Once again I am fucking annoyed at pricing discourse regarding TTRPGs, because, essentially, there are three basic segments of TTRPG creation:

  • corporations — Hasbro, and a handful of also-rans — who regard TTRPGs themselves as essentially the bait under a big cartoon cardboard box trap for catching the kind of people with infinite disposable income for Funko Pops, who if trapped can have it diverted to the capturing Brand™ instead,

  • a loose collection of trust fund kids, white Western guys with access to capital, and people with day jobs at the likes of Google, who collectively represent the weirdest and most significant market distortion in the field; who have essentially turned running Kickstarters into a hobby in itself, created ludicrous expectations re: TTRPG as intrinsic objet d'art, and essentially lend out their own preconstructed Social Media Audience to each other on a daily basis to kick each others' crowdfunds over the line, sucking all the money away from, y'know, people without access to capital, whom crowdfunding was allegedly supposed to be for because they don't have access to capital

  • people with literally no money and no access to capital and no parasocial audience and no luxury freedom from wage-slavery necessary to devote to creating a parasocial audience, making and sharing stuff with each other for free or the price of a coffee because they like games and in this environment that's the only way poor people are gonna get them, from each other for no more than the price of a coffee, fuck you very much

and the discourse comes round like clockwork, coming from or adjacent to segment number 2, glaring down at The Poors and accusing them of fucking everything up for everyone because they're Undervaluing Everyone's Work


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