The Culture: The (Lack Of A) Future For Tabletop (Part Three)

There are three viable paths out of the collapse of Conventional Play in the Tabletop medium. Today we talk about Following The Leader. We talk about following Sorcerors By The Sea (SOBS) out of Tabletop to Videogames.

Why Join The Exodus?

Because if you prefer Conventional Play, Videogames as a medium do everything you like about this better across the board while mitigating or eliminating all of the known issues you cope with in Tabletop. I've written about this previously. In short, videos like this do not happen to you anymore.

In case you need a refresher, Videogame Conventional Play avoids ALL of this:

• Schedule Your Fun
• Waste Time Not Playing
• Ongoing Commitment
• "20 Minutes of Fun Packed Into 4 Hours"

And yes, that marketplace--in addition to being an order of magnitude larger and more prestigious--is also brutally competitive; that "let's all get alone" thing you see in Tabletop Publishing does not exist there. If your game does not deliver, you will feel it within a financial quarter or so and as we've seen recently that can make for some tense quarterly earnings calls.

Furthermore, the phenonemon that Ryan Dancey noted about D&D being only in competition with its past selves (and, now, offshoots thereof) applies to Videogames across the board thanks to Abandonware sites keeping old games around and publishers seeing the value in making that back catalog constantly available. If (New Franchise Entry) is dogshit compared (Past Entries), it reflects in sales numbers, search results, streaming totals, and more measurable metrics.

But, for the player, the biggest benefit is not being slaved to some Tourist faggot that can't be bothered to commit, some Casuals that can't be bothered to Git Gud, or some power-tripping Gamma Male twat doing his best impression of Dexter The Dogshit DM.

Instead, he pays his money (and, for the budget concious, that can very cheap; I just picked up Jagged Alliance/Jagged Alliance 2 on GOG for $1.60 out the door- a value no Tabletop Conventional Game can match without giving it away) and installs his Conventional Play game right away. He patches it up (if needed) and gets to playing right then and there. He plays how he wants, for as long as he wants, until he's satisfied or he quits in frustration- and that's hard to do now due to extenstive guides and walkthroughs that are also freely available.

Most gamers, who are nonetheless loyal to Conventional Play, run the numbers sooner or later and conclude that Videogames do the RPGs that they want better- and quit Tabletop.

This Is Not New

The problem's been here since Lord British began his Ultima series and Rogue was a thing. Both took the subsets of the full and proper game, the part that you didn't need to be familiar with war or wargaming to see that nonetheless looked like a game, and made a game out of that. That's the early 1980s, so about 40 years ago, and then SSI got in on the action leading to their fateful license deal with TSR for the legendary Gold and Silver Box series.

Again, 30-35 years ago, and videogame technology (and the acumen to use it) has only gotten better. Prospective and current Conventional Play gamers either never entered Tabletop or defected from it more and more over time, such that in the last 25 years (first due to MMORPGs) there are entire cohorts that have only the vaguest notion that "RPG" has anything to do with the Tabletop medium at all- and, when seeing how Conventional Play plays in Tabletop, correctly assess it as inferior.

You have to Regress Harder, as the #BROSR did, to get them to find merit in Tabletop as a medium.

Most, at this point, don't see any reason to bother. Videogames are cheaper, easier, more accessible, more acceptable, more prestigious, have viable career paths for creators, and are now developed to the point where you can learn how to make your own without needing specialized technical skills or acumen.

Now here's where I'm going to rustle them jimmies: most people at Conventional Play tables, especially those carrying on about cinematics and Narrative, should quit Tabletop and go play AAA Videogames.

Yes, that does flush out many--maybe even most--of the current Cargo Cultists and their hangers-on.

Those who prefer that should go where they are treated best- and that is not the Tabletop medium.

"But that's not me" you say. Well, don't worry there's two more paths and tomorrow it's about showing the way out for another group that never should have been here to begin with.