The Culture: Behold SOBS' Target Audience

Dunder Moose pointed out this video yesterday on Twitter.

Nevermind if this video is a bit or sincere. Let's act as if he was, because that video represents SOBS' Target Market very well.

You've known this guy, or his female counterpart, if you've been around Conventional Play long enough. The guy who never Reads The Damned Manual. The guy who has to be told how to do basic shit repeatedly. The guy who never has his shit together. The boat anchor.

Notice the change in tone when digital tools and online play enter the picture and suddenly he is able to function as others expect of him without needing to put in the work. You found a significant uptick in female participation around the same time, and for the same reasons; the widgets did all the work, so they just had to show up and move tokens or minis around now and again.

You IT guys know these people because you work with them every day: they are end-users. These are the people who don't know how the machine works or care to know but instead just use it to get what they think it is supposed to do. There is sweet fuck-all difference between an end-user and a cargo cultist. Making things "user friendly" means catering to these people.

You also know why people like this instantly swapped over to smartphones and Walled Garden mobile apps: they Just Work. Hit button, widget does widget things, done. There is no need to learn how the widget works or why it works that way to get the desired result.

"But he doesn't care about the rules."

Which is why when he blithely hauls his Normie ass into SOBS' Walled Garden for Next Edition, he's complain about it for five seconds before shutting up and just playing the game SOBS' sold to him exactly as SOBS' wants it played. He doens't know any better, so he'll just play what everyone else does. He goes along to get along, just like he does in every other aspect of his life.

When he takes a go at running a game, for as long as SOBS lets you, and finds out he can't just hack it up as he likes because (a) most people by then will be trained by the Metagame to shun that shit and (b) the first sign of SOBS yeeting human Referees will be removing the ability to fuck with the rules he'll bitch for five seconds and then go sulk in the cuck chair before FOMO and social pressure hits at his need for Ego Defense and he conforms to what SOBS wants him to do.

Remember that SOBS is going Always Online, All-Digital- one step away from a full videogame product and live service model, compete with Gatcha-style monetization. He won't quit because he doesn't own what he uses, so he'll eat that shit and rationalize that it's good to eat shit for as long as he think it's socially acceptable. The instant it's not, he'll overcome his Sunk Cost Fallacy thinking and dip out.

"But he can just-"

No, he won't go elsewhere. I'll let Pat explain by way of how The Mercer Effect is getting the Old Yeller treatment.

The also-rans and never-weres are already starting to feel the pinch. Take a second look at that Roll20 chart; Current Edition is the majority, and if you add in the Old/Forked D&Ds it becomes total domination. This is a platform that is already friendly to SOBS' Target Audience, and so is under threat by the coming Walled Garden, and it matches the trend historically regarding Current D&D vis-a-vis Everything Else.

This is also why SOBS is doing the Big Move. They see that they can just yeet Everything Else and lose nothing of value.

This is why the Cargo Cult of Conventional Play is cooked. Listen to SOBS; they are telling you what your options are- them or the Clubhouse. The commercial viability of Everything Else is cooked because they still haven't figured out that they need to do what SOBS does for them right now, so once that support goes away their collapse is certain. Nothing else survives such a commercial collapse, and in cultural terms if you are not in the Clubhouse or commercially viable than you don't survive in that form either. Death of your presence, and thus your relevance, is guaranteed; no one will remember you.

If you want a real and proper hobby, you will find it at the Clubhouse. If you want to Consume Product and just buy your identity as a Lifestyle Brand, SOBS has you sorted.

Choose your future. The status quo will not be there for you.