At my local gaming shop, NO ONE charges to DM. Now, in a city about 30 minutes away, a gaming cafe where I also played for a while, has introduced a deal where every player forks over 150 bucks for six 4-5 hour sessions.
Gaming shops can be pay to play but you are paying for a space to play rather than the dm. In my local gaming shop the shop owner is the dm so 5he difference in clouded, but from a player point of view it is pay to play regardless of who gets the money.
Oh yes. no question the gaming shop needs to make money. My local gaming shop charge 5 bucks per visit, or you can buy a 6 month pass if you are there a lot. It is entirely reasonable.That money goes to the owner of the place, not a DM. Further, a DM if they have at least 4 players gets 10 bucks off of any food/drink they buy during that session, which I suppose can be considered "pay". This other place, well, it overcharged on its food and drink in the first place, but we all accepted that as part of the deal as the owner has to make a buck. But when the DM's and owner get together and start introducing 150 dollar "6 session packages" above and beyond the food and drink prices, no way. Oh, and BTW, if a player misses a session in that 6 session package, of well, so sorry. The package is a 6 session story arc, at which point a new package/ story arc begins.
So let me get this straight....you think its reasonable to charge just to enter the store but find it unreasonable that they would ask for pay for AL or organized play?
My FLGS doesn't charge you to come in and browse/talk at all. I would personally find it harder to justify pay a "pass" to come in to just browse at all then I would to pay the same amount as a "pass" to play AL for the month.
What if your store raised the cost of the pass to $20 a month but that also allowed you to play AL or organized play along with the browsing?
But I will argue that the Mercer effect drives many many DM's and wanna be Internet stars to actually try it, and that harms the integrity of the game. If CR and its equivalents did not exist, I posit that there would be a whole lot less "DM Internet stars", and a whole lot less people trying to monetize the hobby in some manner. There is no way to close Pandora's box of streaming technology, or people's obsession to be entertained by others on the Internet, but I sure wish there was.
There is nothing wrong with the monetization of a hobby, and it is a good thing as it offers people who pay more options. Bethseda has monetized the modding hobby of Skyrim and Fall Out for example, but free mods are still there and they continue to be made.
Monetization of GMing would not affect you since you will still have issues finding GMs as players outnumber GMs either way. If monetization is going to affect you, it is going to be a postive since paid GMs will take away some of the pressure on free GMs by absorbing players who are willing to pay.
I thought about the pay to play route being a crippled old vet (good times in iraq and the 'stan) but I then thought about my NCO creed and also I would have to limit my imagination and be beholden to the players, after all they did pay. But I ended up rejecting that idea, now I can go full drill sergeant (best DM's are old Marines, Sailors and Soldiers) mode on them when as I see fit as well as my imagination not being limited by payments and what not.
As for DM reviews, I do not care either way. I try to be fair to all, But if your a turd or the group drives me nuts, I'll drop them like a recruit on his first day of boot.
At my local gaming shop, NO ONE charges to DM. Now, in a city about 30 minutes away, a gaming cafe where I also played for a while, has introduced a deal where every player forks over 150 bucks for six 4-5 hour sessions.
Gaming shops can be pay to play but you are paying for a space to play rather than the dm. In my local gaming shop the shop owner is the dm so 5he difference in clouded, but from a player point of view it is pay to play regardless of who gets the money.
Oh yes. no question the gaming shop needs to make money. My local gaming shop charge 5 bucks per visit, or you can buy a 6 month pass if you are there a lot. It is entirely reasonable.That money goes to the owner of the place, not a DM. Further, a DM if they have at least 4 players gets 10 bucks off of any food/drink they buy during that session, which I suppose can be considered "pay". This other place, well, it overcharged on its food and drink in the first place, but we all accepted that as part of the deal as the owner has to make a buck. But when the DM's and owner get together and start introducing 150 dollar "6 session packages" above and beyond the food and drink prices, no way. Oh, and BTW, if a player misses a session in that 6 session package, of well, so sorry. The package is a 6 session story arc, at which point a new package/ story arc begins.
So let me get this straight....you think its reasonable to charge just to enter the store but find it unreasonable that they would ask for pay for AL or organized play?
My FLGS doesn't charge you to come in and browse/talk at all. I would personally find it harder to justify pay a "pass" to come in to just browse at all then I would to pay the same amount as a "pass" to play AL for the month.
What if your store raised the cost of the pass to $20 a month but that also allowed you to play AL or organized play along with the browsing?
Huh???Are you conflating a gaming shop or gaming cafe, where they have a thousand games free to play lining the walls, and charges 5 bucks every time you come there to play a game with some DM that says I am charging 25 bucks a head for a 4-5 hour gaming session?????
I'm legit confused....
FLGS is like the comic/mini/ttrpg/board games shop to me.
You seem to be talking about a gaming cafe maybe?
The way you described it seems like a shop.... Which to me why would you pay to just browse games/comics?
But now I think you mean a shop that has board games that you can rent table time to play? I mean my FLGS let's me do that for free
Seriously please describe your "shop"?
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So let me get this straight....you think its reasonable to charge just to enter the store but find it unreasonable that they would ask for pay for AL or organized play?
My FLGS doesn't charge you to come in and browse/talk at all. I would personally find it harder to justify pay a "pass" to come in to just browse at all then I would to pay the same amount as a "pass" to play AL for the month.
What if your store raised the cost of the pass to $20 a month but that also allowed you to play AL or organized play along with the browsing?
There is nothing wrong with the monetization of a hobby, and it is a good thing as it offers people who pay more options. Bethseda has monetized the modding hobby of Skyrim and Fall Out for example, but free mods are still there and they continue to be made.
Monetization of GMing would not affect you since you will still have issues finding GMs as players outnumber GMs either way. If monetization is going to affect you, it is going to be a postive since paid GMs will take away some of the pressure on free GMs by absorbing players who are willing to pay.
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I thought about the pay to play route being a crippled old vet (good times in iraq and the 'stan) but I then thought about my NCO creed and also I would have to limit my imagination and be beholden to the players, after all they did pay. But I ended up rejecting that idea, now I can go full drill sergeant (best DM's are old Marines, Sailors and Soldiers) mode on them when as I see fit as well as my imagination not being limited by payments and what not.
As for DM reviews, I do not care either way. I try to be fair to all, But if your a turd or the group drives me nuts, I'll drop them like a recruit on his first day of boot.
I'm legit confused....
FLGS is like the comic/mini/ttrpg/board games shop to me.
You seem to be talking about a gaming cafe maybe?
The way you described it seems like a shop.... Which to me why would you pay to just browse games/comics?
But now I think you mean a shop that has board games that you can rent table time to play? I mean my FLGS let's me do that for free
Seriously please describe your "shop"?