The Business: Even The Vidya Vets See The Writing On The Wall For Conventional Play

I am not the only one seeing the change coming for tabletop and Conventional Play.

BG3 is killing DnD, not saving it.

Tabletop rpgs will always be around, but niche.

Everyone introduced to DnD via BG3 isn't going to play the paper rules. They want a rich online experience beyond what a VTT can deliver.

100x the market.

— Grummz (@Grummz) December 14, 2023

Mark ought to know. He was on the World of Warcraft team 20ish years ago, and that MMO was a major contributor in the decline of tabletop as a major force in the culture as it provided Conventional Play experiences of the day better than what Cargo Cultists promised.

Others are still in various stages of denial. The details got out months ago, and the info made the rounds them. In case you missed it:

TLDR: Magic-Users hired C-Suite executives with experience in making mobile trash casino slot machines masquerading as videogames. Said leadership, with the blessing from the former MBTW leader now leading Hassle Brothers, drew up a plan for--and is now executing--transfering the brand and Intellectual Property from Tabletop to Videogame media.

Mark explained why. Balder's Gate 3 reached a far larger audience, and made orders of magnitude more in revenue (and profit), than tabletop ever will.

That far larger audience wants what the Cargo Cult and their Conventional Play promises, but they will not tolerate the limitations of tabletop--especially after Critical Roll poisoned the well--or the absolute dysfunctional spiteful mutants that make up so much of the Cargo Cult's adherants. They don't want to be in a Neckbeardia video any more than you do.

When they can just come home from the office, turn on their PC (or even a console or tablet), log into (network) and Just Fucking Play as if they were playing World of Warcraft on their schedule for as long as they way--drop in, drop out--then yeah Conventional Play on tabletop cannot compete and will always lose.

They don't want to drive to some store, or someone's house. They don't want to waste time fucking around with pointless bullshit. They don't want to put up with weirdos. They want to gank monsters, get treasure, and level up exactly as they like. Balder's Gate 3 delivers. Some twat at the store running Current Edition does not, no matter how well he mimics the aforementioned Voice Actors Acting Like Real Gamers show.

One more time: Conventional Play HAS NO FUTURE!

There are three ways this ends for a given tabletop business:

1. Change medium and go virtual. (Few will do this, even if they could.)
2. Deny reality and die when the business fails. (Most will go this route.)
3. Downshift to self-funding hobby (like Gonnerman does) and quit pretending this is a business. (Most should do this, but won't because pride.)

What we have, instead, is a niche marketplace filled with people pretending to run a business--some of whom formerly did, and are still keeping a faltering husk running--but are instead running hobby operations that others pay for via Neopatronage.

In short, the days of tabletop RPGs being a mass market business are done- and I could not be happier.

The future is the past, and the past was built around proper RPG campaign play as a proper hobby pursuit that had sweet fuck-all commercial value. Groups were closer to Lodges than CONSOOM PRODUCT brainless entertainment, as is proper for a hobby derived from wargaming in the spectrum from Kriegspiel to Braunstein.

Say it with me, folks. Tabletop has to do a Samurai Jack and Go Back To The Past. The way out? For gamers to swallow their pride, admit they were wrong, and that-

#JEFFROISRIGHT