The Culture: The Hobby Is Going Back Underground And I Am Here For It

More people are seeing that the time has come.

There's still a lot of dancing around the facts, but even Conventional Play Cargo Cultists are seeing that the time I've talked about has come.

The hobby--the real hobby--is going back underground. The Tourists and Death Cultists have sucked the social capital out of the hobby, ruining its commercial viability, while The Only Corporation That Matters is abandoning the Tabletop medium entirely.

What they are missing in their fevered discussion on Usual Suspect Topics is that the hobby runs off Network Effects. This is surprisingly common, and it is particularly astounding given that this very thing is acknoledged as why 40K (followed by Fantasy) utterly dominates tabletop wargaming.

All their talk missing that the very thing they talk about requires other people to go along with it, and Derik in particular is well aware that most people don't- which is why Current Edition in particular and D&D generally dominates the hobby.

No, WOTC making the Big Move doesn't change this; it just means that other D&D editions have the chance to regain the dominance of the User Network that WOTC's abandoning.

With the disappearance of mainstream Normie attention (among other things, like USAID money propping up Death Cult fronts in the hobby) comes the commercial collapse because most people don't want to play a dead game. That means severe retrenchment around D&D, not explosive expansion into other things. A few other ancient actors will also benefit to a lesser extent, but all this Theater Kid shit will (finally) wither and die- and take them with it.

This hobby belongs underground, occulted and esoteric. The Clubhouse is back at the right time to capitalize on this Reversion To The Mean.

And those gates are going to be strong and tight this time.