Jon Del Arroz covered this yesterday.
The article is at Fandom Pulse here.
It's all blah-blah Commie bullshit that's really just this.
All the moralizing with their presumption of authority is really just signalling for Fellow Travelers to activate and swarm the target, but it looks like this ain't working so well these days. Their omnibus package is sold out on Amazon.
You can find Corps of Discover and other games by this company at Amazon here.
Jon Del Arroz covered a banned game about Maduro being snatched.
While this can be worked around, the problem is that DriveThru is the #2 place to get Tabletop stuff. (#1 being Amazon, of course.) They have Network Effects working in their favor, and their Fellow Travelers are embedded at Subscribestar, Patreon, and Itch. (Unsure about Substack, but suspected nonetheless.) Get too high profile before you have the might to protect it and you're fucked.
That means that you need to learn how to play the Attention Game to beat this handicap; you must learn how to market, how to advertise, and how to retain.
Assuming, of course, that you're doing this for commercial reasons.
Arch, following up from Janovich, on Trench Crusade pulling a fuckover job that GDubs would never do.
Shit like this is why TC will not surpass or replace either Fantasy or 40K. At this point it will struggle to compete with BattleTech.
Calling out the YouTube shills for boosting these Commies is just and proper. Arch and Janovich remains undefeated; Pat's looking kinda suspect right now.
Listen to this. They confess everything I've said.
They confessed to the primacy of Network Effects.
They confessed to the primacy of Rules.
They confessed to the primacy of Procedure being how Play is experienced.
They confessed to the primacy of the Revealed Preference of Rules As Written as soon as serious stakes are perceived to be on the table.
SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP!
Everything else is insanity pretending to come up with justification for Cargo Cult norms regarding Conventional Play. They confessed to the data supporting my position. They confessed to Revealed Preferences supporting my position. They confessed across the board, and they carried on as if nothing happened.
They don't want to go to the conclusion because they earn their living, in whole or in part, from the delusion.
The conclusion is this: Just. Play. D&D. Everything else is delusional to varying degrees in commercial terms. (Non-commercial? Different story, largely due to not needing to make money or feed the ego of collectors who only--at best--read and never play.)
I am so glad that things are going to force these delusional people to quit.
Pundit talks about WOTC's recent personnel changes for The Only Game That Matters.
TLDR: Don't expect WOTC to stop sucking anytime soon. Too many Molech Cultists fighting with Mammon Mobsters.
That doesn't mean that WOTC doesn't dominate and rule. That's sorted, permanently, in WOTC's favor; yes, the D&D Network Effect is that strong.
What needs to be done is to pivot towards competing within the Network Effect. You can't beat D&D. You can beat Current Edition if you use Past Editions to do it.
Because the hobbyist audience at-large is still Normie-adjacent, that means they still think and act like Normies; Normies rely on Brands and Networks to discern value, so that's why Temu D&D (all you OSR clones) doesn't get the draw that the real thing does.
Within the Brand you can compete, but you can't use the old Endless Product Slop model. You have to compete on Service and Connection to win; you have to teach people how to play the Real Game, not the Cargo Cult Just So fake game you think you know (but you don't).
The Bros get this. That's why they focused on AD&D1e, and still do. Some are also drawing connections to Chainmail/OD&D to show continuity from the origins of the hobby in order to fully comprehend the flow of the game, and realizing that indeed AD&D1e is fully capable in just the three core rulebooks of replicating what Chainmail and OD&D put down first and then proceding to a perfected form.
The Clubhouse is the model that provides a service (secure locations, vetted membership) and connection (fellow hobbyists, not randos and clout-chasing poseurs).
All we need to complete the arrangement is to secure independent access to the materials required for play perpetually, and that's now possible.
The Beast shows the value of competent technical writing.
DCC's a Collector's Purchase Choice because they write to be read, not to be used. They are incompetent at technical writing.
Look at that stuff. That's far too reliant on art style, trade dress, and other aesthetic elements to get attention and keep it long enough to get purchased. What Beast put out is that stripping that away reveals that DCC is not only incompetent at product design, they are incompetent at technical writing; it's a serious pain in the ass, moreso than using the original version, to use what they published at the table. It is only fun to read and show off the art.
This is the sort of publisher that needs to be run out of business and the hobby, and thanks to the collapse it's going to sooner than later becaue you can only coast off crowdfunding in a collapsing economy for so long. Meanwhile, people playing Real Games with procedures for easy emergent content generation are going to thrive because it's a Buy Once, Cry Once affair with no further expense (or upkeep) and that's how the hobby has to be going forward.
