The Business: The Cues That A Publisher Prefers Normies To Hobbyists

Two Demographics

The Normie is not The Hobbyist.

The Normie is defined by Ego Defense because he has to be seen, be perceived by others, as Acceptable because he relies on others for his security: food, lodging, etc. The Normie is socialized accordingly, and this is not new; the Normie has been so socialized well before Industrialization and Modernity because pre-Modernity compelled collective effort in order to secure the necessities of life and the pursuit of prestige.

The Normie avoids doing things that are Not Acceptable because of this vulnerability; one need not resort to grand theorizing to see this in action across time and space.

The Normie does not enjoy doing what he must to fulfil the demands put to him by those capable of compelling his performance and compliance. The Normie would prefer to just do nothing taking effort at all if left to his own devices, to not think that far ahead, and to come and go as he wishes. All of this got formalized over a century ago by Madison Avenue and its British counterparts during World War 1.

Compare this to the Hobbyist.

The Hobbyist is defined by his passion for a speific avocational pursuit; he puts in work on because he enjoys the pursuit, not for enumeration, especially when that pursuit requires work-levels of coordination and collaboration to achieve. The Normie finds this alien; why do work when you don't have to, especially working with others?

The Hobbyist does not worry so much about Being Acceptable. He may be private about his hobby--this is avocational, not vocational--but social pressure has no pressure on his pursuit of things he enjoys and he enjoys the challenge of mastering his hobby, a set of habits that carries over to his professional and home life.

The Normies does not go out of his way for anything. He refuses to put forth effort when off the job, as "work" and "fun" are antithetical to him. Entertainment in particular is meant to be effortless and unsurprising, and the Normie is socialized from birth to expect this; "consumer revolts" in Normie-facing entertainmnt are failures to meet expectations of this sort.

The Hobbyist does go out of his way and seeks challenge to hone mastery. He enjoys putting in work to master something, as he enjoys the thrill of conquest no less than the great conquerors of old or the star athletes of today, even if that conquest is that of a difficult expression of technical skill or artistic expression, and the best of them pass on what they mastered to those joining the hobby.

The consequence is that these are two separate and distinct demographics to market towards, and competent businesses recognize this fact.

The Tells of a Normie-Facing Game Business

• You can play when you want.
• You can play for as long as you want, but playing long stretches won't make you win more necessarily.
• You can play (more or less) how you want.
• You do not need to play with others.
• You do not need to do well; you can always adjust the game to ensure that you enjoy an effortless fantasy.
• You don't need to spend a lot to get into the game.

I just described the Pay To Win/Free To Play business model.

This is what Sorcerers By The Sea is doing with the Big Move. They are turning Next Edition into this model.

They will deliberately make new offerings overpowered, then paywall them in some fashion to compel Normies to use money instead of time or effort to beat the challenge. They will deliberately manipulate the difficulty of the game to encourage the purchase of the new paywalled options, and they will deliberately punish effort by making long play sessions give swiftly diminishing returns; they want you to play in short, frequent bursts and not marathon-length sessions.

Will there be bots generating content? You bet. Will bots run sessions? You bet. Will bots run friendly NPCs to round out parties so Normies don't need friends to play? You bet.

"But this isn't The Only Game That Matters! Gamers don't want this."

SOBS doesn't care. SOBS wants Normiebux. Normies outnumber Hobbyists by orders of magnitude and the techniques to corral and sheer them like sheep are well-known now. Big Corporate needs to farm Normiebux to justify their own existence and give themselves fat sacks of cash that makes the most evil of kings and emperors look broke and busted by comparison.

So when you see a publisher start to pivot their business towards Normies, look for those tells; if you call them on it, espect the Mammon Mobster to throw some DEI meatshield Molech Cultist out in front to tank your criticism and deflect it away.

Y'know, like SOBS does.

And before this is all over, others will do the same. Expect it.