The only context in which I encounter attention being paid to a new #ttrpg product is that it is in the process of being crowd-funded.

99% of these things vanish without a trace even upon successful crowd-funding.

That's not a great sign for a culture is it? It's a bit like that scene in the Big Short where they go and check out some mortgaged property and it turns out it's a half-finished development on swamp land owned by a load of strippers who took out 100 year mortgages.

I've said this before but I think that a) it's quite sad the way that people poor time, effort, and money into making games only to be met with absolute cultural indifference.

And b) this thing of the hobby being propped up by a couple of thousand people kick-starting endless books they never read is just not sustainable in the long run.

@Taskerland I think part of that indifference is due to the sheer amount of material pumped out. If you try to keep up with it across all of the little niches, it's overwhelming

Everyone playing is encouraged to create. Creators are encouraged to monetize. Monetizing requires marketing hype.

I wonder how things would be if crowdfunding didn't have those initial breakout successes.

I've said this before but I think that a) it's quite sad the way that people poor time, effort, and money into making games only to be met with absolute cultural indifference.

And b) this thing of the hobby being propped up by a couple of thousand people kick-starting endless books they never read is just not sustainable in the long run.

@kevin @Taskerland This is definitely part of it. Further, what's being pumped out is in such increasingly narrow niches that the player base is going to automatically shrink.

My most recent physical purchase is a case in point. I happen to adore the idea of dieselpunk, so Tomorrow City attracted my attention and I bought it on a whimsy in my trip across Canada.

I'm sure there's at least seven people in the world who want a storytelling Fate-like game with a dieselpunk-meets-fantasy theme!

@Taskerland I think part of that indifference is due to the sheer amount of material pumped out. If you try to keep up with it across all of the little niches, it's overwhelming

Everyone playing is encouraged to create. Creators are encouraged to monetize. Monetizing requires marketing hype.

I wonder how things would be if crowdfunding didn't have those initial breakout successes.

@kevin @Taskerland Everyone's encouraged to create and monetize but there's really no cultural impetus to do it well.

Which is both good and bad, really.

It's just _more_ bad.

@SJohnRoss It's badder