As is pretty obvious from my post, the critique is of people who move past “Wizards is supporting digital play” (an undeniable reality) into the conspiratorial territory of “because they want to kill pen and paper play for [insert conspiratorial reason].” That is the conspiracy being addressed in the quote you picked - and it is a conspiracy theory that very clearly does exist, usually perpetuated by the same people who hate Wizards and want to ensure others hate Wizards also.
And it works, because there is some element of truth. Wizards is focusing on digital play… the conspiracy theorists ignore this is not a 2024 trend, but something that started 17 years ago… and, to date, never did any of the harms they claim it will cause. And Wizards is putting a lot more resources into digital than pen and paper… which sounds scary, until you apply basic common sense. After all, pen and paper does most of its own support - Wizards releases a book, perhaps does some promotions and events, releases miniatures… but players themselves are doing all the rest. Digital obviously takes more effort - Wizards has to build and maintain systems, instead of players doing it on their own.
These conspiracy theorists take the correct information in your post - then take everything a step further into “and here’s how it is evil and you should be afraid” territory, seeking to turn folks against pretty mundane and easy to avoid digitization. It is yet another instance of conspiracy trumping reality and resulting in some misapplied hate against 2024.
Which, again, I think has some hope - Wizards is consistently making it clear digitization is an “and” situation, not an “instead” situation. With luck, some of the folks who see digitization as a threat to how they will play might realize “oh, I can still buy books and play as I always had” and move past the conspiratorial elements turning them away from 2024.
It was only yesterday when Wizards of the Coast were promoting D&D over World of Warcraft as a pastime with ads talking about how the game will never 'crash' on you.
Their capriciousness in this regard would suggest the rigidity with which you assert they will never abandon the game's pen-and-paper origins is profoundly naive.
Source?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
Worth remembering that buying D&D books, whether physically or digitally, is entirely optional. You can play without spending a penny. You can use the free rules given out on DDB, you can go to Creative Commons to download the SRD, you can home brew anything you like that you stumble across on the internet. Is it expensive to buy everything? Absolutely (although I do agree with TieflingLew’s benefit per hour point) but there’s few other companies that make it quite so easy to not pay them for their product
Telling those who aren't as well off as you might be to just play without books because they can do that is a take I guess.
It's one that reminds me of when I was in school and my family unable to afford the school's materials fees. A public school's materials fees mind you. My art teacher made me make do with cheap acrylic paint when my peers were using oil paint and watercolors and other media. Do you have any idea how demoralizing that is?
Poverty is a real thing. Minimizing how terrible it is by just telling people they can go without is grossly insensitive.
Now I am sure your response is going to be that D&D is a 'luxury pastime.'
Is it? I was poor and able to play just fine in the '80s. It is only really now when we are seeing pushed on us the notion that each and every player requires a copy of the rules. Now it might be seen as a luxury pastime. So much for how it 'used to be' a game only played by middle class white kids. I am neither middle class nor white.
Buddy....this has nothing to do with race and/or class.
Someone paid at some point for the stuff to play DND back in your childhood.
Most tables do not, in fact, require every individual to have their own PHB, physical or digital, despite Hasbro's push. It is very base to suggest that everyone buys such like they're allegedly mind-controlled to by marketing.
DND has NEVER been "free". Inflated in price, but never "free".
And again....what in the Nine Hells does this have to do with race & class? Someone in your childhood paid for the stuff, & it made its way to you. That's still possible.
Ah yes, the famously free Red Box from TSR, Dungeon & Dragon Magazines from Paizo, & minatures.
Totally free. Didn't cost a dime, subscriptions & postage, or the cost of materials.
Just like Beyond was a free Archives of Nethys-style wiki before the buyout...
oh wait....
It's almost like DND was NEVER "free".
This is a common misconception, that DND was "free" back in the day.
I grew up in poverty and yet afforded the Mentzer red box in '83 or thenabouts just fine. Using money I had made from selling to friends books I did not need. My friends and I used the same ruleset as the base system at our tables until the release of 2nd. Edition in 1989.
This might be comparable to buying the starter set today and never buying those three rulebooks that make up the 'advanced' rules. Until the next edition drops.
But let's not pretend that today the messaging isn't that each and every player 'requires' the rules. Even advertising on social media leading up to the release of the 2024 ruleset was saying the three books were required for the 'full D&D experience.' Something that is simply not true. But you can't blame people for complaining when the 'full D&D experience' is out of reach.
