Path: ...!2.eu.feeder.erje.net!feeder.erje.net!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: kyonshi <gmkeros@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: [The Guardian] Dungeons & Dragons at 50: the collaborative
 fantasy role-playing game that builds you up
Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2024 09:58:54 +0100
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 65
Message-ID: <usp5ge$6rf4$1@dont-email.me>
References: <usku4u$3o29g$1@sibirocobombus.campaignwiki>
 <fs3vui9tp1pn3apa5t1v5f1i8mhj3889rt@4ax.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Injection-Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2024 08:58:55 -0000 (UTC)
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="578cab13794d077dfc5d586983a95089";
	logging-data="224740"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/4Jm/V8Cim9+JGcNqoN5bv"
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird
Cancel-Lock: sha1:7OstOOFGW8paLqOmsNWqIbii/m8=
In-Reply-To: <fs3vui9tp1pn3apa5t1v5f1i8mhj3889rt@4ax.com>
Content-Language: en-US
Bytes: 4666

On 3/12/2024 12:26 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> On Sun, 10 Mar 2024 19:28:50 +0100, kyonshi <gmkeros@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Source:
>> https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/mar/10/dungeons-and-dragons-at-50-the-collaborative-fantasy-roleplaying-game-that-builds-you-up
>>
>> Dungeons & Dragons at 50: the collaborative fantasy role-playing game
>> that builds you up
> 
> So much hype about the 50th anniversary. You have to start wondering
> how much of it is actual journalism, and how much of it is really just
> paid advertorial. Especially given recent rumors about Hasbro selling
> D&D to Tencent; are they just seeding the news to make it look like
> D&D is bigger (and thus, a more valuable property) than it really is?

I think part of it is also that there now are people in charge of the 
newspapers that have fond memories of playing the game. it's exactly the 
kind of job DnD or TTRPG players would end up in. Also, the people 
reading the newspapers now also include a lot of old players. This isn't 
the times where newspapers only were read by the parents of players 
anymore.
Not that I am saying it's not also some campaign by Hasbro, but editors 
most likely have noticed the popularity of Dnd lately (see Critical 
Role), the popularity of DnD properties (Baldur's Gate 3), and are not 
averse to spotlighting a geeky hobby they used to enjoy.

> 
> Or maybe it is that popular, and is really worthy of all the
> reporting? Am I just being too cynical? Perhaps I'm just unconsciously
> gate-keeping, trying to keep the 'plebian' masses from playing my
> geeky, forbidden hobby?

It might be a bit of that. Especially as our preferred style of play 
does not quite fit with what the rest of the world is playing.
In general I am of the opinion that all kinds of TTRPG play is valid, 
BUT I just am not that interested in a few of them. It's not like I 
think they are bad, but they are just not for me. PbtA for example is 
something I see as an absolutely valid expression of roleplaying, but I 
don't want to play it. And unfortunately DnD 5e also has moved into a 
direction where I don't feel like I am getting what I enjoy about RPGs 
from it.
Which is, as I've discovered lately, a heavy dose of simulationism.

> 
> I don't have a hard time believing D&D is fifty years old (I have a
> much harder time accepting that Star Wars is nearly of the same age,
> though! There's no way Luke Skywalker can be pushing 70!!!;-). In many
> ways, it /still/ feels like a game born in the 1970s. I think one of
> the reasons all this news reporting on its popularity and longevity is
> so triggering to me is that it ignores all the work done by OTHER
> tabletop game publishers to help keep the hobby alive. I'm not sure
> tabletop gaming would still be a thing had it just been up to
> TSR/WOTC/Hasbro alone...
> 

DnD for a long time has been a two-sided coin to the hobby. on the one 
hand it gets people into the hobby, but on the other side it also makes 
them burn out on it if people just keep playing the stuff the publisher 
puts out. Because really, there's always a certain style of play in 
vogue at a certain point, and it excludes a lot of people in one way or 
another. I doubt many people are that fond of DnD 5e as such, many most 
likely would love moving to other rule or play styles that are much 
better suited to what they want to play, but they keep playing 5e 
because that's what everyone does.