We have the Enemy's psychological profile. We know how they use Publishers and why. We also know the weaknesses in their strategies. Time to act on this intelligence.
#WinningSecrets For Hobbyists
This is where we put it all together. How do we do this? The good news is that the Hobbyists, by and large, already have the tools and some of the practices.
The bad news is that it is not disciplined, regular, and persistent over years of time.
The Action Items are all about doing this persistently, regularly, and in a disciplined manner over time.
Item One: Forever Editions
I refer to this as a deliberate counter to Publisher-induced Edition Churn, wielding Muh Officialdom as a weaponized form of social pressure against Hobbyists instead of actually fixing broken products to ensure that everything is Working As Intended. The Enemy desperately wants this power to control the minds of the Hobbyists in the manner of Scientology, down to the never-ending purchases of useless and pointless goods and services in order to assauge and completely counterfeit and catamite "Fear Of Missing Out"- that's what all that "You will not be missed" stuff is meant to invoke.
That can't happen if the rules manual for a Brand's game are the same today as they were 50 years ago. That's what I mean by "Forever"; the rules manual, and thus what the game is and how it's played are unbending, unyielding, AND UNCHANGING- just like gravity.
This can be done, it has been done, and every Hobbyist-run Brand will be built around a Forever Edition of the Brand's core game out of necessity specifically to prevent Enemy subversion.
That's going to be quite the process for the Hobby at-large. It is not for a local Clubhouse environment. As Hobbyist scenes are, at their core, built around a local Clubhouse environment iterations of a future Forever Edition can be, should be, and must be developed and playtested in such environments. Feedback, revision, and iterative steps taken to that final carved-in-stone rules manual can be done online by and for Hobbyists networked (in the original sense) together far faster than what Publishers have shown themselves capable of doing.
All such manuals need to use the Brand's trademarks, trade dress, etc. and give no fucks about it. Use pseudonyms if you like.
Where more than one version exists, the version that is not associated with the Enemy and its poz is to be preferred at all times. You want the Forever Edition to be associated with when the Brand was cool, fun, exciting, and filled with escapist entertainment- not the Enemy's poz. Again, the d6 Star Wars REUP example is the Gold Standard to follow.
This also includes the promulgation of all associated play aids (maps, counters, minis, paints, tools, etc.); shun Muh Officialdom in favor of things either Hobbyist made or controlled or not controled by either (i.e. buying your dice from a manufacturer instead of the Publisher).
(Proof: A handful of fans translated Japan's Sword World into English. It is now available. Go check it out. No Publisher was involved, and no fucks given about IP law.)
Item Two: Narrative Control
The lore needs to be curated by and for the Hobbyists.
Wikis, fansites, etc. need to be owned and run by Hobbyists. They need to be put behind walls that Publishers find it too bothersome to breach, if not impossible; this is where Hobbyists will have to talk to people like Joshua Moon of Kiwifarms for advice on how to go about doing that because Publishers that get annoyed and think it worthwhile willl wage lawfare against such efforts.
This means that mirror need to be maintained and concealed, along with all the stuff needed to play the game, so that no matter what happens availability is maintained. This is where global arbitrage gets into the picture. Find the right jusrisdiction and Publisher attempts to fuck with Hobbyist efforts becomes too burdensome to bother with; given how things are right now, you can make some guesses as to where those places may be.
Existing tie-in media needs to be put into the pirate channels.
(Note: Various Hobbyist scenes already see some or all of this in action.)
The next step is to make new original contributions that become part of the lore and conform to the canon. Like with the Forever Edition technical writers and rules designers, authors and videoographers (etc.) should feel free to use pseudonyms if they like; they are to be freely distributed in digital format, and sold at cost in physical media. Hobbies are not a profit-seeking enterprise.
All tie-in media creations are to be welcomed: other gaming media, live-action video, animation, radio plays, and especially podcasts. These are the means by which the Hobby promotes its own and its friends while identifying and eliminating its enemies from the Hobby in terms of who controls the Narrative.
Item Three: Social Norms
There is not to be any talk of getting Establishment attention or approval for a damned thing.
The need for Publishers to produce and distribute Hobby publications, materials, social organizing, etc. is over. Claims to the contrary are to be mocked, mogged, and dabbed upon without mercy.
Enemy action is to be memed, mocked, mogged, and bullied into submission with status-damaging social attacks; they are cringe, lame, and boring nagging killjoy Karens while we are cool, awesome, exciting, encouraging life-enjoyers making something cool and exciting happen through our shared passions and avocations.
Hobbyists that provide replacements, work on Forever Editions, curate and contribute to the lore, strengthen Hobbyist control over the Brand or weaken Publisher claims to same are to be celebrated, and so on.
Hobby participation is to be reverted back to a local orientation focused around a Clubhouse environment. (Coincidentally, I have a Substack feed for that- including a section about creating user manuals that's paywalled because that's practical skill development.) Publisher-controlled organization is to be shunned, as much for being a poz vector as it is for being irrelevent.
Competitive and exhibitive gaming is to be organized by and for Hobbyists; Publishers are to be cut out entirely.
The Clubhouse, be it literal or virtual, is to be where Hobbyists teach Hobbyists how to do all aspects of the hobby- the gaming, the making, and the sharing. Good habits fostered here are transferable to everyday life, like the social clubs of yesteryear aimed (and, more often than not, succeeded) at doing.
Conclusion
It's all there. It just needs to be done deliberately, in a coordinated manner, and to achieve a defined objective- and then to hold it perpetually. That takes effort, and effort is what the Enemy seeks to sap.
Don't be surprised to see that your biggest obstacle isn't the Dangerhair Kid-Diddler with Alphabets In Bio. Instead, it's going to be someone that whines about effort that is your biggest problem: Ned Flanders, the Griller.
And we'll talk more about this tomorrow.
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