The Culture: Master The Game You've Got Because It Won't Be Fun Until You Do

A truism in the Firearms world is that far too many people don't Git Gud with the guns that they buy. Instead, they expect the gun to do the work of being accurate and precise for them, and this is the source of a lot of Brand-related snobbery.

Let's say you want to get a shotgun because you binged John Wick last weekend. Instead of throwing $2K at a Benelli M4 (which will not be the slicked-up one used in Part 2, those are extra), slow your roll and get as very basic Maverick 88 Security model and dump the rest into All The Ammo and Range Time practing with it. That Benelli is only as good as its operator, and you--gun noob--are Teh Sukzors. Master the basics, then trade up to the supercar models.

This applies to tabletop adventure games. Far too many expect the product to magically satisfy their itches somehow. They never bother to learn how to do more than the minimum, if they bother at all. The Cargo Cult of Conventional Play encourages this bad tendancy into becoming a habit because they can them exploit that habit to sell Endless Product Slop.

You don't need a new game. You need to learn how to use the game you already have.

This is why, contra some folks whose squawkings resemble the usual Muh 40 Years wankers, I think that the first folks who get serious about teaching people how to play and master The Game(s) That Matter are the ones that will come out on top after the collapse.

This is more than just "This is how to roll your man" basic stuff. This is the whole thing; it's why I praise Jon Mollison's Solo D&D videos because making those videos gets into that territory and thus shows people how to get the game to do what it says it does.

An individual that did a complimentary series of articles and videos, showing on camera how to execute a gameplay procedure in real time and backing that up with an article that has that procedure broken down to a step-by-step process will go viral in record time. That's what "Teach them how to play the game" means.

That's what the hobby needs- not Endless Product Slop. That's what the hobby needs- not "Here's Pointless Rule Zero Bullshit". They bought a Glock. Take them to the range, put it in their hands, and put them through their paces. Keep at it not until they get it, not until they get it right, but until they can't get it wrong (the definition of Mastery).

This is the flipside of the Network Effect issue. There is a massively unmet demand from the hobby by hobbyists to show them how to use what they bought to get what they want. No one's taking them to the range (as it were) and showing them how it's done, so they don't do it (You can't act on thoughts you don't have!) and then get mad when they don't get what they want out of it. It's Spiritual Boomerism, and it has to stop.

Teach the man how to play. Teach him how to master the game. Show him what awaits him once he has the skill to make it happen, and he will want it for himself- and thus motivate himself to put in the work to Git Gud.