The Business: The LOLcow Is Right About Corpo Tabletop

The LOLcow has a point that the Cargo Cult refuses to face.

He cut that video on the 29th.

He is entirely correct. There are now far more, perhaps an order of magnitude or so more, Brand Fans than hobbyists.

Wizards of the Coast is not stupid. Cargo Cultists needs to stop retreating to this attitude; the business pivot over the last decade or more, while successful now, is not new. TSR tried this multiple times, including when Gary was at the reigns and before the Blumes couped him out with the help of the Buck Rogers heiress.

WOTC has successfully decoupled the hobby from the only brand name within it that matters, a policy now also being followed by Games Workshop to similiar (one may argue superior) success. There are entire audience segments for Warhammer that will not touch the plastic crack with a 10 foot pole, but read/listen to the books, play the Vidya, buy the merch, and watch/listen to lore videos until the cows come home.

WOTC has begun doing the same thing. Over 2/3rds of Baldur's Gate 3 players will never touch Tabletop, have no interest, etc.; there are people who read/listen to books but won't play anything, and now we have the Actual Play/Movie/TV segment that watch Critical Role or the movies and yet will only ever buy branded merch of some sort as they find gaming of any kind to be low status pursuits for losers.

C-Suite wants all that money, and they are getting it.

This is also playing into the pivot of Official Edition into an all-digital, always-online, subscription-based live service model- ultimately to be done remotely by phone in small chunks, facilitated by bots. It also plays into the planned Brand Crossover campaigns recently announced, following the Fortnite model because it works.

The bifircation is not only inevitable, it is not only here, it has been ongoing for years and only accelerating- and no, there is nothing the Cargo Cult can say or do to stop it because it is working. The shareholders are happy; everyone else gets to pound sand.