The Business: Yes, Videogames Do Conventional Play Better ACROSS THE BOARD!

"Okay, I recall you saying that people wanting Conventional Play had better options in videogames. I saw you point to Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and Post-Apocalypse fans being spoiled for choice and BattleTech fans were more likely to scratch their itch in vidya than tabletop. But-"

Anon, let me stop you right there.

I did not stutter. Conventional Play seekers are always better served with videogames now. No exceptions.

Contemporary Action

The one to beat is the Jagged Alliance series. You can find this at both Steam and GOG.

This is what people who otherwise would go for RECON, Ninjas & Superspies, Top Secret, Spycraft, Twilight 2000, Millenium's End, certain subsets of HERO or GURPS, etc. would sooner get into.

Historical Fiction Action

This is where you'll get your Westerns and your (alt-)Historical stuff. Desperados comes in here (Steam, GOG), and your historical Japan setting gets served by Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun (Steam, GOG).

And for that ever-popular World War 2, Commandos (Steam, GOG) is right there.

Yes, these straddle line between big wargames like the Total War series (e.g. Company of Heroes) and the FPS or similar action games (Wolfenstein, Tenchu, Call of Juarez), and that's the videogame equivalent of where proper tabletop adventure ganes lie- the liminal space between Le Grand Wargame and La Petite Parlour Play.

I leave to you, the reader, the task of finding more in this vein. This is a very surface-level sample of what is out there.

But, again, I will spell out why those seeking Conventional Play will always end up prefering videogames over tabletop:

• No Scheduling Your Fun: You can play whenever, however, for as long as you like at a time instead of having your hobby fun be held hostage to those least committed to play.
• No Bullshitting: The game is the game; no one's going to fuck you over Because Reasons that end up as a Neckbeardia video.
• No Weirdos: Again, Revealed Preference shows that people don't want to deal with the Spiteful Mutants that cause those Neckbeardia videos.
• No Major Wallet Hits: Most of these games are far cheaper than the tabletop alteratives by now, save for the latest in a series. Jagged Alliance 2 Gold can be had for about $4 USD as of this post and for a bit longer. Some of them have been given away (e.g. Shadow Tactics).
• No Social Issues: Videogames have Social Proof across the board. You may get stick for what specifically you like, but only grifters and strivers (or Boomers) even try to knock you for playing any at all now. Everyone has Steam. Most have a GOG account. Console folks have PS, Xbox, or Nintendo accounts. It's acceptable to play PC games as a hobby.

I will keep this up until the Cargo Cultists get it; they have no future in the tabletop space unless they surrender all aims at paying the bills with their broke business model, and Magic-Users finalizing the medium shift from tabletop to vidya will bear that out as all the Normies, Casuals, and Tourists leave with them into the walled garden.

Only the proper paradigm of play that the #BROSR recovered from the Memory Hole has a future here, but there is no money it that if you're all about turning woodpulp into print product or pixels into PDFs. You'll need an entirely different business model, and most Cargo Cultists can't make that transition because they lack the traits needed to do so.

(Hint: It's all about the clubhouse.)

But, for those who prefer print product, I remind you that Palladium's XMas Grab Bags remain available until the 15th, and if you need a tax writeoff then you can buy me one- here's my Wish List.