The Business: Pat Admits That The Bots Are Finishing The Job Of Collapse

Pat milks the delusion for scraps from YouTube.

Dear Conventional Play Cultists: YOU ASKED FOR THIS!

I hear your objections. Two words: REVEALED PREFERENCE.

"But players-"

*inhales*

50 FUCKING YEARS OF REVEALED PREFERENCE PROVES YOU WRONG!

Revealed Preference. Network Effects. Get what, motherfuckers? This is all your fault, Cargo Cultists. This is the future YOU CHOSE.

"We'll just-"

No, you won't. You'll be like this fucking loser and come crawling back to The Game That Matters, using The Outlets That Matter, because the Revealed Preference of your own Cargo Cultists is to stay with Official Edition stuff and shun the rest. Your own kind doesn't want your PDF Slop.

I told you that this is an outside-in collapse pattern. I told you that this is one where WOTC can tank it indefinitely due to be the owner of the Network Efffect. Now that there is independent confirmation proving it, I'll be accepting your apologies.

We're going to start seeing shutdowns and throttle-downs being announced more and more over the next few years; some (thank God) just quit while behind and leave with some of their dignity intact, some go back to being a self-funding hobby, and the rest will be the wrecks on the side of the road.

No, non-D&Ds are not immune. They'll follow the same pattern; the oldest, most established non-D&Ds will be the last to go, barring a Black Swan event and those non-D&Ds will be either the D&D of their niche, or they are already half-out of Tabletop because their real scene is adjacent to it (e.g. BattleTech).

The future Dancey stated would come about in 2000 is here. We are just in the final stage of its arrival, the consolidation stage. For commercial purposes there is D&D and there is Sweet Fuck All Else. If you don't want what WOTC's cooking, you will be forced to go non-commercial to find it- or to use the very bots some of you are crying about to make it yourself.