Worth remembering that buying D&D books, whether physically or digitally, is entirely optional. You can play without spending a penny. You can use the free rules given out on DDB, you can go to Creative Commons to download the SRD, you can home brew anything you like that you stumble across on the internet. Is it expensive to buy everything? Absolutely (although I do agree with TieflingLew’s benefit per hour point) but there’s few other companies that make it quite so easy to not pay them for their product
Poverty is a real thing. Minimizing how terrible it is by just telling people they can go without is grossly insensitive.
Now I am sure your response is going to be that D&D is a 'luxury pastime.'
Is it? I was poor and able to play just fine in the '80s. It is only really now when we are seeing pushed on us the notion that each and every player requires a copy of the rules. Now it might be seen as a luxury pastime. So much for how it 'used to be' a game only played by middle class white kids. I am neither middle class nor white.
I'm sorry to say that it ain't the 80s anymore, it sucks but that's the reality... Also that $20 you spent back in the 80s is now equivalent to spending $77 in today's market....
Ah yes, the famously free Red Box from TSR, Dungeon & Dragon Magazines from Paizo, & minatures.
Totally free. Didn't cost a dime, subscriptions & postage, or the cost of materials.
Just like Beyond was a free Archives of Nethys-style wiki before the buyout...
oh wait....
It's almost like DND was NEVER "free".
This is a common misconception, that DND was "free" back in the day.
I grew up in poverty and yet afforded the Mentzer red box in '83 or thenabouts just fine. Using money I had made from selling to friends books I did not need. My friends and I used the same ruleset as the base system at our tables until the release of 2nd. Edition in 1989.
This might be comparable to buying the starter set today and never buying those three rulebooks that make up the 'advanced' rules. Until the next edition drops.
But let's not pretend that today the messaging isn't that each and every player 'requires' the rules. Even advertising on social media leading up to the release of the 2024 ruleset was saying the three books were required for the 'full D&D experience.' Something that is simply not true. But you can't blame people for complaining when the 'full D&D experience' is out of reach.
If you'd bothered to read my second reply, I pretty much guessed that *someone* in your past afforded it.
There is an abject difference between a marketing push, & people OBEYING it. You seem to think people are incapable of telling the marketing "no".
Marketing is not mind control, & it is VERY base to suggest otherwise.
When in real life have you personally ever encountered a table(Physical or digital) where everyone involved had a paid physical and/or digital set of all 3 books? Be honest.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
"Your mighty band of heroes will never be defeated by a server crash."
Wizards ran these ads in comic books in the 2000s.
I have been playing for about four decades. I remember well when Wizards of the Coast bought out TSR. How many players at the time were worried this would mean the game would suffer as it became little more than just another scam. Which is what many players of D&D saw their collectible card game as.
Belonging now to Hasbro it is a publicly traded company. If it looks more profitable to abandon pen-and-paper altogether then that is what they will do.
Physical book sales are not doing well. Look at how many copies of Tasha's sold. Within no time. Then look at how many of each of the core books have sold. The new rules are underperforming unless you take into account digital sales.
What message do you reckon that sends to those at the top?
Worth remembering that buying D&D books, whether physically or digitally, is entirely optional. You can play without spending a penny. You can use the free rules given out on DDB, you can go to Creative Commons to download the SRD, you can home brew anything you like that you stumble across on the internet. Is it expensive to buy everything? Absolutely (although I do agree with TieflingLew’s benefit per hour point) but there’s few other companies that make it quite so easy to not pay them for their product
Poverty is a real thing. Minimizing how terrible it is by just telling people they can go without is grossly insensitive.
Now I am sure your response is going to be that D&D is a 'luxury pastime.'
Is it? I was poor and able to play just fine in the '80s. It is only really now when we are seeing pushed on us the notion that each and every player requires a copy of the rules. Now it might be seen as a luxury pastime. So much for how it 'used to be' a game only played by middle class white kids. I am neither middle class nor white.
I'm sorry to say that it ain't the 80s anymore, it sucks but that's the reality... Also that $20 you spent back in the 80s is now equivalent to spending $77 in today's market....
It shouldn't be that expensive. Megacorps artificially upped prices & cut manufacturing costs while providing less & less in the base package(This, however, ignores how TSR had Paizo deliver content in piecemeal via magazines).
THAT I can agree with.
