The Business: The Price War Over Status Identity For The Hobby

The Pundit noticed the price changes.

Let's acknowledge one thing: yes, adjusted for inflation, $15 in 1980 is $60 now.

That's a verifible fact. There is just one problem: this is not the issue at hand.

The problem is that the perception of a luxury good--which is what every Tabletop product is--in terms of social class is determined largely by its price at retail. What we are now seeing, as a consequence of the larger cultural and economic bifurcation, is that there is a struggle within the busiess side of Tabletop by the Conventional Play outfits over the identity of the hobby.

Those pushing for higher prices want to position the hobby as a High Status luxury pursuit, suitable for the fashionable crowd to be seen and known to partake of, seeking to take advantage of the celebrity presence in the hobby and the influence of Critical Role to price out the undesirables in favor of a far more wealthy and status-anxious demographic that have been long accumstoned to using Conspicious Consumption as a form of Status Signalling because it's necessary for career success.

Those pushing to maintain the historic low prices tend towards a populist perception of the hobby, not caring that this also signals low social status, and many of them are legacy outfits that are either in operation solely to maintain IP control or are active operations that will inevitably wind down as legacy personnnel rotate out by one means or another. The rest are self-funding hobbies or delusional dreamers, both of which are in this end for their own reasons.

Regular readers should know where I stand on this question by now.

The future of the hobby, as it must be, stands not in going for the High Status people with money. That's the route to completing the destruction of it. The future is the past, the past is as a cheap low-status pursuit kept behind closed doors in tightly-held clubhouses, and the future is the disappearance of the hobby from popular perception as it goes back underground- never again to return.

The price for regeneration is rejection of fashionable approval. Pay it.