather than consulted upon. The traditions become things people cling to in an otherwise uncertain world. A lot of the traditions that get the most push back are the small things that people see being changed without good justification. The people advocating for the change assign the traditions no value because they don’t agree with them, whereas the people defending the traditions equate them with the full value of their experience and so there is a fundamental disconnect between those advocating for change and those being affected by it.This is further complicated because so often changes in our Hobby are either matters of taste (how easy is it to die in combat) or social convention (the name of a lich’s Phylactery or the default alignment of an orc). The former often has no right or wrong answer and the reaction to the latter will be affected by a massive range of upbringings and outlooks on life.Are we honestly surprised that there is resistance when a bunch of people who aren’t racist are trying to tell another bunch of people who also aren’t racist that game they’re playing and the language they’re using is racist. There is an inherent criticism in that. When the racism is only implied, requires convoluted arguments or is based on specific outlooks that the traditionalists don’t have access to then there will be push back. In some cases these justifications for change rely on scholarly work or still debated topics. For instance the issue of cultural appropriation in literature and creative works is still a hotly debated topic.I totally understand people mean well, and of course no game company needs the permission of its customers to act. But if they want said customers to feel engaged then they should at least attempt to get buy in. I think this is one of the reasons why the 4e to 5e transition was so positive and the 3e to 4e transition was so catastrophic.Whatever you think about Sacred Cows, they are Sacred. Change is inevitable people say, and I’m inclined to agree but the need and desire for change will be on a bell curve. Companies will never change fast enough for some people, and any change will be rejected by others. What I don’t want to see is knee jerk reactions any more than I want to see stagnation. Not everyone that shouts loudest on both sides is representative. Customers/gamers often just don’t want to feel like they’re being jerked around. One of the groups I DM for is a entirely gay fairly liberal bunch and we find ourselves rolling our eyes at some of the stuff that appears in the TTRPG news.A strong rationale, Consultation and change at a pace people can accept is far more effective and less destructive than Twitter outrage followed by Press releases and Platitudes.The good news is that WOC does seem more inclined to discuss things, watch and take a measured approach than it ever has in the past. I personally am comfortable with both the direction and velocity of their change.</blockquote>

Verification