But the whole "marketing is mind control" thing is VERY base, ESPECIALLY with TTRPGs.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
Buddy....this has nothing to do with race and/or class.
Someone paid at some point for the stuff to play DND back in your childhood.
Most tables do not, in fact, require every individual to have their own PHB, physical or digital, despite Hasbro's push. It is very base to suggest that everyone buys such like they're allegedly mind-controlled to by marketing.
DND has NEVER been "free". Inflated in price, but never "free".
And again....what in the Nine Hells does this have to do with race & class? Someone in your childhood paid for the stuff, & it made its way to you. That's still possible.
What does it have to do with race and class? Did you miss how the anniversary book suggests in its introductory text that the game 'used to be' a hobby only really enjoyed by middle class white kids?
Like I said: I wasn't in '83 when I started playing.
I'm sorry to say that it ain't the 80s anymore, it sucks but that's the reality... Also that $20 you spent back in the 80s is now equivalent to spending $77 in today's market....
Salaries have not risen to contend with decades of inflation. And if that box was 20 dollars then and I could just afford it by having to sell things to friends of mine given my family had little to no money how do you figure a family with little to money today can afford 77?
It ain't the '80s no more. Things have become more expensive. And further out of reach of those who don't live in relative luxury.
If you'd bothered to read my second reply, I pretty much guessed that *someone* in your past afforded it.
There is an abject difference between a marketing push, & people OBEYING it. You seem to think people are incapable of telling the marketing "no".
Marketing is not mind control, & it is VERY base to suggest otherwise.
When in real life have you personally ever encountered a table(Physical or digital) where everyone involved had a paid physical and/or digital set of all 3 books? Be honest.
People are capable of telling the market No. Doesn't excuse dishonest marketing.
You could run a poll here if you doubt what I say when I say most players these days own the rules.
Players don't even need to own the PHB. Not if a DM runs things like they used to be run.
I'm sorry to say that it ain't the 80s anymore, it sucks but that's the reality... Also that $20 you spent back in the 80s is now equivalent to spending $77 in today's market....
Salaries have not risen to contend with decades of inflation. And if that box was 20 dollars then and I could just afford it by having to sell things to friends of mine given my family had little to no money how do you figure a family with little to money today can afford 77?
It ain't the '80s no more. Things have become more expensive. And further out of reach of those who don't live in relative luxury.
Buddy....this has nothing to do with race and/or class.
Someone paid at some point for the stuff to play DND back in your childhood.
Most tables do not, in fact, require every individual to have their own PHB, physical or digital, despite Hasbro's push. It is very base to suggest that everyone buys such like they're allegedly mind-controlled to by marketing.
DND has NEVER been "free". Inflated in price, but never "free".
And again....what in the Nine Hells does this have to do with race & class? Someone in your childhood paid for the stuff, & it made its way to you. That's still possible.
What does it have to do with race and class? Did you miss how the anniversary book suggests in its introductory text that the game 'used to be' a hobby only really enjoyed by middle class white kids?
Like I said: I wasn't in '83 when I started playing.
Do you want an errata to say "Mostly"?
Is that what this is about?
Just demand the line be changed via errata, & suddenly you won't feel conspired specifically against.
Also, to make that $20...how much child labor were you exploited for?
I'm sorry to say that it ain't the 80s anymore, it sucks but that's the reality... Also that $20 you spent back in the 80s is now equivalent to spending $77 in today's market....
Salaries have not risen to contend with decades of inflation. And if that box was 20 dollars then and I could just afford it by having to sell things to friends of mine given my family had little to no money how do you figure a family with little to money today can afford 77?
It ain't the '80s no more. Things have become more expensive. And further out of reach of those who don't live in relative luxury.
Exactly the same way back then... Budgeting and time or share with a friend...
Also by "luxury" most people ain't referencing cost but instead that it's not a necessary purchase that anyone has to make, it is a choice of the individual whether or not they spend their money on a game with for the most part 0 value outside of entertainment.
Also by "luxury" most people ain't referencing cost but instead that it's not a necessary purchase that anyone has to make, it is a choice of the individual whether or not they spend their money on a game with for the most part 0 value outside of entertainment.
As I said before:
Poverty is a real thing. Minimizing how terrible it is by just telling people they can go without is grossly insensitive.
Why is it that capitalism and those who sing its praises are so monstrous except when it comes to Wizards of the Coast who seem to get wholly absolved just because they make something you like?
