The Culture: Even Mearls Agrees With The Bros

Cirsova caught this on Monday:

Remember when you were told by the bros that you were playing a non-game?

Contemporary D&D's pre-eminent developer agrees. https://t.co/zzTV9kTXOm pic.twitter.com/hknBcw6KQ2

— Cirsova MAGAzine: Mongoose & Meerkat KS is live! (@cirsova) March 3, 2025

And this is that thread starter:

I don't think TTRPGs are actually games. They're platforms. Consider this:

In 30 years since its release, Settlers of Catan has undergone no significant rules changes. Its rules have been clarified, or tweaked to match later expansions, but the game is the same.

— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) March 3, 2025

You can read the rest here.

The argument that Conventional Play, following commercial incentives in their obsession with Make Line Go UP!, did this deliberately because it enhances their ability to wield the Network Effect to their advantage by blurring the line between Network and Brand can be made and made quite well given what Mearls says here.

It wasn't always like that, but once enough people in a position to notice and act on that noticing did so--Dancey and the OGL was the breakwater there--then that is what happened. Despite the current C-Suite suite being too fucking stupid to not mess with golden geese (the attempted revocation), reskinned D&D is still the norm for the Slop Merchants out there.

In short, Mearls isn't talking out of his ass. He is accurately reporting observed behavior that's gone on over decades.

He is also describing why Tabletop is failing as a commercial endeavor because the core audience wants games, not platforms. Theater Kids and other problem peoples that need to be purged want platforms because platforms permit performative faggotry while proper games do not.

We are ending this, one or another, because it cannot go on. The Colony Drop will do it if folks don't do so themselves.