The Culture: The Need For A Forever Edition

The Recognition of the Need

One of the things I noticed with the serious exploration of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition is that having a single, settled, static edition of the game turned out to be a massive benefit to attracting and retaining new people.

Having a ruleset that does not change because it is not subject to commercial considerations is a massive boon to any hobby campaign built upon that cornerstone foundation. This is confirmed by how Car Wars and BattleTech endured for so long despite neglect or even hostility by the controlling Publisher; the rules manuals could be had online, and before that the used market, that remained as they were since publication as well as less-than-legal sources (photocopying and mimeographing).

Therefore the conclusion is obvious: a stable, healthy hobby scene cannot be subjected to Edition Churn. It must use one unbending, unyielding, unchanging Forever Edition such that someone learning the game today learns exactly the same rules to play exactly the same game as someone a thousand years from now.

Yes, this means that Product Development is going to completely change. Good.

The End of The Consumer Product Cycle

Rules are not shoes. Rules are not cars. They are not goods to be used, worn out, and discarded when no longer fit for purpose.

Rules are like software, in that it is a pile of mechanics and procedures that operate like a machine. They are better than software in that you do not need electricity or a computer to use it.

That means two things: it is possible to hit "good enough" during development, and it is viable to aim for "perfect" as the end goal of development. The former term is self-explanatory; the latter merits qualification, so here it is: "Perfect" is defined as having achieved a state where any further changes can only damage the ability of the rules to achieve the stated outcome to be had by playing the game.

"Good enough" is where development starts. "Perfect" is where it ends. The transition between the two is what development is: the refining from a rough, but usable concept into the final finished product that does what it is meant to do- no more, no less.

That this is at odds with what is considered Best Practices for commercial operation, be it in physical or in digital products, should not be a surprise to anyone. Edition Churn is a commercial practice that is at odds with the fostering of a healthy hobby environment, and it has been known as such since Stupid British Toy Company deliberately weaponized it as a business practice in the 1980s.

This practice needs to be taken into the town square, strung up at the gallows, and hanged for all to see before being doused in jet fuel and lit up to burn to ash.

There is one very obvious reason for why this needs to die: it is no longer necessary to do this at all.

The technology now exists for a rules manual to be posted online for all to see, and to study, at their leisure. It's been around for over 30 years at this point; there is no need for anyone to churn editions anymore for any form of tabletop game of any kind. Put the rules online; mirror that site, make PDFs available for offline use, and sell Print On Demand copies at-cost.

Once the rules have achieved their final form, lock the site down as well as its mirrors. Do similarly for the PDFs and POD listings.

Now you have that game that shall be the same for the rest of time. Good.

But Why?

To kill the threat that Muh Officialdum, almost always fostered as a headscrew by Publishers to weaponize Fear Of Missing Out to induce a cult-like dependency upon the Publisher via control over the Brand, has upon a hobby.

If a rulebook from 10 A.D. and a rulebook from 3010 A.D. are exactly the same, then the Hobbyists will be able to enjoy the game for generations on end without any worry that some dangerhair dumbass, some status-striving slut, some grifting guru, some poncy politico, etc. will seize control over the game via legal fuckery and shit-can the game and its Brand.

Keeping cultural institutions out of the hands of obvious attack vectors for bad actors is part-and-parcel of good stewardship over one's culture. That includes games, especially those who have a habit of teaching people ideas and practices that some folks would rather not spread around.