How about the costs of movie tickets?
Should theaters no longer have discounted tickets for pensioners and struggling students?
Because going to the movies has 'for the most part 0 value outside of entertainment.'
If you'd bothered to read my second reply, I pretty much guessed that *someone* in your past afforded it.
There is an abject difference between a marketing push, & people OBEYING it. You seem to think people are incapable of telling the marketing "no".
Marketing is not mind control, & it is VERY base to suggest otherwise.
When in real life have you personally ever encountered a table(Physical or digital) where everyone involved had a paid physical and/or digital set of all 3 books? Be honest.
People are capable of telling the market No. Doesn't excuse dishonest marketing.
You could run a poll here if you doubt what I say when I say most players these days own the rules.
Players don't even need to own the PHB. Not if a DM runs things like they used to be run.
I never said it did. I, from experience, doubt the marketing manifests in reality outside of social media's ecosystems.
Yeah, I know how statistical distortion works. Nice try.
Do you honestly think people don't share materials to the degree they used to back in the day? Beyond & social media don't represent reality in totality.
Heaven forbid I personally did exactly that, & have also been with 3 groups that just had a G-ring binder full of printed copies made at the library because people can't afford the books.
I DO agree that prices SHOULD go down, & that that statement in the anniversary book were too absolute.
But this is not the thread for that.
People DO find a way to love the game & product, even through hardship & Hasbro glut, though they shouldn't HAVE to. That's the point.
Also by "luxury" most people ain't referencing cost but instead that it's not a necessary purchase that anyone has to make, it is a choice of the individual whether or not they spend their money on a game with for the most part 0 value outside of entertainment.
As I said before:
Poverty is a real thing. Minimizing how terrible it is by just telling people they can go without is grossly insensitive.
Why is it that capitalism and those who sing its praises are so monstrous except when it comes to Wizards of the Coast who seem to get wholly absolved just because they make something you like?
Then in this case I'm grossly insensitive and I'll leave it there so the conversation as to why people either have love or hate.
Worth remembering that buying D&D books, whether physically or digitally, is entirely optional. You can play without spending a penny. You can use the free rules given out on DDB, you can go to Creative Commons to download the SRD, you can home brew anything you like that you stumble across on the internet. Is it expensive to buy everything? Absolutely (although I do agree with TieflingLew’s benefit per hour point) but there’s few other companies that make it quite so easy to not pay them for their product
Telling those who aren't as well off as you might be to just play without books because they can do that is a take I guess.
It's one that reminds me of when I was in school and my family unable to afford the school's materials fees. A public school's materials fees mind you. My art teacher made me make do with cheap acrylic paint when my peers were using oil paint and watercolors and other media. Do you have any idea how demoralizing that is?
Poverty is a real thing. Minimizing how terrible it is by just telling people they can go without is grossly insensitive.
Now I am sure your response is going to be that D&D is a 'luxury pastime.'
Is it? I was poor and able to play just fine in the '80s. It is only really now when we are seeing pushed on us the notion that each and every player requires a copy of the rules. Now it might be seen as a luxury pastime. So much for how it 'used to be' a game only played by middle class white kids. I am neither middle class nor white.
Please do not put words in my mouth to try and create a strawman you can argue against. I never mentioned class or race, that's entirely on you.
What I can say is that I currently run two separate kids clubs, the equavalent of the teenage you you mention. Not a single one of them has paid any money to join, any money to play. Thanks to D&D Beyond, and my totally independent decision to buy rules books and campaigns and share those, that's close to 20 kids that are playing D&D for free both with me and at home. As someone pointed out above, and you seem to have ignored, D&D was never free to play and the fact you didn't pay for the red box you were using doesn't change the fact someone somewhere paid for it.
D&D is probably more free than at any other time because in the 80s you couldn't go to Creative Commons and download 100s of pages of rules and the only way to borrow books back then was to physically lend them. Now I just email a link to the parents and 20 kids at once can borrow the one book I paid for
Do you honestly think people don't share materials to the degree they used to back in the day?
They obviously don't.
Because in the past at many tables the rules were seen as being for the DM's eyes only.
Throughout the entire lifecycle of 2nd. Edition one guy in my hometown owned a copy of even the PHB.
Today most players want to know the rules back to front so they can 'build' the most optimal [insert class and archetype]. And so they buy the PHB.
