The Culture: Fear Of A Non-Commercial Hobby

Black Lodge Games took notice of my Wednesday article at the Clubhouse.

I appreciate BLG taking the time to go over the article. I am aware that my position will not result in being showered with approval and praise, but--as is often the case--I am seeing years ahead of everyone else.

What I am seeing is a massive economic recalibration, which has consequences. One of those consequences is that luxury sectors are going to get gutted, and Conventional Play is a luxury sector. The commercial side of this hobby is suffering, and will continue to suffer; the tariffs are just the catalyst to ignite a long-overdue cleasing firestorm to clear out so much deadwood.

Right now it's the boardgame companies that are crying about this most, but we already have SJ Games (the GURPS and Fantasy Trip guys) crying about how tariffs fucked them and they are not the only ones. More will speak up, with all the same complaints, but it will not stop there.

The real issues will come with the larger economic reconfiguration. That means massive and lasting disruptions, which will quickly manifest in all forms of luxury consumption.

Put simply: people will not have the disposable income needed to continue to CONSUME PRODUCT that they do not use on the regular, so they won't spend on luxuries that exist only to signal social status via Lifestyle Brand consumerism- including tabletop games. Instead that money will be restricted to what they use daily, which Conventional Play does not do, so it will go to Netflix and Starbucks.

People thinking that they can continue on as they were are delusional. I am saying now, while there is still time to course-correct, that it is time to get out of a doomed market niche. Earn your living elsewhere. All those skills you learned and honed with your design, layout, artwork, project management, technical writing (especially technical writing) will be far better used where there is real salaries to be had- which is everywhere but Tabletop. Why do you think anyone with a modicum of acumen, skill, or talent jumped to videogames as soon as they could- or got OldPub publishing contracts that are not trash.

I am not saying that you should not make games. I am saying that this is a hobby, that there is no money in it anymore (and sweet fuck-all when there was; begging is not business, folks), so you should accept this, lean into it, and only publish in a non-commercial capacity henceforth- put your money to something actually productive.

And that does not at all take into account that only a handful of games are actually worth playing. You can cull your library to D&D, Traveller, and Call of Cthulhu and you'll never run out of gaming material; you are very likely to never run out if you just play D&D for the rest of your days, especially if you play AD&D1e (the only full and complete turnkey edition). Clear out dead weight you don't use. Play the game(s) that matter; focus on them, master them, for that is the hobby and nothing else.

"But-"

You're thinking in short-term timeframes: a month, a quarter, at most a year- no better than the MBA bros so many of you (rightly) despise. I'm looking forward in 5-20 year terms, of which early signs are already manifesting, and within that timeframe this hobby will not be commercially viable; given how things are developing, I'm looking at 5 more than 20. I'm also looking back 50+ years, which is D&D Rules All Forever.

The hobby is not the industry. The hobby does not need the industry; the industry is wholly expendable, which is why I champion the Clubhouse as the renewed central institution over the store (already dying out, and rightly so; I already do not miss them) and the publisher (now feeling the grasp of Death seizing upon them). We are better off taking our capital and forming new social institutions than wasting it on a dying commercial sector.

The social institutions are useful for more than just gaming; they are the surest way that the hobbyist culture can be preserved, cultivated, and carried forward. Why? For the lack of the very thing that brought us to this point: the total lack of commercial incentives to adulterate the hobby. People freaking out about going non-commercial fear a future hobby that can do what needs to be done, but cannot be as it is: gatekeep, good and hard, indefinitely- and make certain that future generations measure up.

The hobby cannot avoid becoming non-commercial. Fighting it will only leave you broke and broken. Earn your living doing something that is not a luxury pursuit. Stop fearing the future you cannot prevent.