The hobby has seen such a reorientation when it comes to the role of the DM that it was inevitable most players would come to believe they had to have their own copy of the PHB.
Even Wizards of the Coast themselves have talked about how in the past DMs just tended to buy the books and how this wasn't the best sales model. They would rather people be making what are really unnecessary purchases.
Also by "luxury" most people ain't referencing cost but instead that it's not a necessary purchase that anyone has to make, it is a choice of the individual whether or not they spend their money on a game with for the most part 0 value outside of entertainment.
As I said before:
Poverty is a real thing. Minimizing how terrible it is by just telling people they can go without is grossly insensitive.
Why is it that capitalism and those who sing its praises are so monstrous except when it comes to Wizards of the Coast who seem to get wholly absolved just because they make something you like?
How about the costs of movie tickets?
Should theaters no longer have discounted tickets for pensioners and struggling students?
Because going to the movies has 'for the most part 0 value outside of entertainment.'
This isn't the thread to demand mass de-inflation by every megacorporation & the world's governments, tho.
You're technically right that things cost too much, & that shrinkflation hit DND HARD. People shouldn't have to find ways to escape the hellhole.
But attributing blanket malice to the end users is too far.
And isn't something that's appropriate for this forum.
As far as I'm concerned...people can & do enjoy the game, sometimes in ways they shouldn't have to, social media/forums induce statistical distortion due to bias & emotion getting in the way of charts & graphs produced, & that line should be changed in the anniversary book because it's too absolutist while trying to be positive.
Not responding anymore.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Source?
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
Buddy....this has nothing to do with race and/or class.
Someone paid at some point for the stuff to play DND back in your childhood.
Most tables do not, in fact, require every individual to have their own PHB, physical or digital, despite Hasbro's push. It is very base to suggest that everyone buys such like they're allegedly mind-controlled to by marketing.
DND has NEVER been "free". Inflated in price, but never "free".
And again....what in the Nine Hells does this have to do with race & class? Someone in your childhood paid for the stuff, & it made its way to you. That's still possible.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
I grew up in poverty and yet afforded the Mentzer red box in '83 or thenabouts just fine. Using money I had made from selling to friends books I did not need. My friends and I used the same ruleset as the base system at our tables until the release of 2nd. Edition in 1989.
This might be comparable to buying the starter set today and never buying those three rulebooks that make up the 'advanced' rules. Until the next edition drops.
But let's not pretend that today the messaging isn't that each and every player 'requires' the rules. Even advertising on social media leading up to the release of the 2024 ruleset was saying the three books were required for the 'full D&D experience.' Something that is simply not true. But you can't blame people for complaining when the 'full D&D experience' is out of reach.
I'm sorry to say that it ain't the 80s anymore, it sucks but that's the reality... Also that $20 you spent back in the 80s is now equivalent to spending $77 in today's market....
If you'd bothered to read my second reply, I pretty much guessed that *someone* in your past afforded it.
There is an abject difference between a marketing push, & people OBEYING it. You seem to think people are incapable of telling the marketing "no".
Marketing is not mind control, & it is VERY base to suggest otherwise.
When in real life have you personally ever encountered a table(Physical or digital) where everyone involved had a paid physical and/or digital set of all 3 books? Be honest.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
"Your mighty band of heroes will never be defeated by a server crash."
Wizards ran these ads in comic books in the 2000s.
I have been playing for about four decades. I remember well when Wizards of the Coast bought out TSR. How many players at the time were worried this would mean the game would suffer as it became little more than just another scam. Which is what many players of D&D saw their collectible card game as.
Belonging now to Hasbro it is a publicly traded company. If it looks more profitable to abandon pen-and-paper altogether then that is what they will do.
Physical book sales are not doing well. Look at how many copies of Tasha's sold. Within no time. Then look at how many of each of the core books have sold. The new rules are underperforming unless you take into account digital sales.
What message do you reckon that sends to those at the top?
It shouldn't be that expensive. Megacorps artificially upped prices & cut manufacturing costs while providing less & less in the base package(This, however, ignores how TSR had Paizo deliver content in piecemeal via magazines).
THAT I can agree with.
But the whole "marketing is mind control" thing is VERY base, ESPECIALLY with TTRPGs.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
What does it have to do with race and class? Did you miss how the anniversary book suggests in its introductory text that the game 'used to be' a hobby only really enjoyed by middle class white kids?
Like I said: I wasn't in '83 when I started playing.
Salaries have not risen to contend with decades of inflation. And if that box was 20 dollars then and I could just afford it by having to sell things to friends of mine given my family had little to no money how do you figure a family with little to money today can afford 77?
It ain't the '80s no more. Things have become more expensive. And further out of reach of those who don't live in relative luxury.
People are capable of telling the market No. Doesn't excuse dishonest marketing.
You could run a poll here if you doubt what I say when I say most players these days own the rules.
Players don't even need to own the PHB. Not if a DM runs things like they used to be run.
Do you want an errata to say "Mostly"?
Is that what this is about?
Just demand the line be changed via errata, & suddenly you won't feel conspired specifically against.
Also, to make that $20...how much child labor were you exploited for?
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
Exactly the same way back then... Budgeting and time or share with a friend...
Also by "luxury" most people ain't referencing cost but instead that it's not a necessary purchase that anyone has to make, it is a choice of the individual whether or not they spend their money on a game with for the most part 0 value outside of entertainment.
Using money I had made from selling to friends books I did not need.
Seems you missed this.
As I said before:
Poverty is a real thing. Minimizing how terrible it is by just telling people they can go without is grossly insensitive.
Why is it that capitalism and those who sing its praises are so monstrous except when it comes to Wizards of the Coast who seem to get wholly absolved just because they make something you like?
How about the costs of movie tickets?
Should theaters no longer have discounted tickets for pensioners and struggling students?
Because going to the movies has 'for the most part 0 value outside of entertainment.'
I never said it did. I, from experience, doubt the marketing manifests in reality outside of social media's ecosystems.
Yeah, I know how statistical distortion works. Nice try.
Do you honestly think people don't share materials to the degree they used to back in the day? Beyond & social media don't represent reality in totality.
Heaven forbid I personally did exactly that, & have also been with 3 groups that just had a G-ring binder full of printed copies made at the library because people can't afford the books.
I DO agree that prices SHOULD go down, & that that statement in the anniversary book were too absolute.
But this is not the thread for that.
People DO find a way to love the game & product, even through hardship & Hasbro glut, though they shouldn't HAVE to. That's the point.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
Then in this case I'm grossly insensitive and I'll leave it there so the conversation as to why people either have love or hate.
You still had to give up something & act as an unpaid salesman for books.
The book companies should have paid you.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
Please do not put words in my mouth to try and create a strawman you can argue against. I never mentioned class or race, that's entirely on you.
What I can say is that I currently run two separate kids clubs, the equavalent of the teenage you you mention. Not a single one of them has paid any money to join, any money to play. Thanks to D&D Beyond, and my totally independent decision to buy rules books and campaigns and share those, that's close to 20 kids that are playing D&D for free both with me and at home. As someone pointed out above, and you seem to have ignored, D&D was never free to play and the fact you didn't pay for the red box you were using doesn't change the fact someone somewhere paid for it.
D&D is probably more free than at any other time because in the 80s you couldn't go to Creative Commons and download 100s of pages of rules and the only way to borrow books back then was to physically lend them. Now I just email a link to the parents and 20 kids at once can borrow the one book I paid for
They obviously don't.
Because in the past at many tables the rules were seen as being for the DM's eyes only.
Throughout the entire lifecycle of 2nd. Edition one guy in my hometown owned a copy of even the PHB.
Today most players want to know the rules back to front so they can 'build' the most optimal [insert class and archetype]. And so they buy the PHB.
The hobby has seen such a reorientation when it comes to the role of the DM that it was inevitable most players would come to believe they had to have their own copy of the PHB.
Even Wizards of the Coast themselves have talked about how in the past DMs just tended to buy the books and how this wasn't the best sales model. They would rather people be making what are really unnecessary purchases.
This isn't the thread to demand mass de-inflation by every megacorporation & the world's governments, tho.
You're technically right that things cost too much, & that shrinkflation hit DND HARD. People shouldn't have to find ways to escape the hellhole.
But attributing blanket malice to the end users is too far.
And isn't something that's appropriate for this forum.
As far as I'm concerned...people can & do enjoy the game, sometimes in ways they shouldn't have to, social media/forums induce statistical distortion due to bias & emotion getting in the way of charts & graphs produced, & that line should be changed in the anniversary book because it's too absolutist while trying to be positive.
Not responding anymore.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.