TTRPG: The Woke List

I don't blog a whole heck of a lot once #RPGaDAY is over for the year, but it seems that another TTRPG controversy has been brewing over the last few days. There is a list out--no link provided. You can find it easy enough and those that know already know anyway--that breaks down some of the big name TTRPG companies down by how woke they are. Long post less long, TTRPG creator John Wick is angry because he didn't make the list. I responded on a YouTube discussion with the following...I liked it so much that I saved it below:

The first 7th Sea 2nd edition KS project--back in 2016 so only around five years ago--was great. It was the top backed project on KS for a long time, and I was among those backers. 

The follow-up has been a disappointing disaster to say the least. The KS for 7th Sea Khitai funded and the product was due for delivery way back in August 2018. That's pre-WuHan Flu by a couple of years. He got fat on all that sweet, sweet KS money and fell way behind. He is currently partnered with Chaosium to sell the existing products and for help in completing the outstanding ones, and--to his credit--he never "skipped town" and still updates us and shows the PDFs as the project slowly makes its way to completion. However, by this point any real interest I had in playing has fallen by the wayside. 

The list itself was not meant as an enemies list. It was used to make consumers--mostly conservatives--aware of what these companies and games represent. Most gamers want the game to be apolitical the WOKE SJW types see the hobby as a means of pushing their agenda, and many of us don't want anything to do with it. It's not a bad thing to support the companies that stand for what you believe in, and there's no reason to spend your money on a company or product line that hates you or pushes "morals" that you portend to disagree with. That said, I will be buying 'Witchlight'. I want it and it doesn't matter to me if Wizards of the Woke is the publisher or not. On the other hand, I will not be buying D&D "prom night" or similarly themed "snowflake/safe place" products and it wouldn't matter who published it--it just happens to be Wizards. At the end of the day everyone should vote for what they're interested in with their wallets, play with the people they like to play with and play the way they like to play--just as it's always been. 

One last thing, politically speaking, I don't care if the company is good, bad or indifferent. If they can't deliver their product in a timely manner, they will not get financial support from me--and thus is the fate of John Wick.

#RPGaDAY2021:Day 28--DELVE

 #RPGaDAY2021 for day 28 I rolled a '4' and got 'Delve'.

From a quick Google search I get this:

"What does it mean to delve deeper?

to examine something carefully in order to discover more information about someone or something:

It's not always a good idea to delve too deeply into someone's past".

Depending on one's level of sensitivity that might be good advice. Sometimes one can look back on a person's life--particularly someone we admire--and find statements they may have said or beliefs they held that would be problematic--so called--in today's society. Even more tricky is when the person is no longer with us to defend themselves or clarify their statements. Of course my hope would be--in the case of most TTRPG pioneers--that they would double-down on the "offense" and tell the snowflakes to grow a pair, but I digress.

Notwithstanding the fact that I am far more offended by what is deemed, "acceptable, normal behavior" today, than what was common in the fairly recent past, it wouldn't take too much digging to find something published or said that one doesn't agree with. That doesn't mean you need to CANCEL the past or clutch your pearls and add disclaimers to the front of everything.

We're focused on TTRPGs here, but clearly this happens with all sorts of media. I'm not sure when people became so sensitive and started "straining on the gnats while swallowing the camels" to paraphrase another book from the past that people get offended by, but it certainly wasn't that way back in the 80's and 90's.

All that rambling and preambling to say that for those who are daring enough to delve deep into the dark past of Dungeons and Dragon, you should checkout 'Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana: A Visual History'. No doubt it has probably been sanitized for our consumption, but there is a lot of great artwork showing how D&D evolved from past to present--including some "spicy" advertising campaigns that will probably have snowflakes demanding the book come with a warning label. I'll give one myself.

WARNING: Product was produced in 2018 and the level of WOKENESS among the professionally offended grows exponentially with each passing year. BEWARE!

Side Note: If you never watched 'Song of the South' you should rectify that at your earliest convienence. While everything is subjective to the viewer's own tastes, I find it to be a sweet and gentle movie with a lot of classic animation and humor that only the flakiest snowflakes would find offensive in the least.

RPGaDAY: Day 14--Momentum

 #RPGaDAY2021 and for day 14 I rolled a '4' for the 'momentum' prompt.

You know what's losing momentum? My summer vacation. I'm down to the last week off--with 7 week days additional planning time without students which counts as continued vacation for me. Nevertheless, when RPGaDay is over, so is my time away from the kids.

You know what's gaining momentum? The backlash to the WOKE. So many normal people are starting to realize that the companies that own the IPs that they used to love have no love for them, and that one doesn't have to support an inferior TV show, movie or dare I say TTRPG manufacturer just because they slap the name of a beloved franchise on it. I like that in short order we more or less said 'No!' to Masters of the Universe. I'm pleased that Mr. Potato Head gets to stay a Mister. I'm filled with joy that the ratings for all major awards shows and sporting events are in the toilet. I'm actually a little disappointed that 'The Suicide Squad' got caught in the backlash--it's a good movie, check it out! But momentum is clearly on the side of normal people.

Overall, apart from said collateral damage, I'm feeling better about the pop-culture community at large these past few months than I have in years. I think we--who support tradition--are voting with our wallets. Which for all their pandering and virtue signalling is all that really matters to these huge companies. The momentum is with us. If we want to be culture warriors and steer away from the SJW madness, then we should only spend money on products that speak to us and let the market decide. Wonderfilled (formerly part of TSR 3.0), for a recent example, has refused to take the knee in spite of the pressure, so we should support them--I'm afraid to because they haven't delivered their products yet, but still. Solarian Games (formerly TSR 2.0) is another company that wanted no part of controversy, but just produces small indy games wherein gaming is the focus, not politics. At the same time, don't support the stuff that you don't believe in. Just because a company's logo is slapped on it and you want to be a completionist, it doesn't mean you should buy-in--it sends the message to companies to make more of the same, and that's what you'll get.

RPGaDAY 2021: Day 9--Percentage

 Day 9 #RPGaDAY2021...yet another '4' and today's topic shall be Percentage. I can't resist doing this one so:

TRIGGER WARNING!!!

It is well-documented in the culture wars that a certain vocal demographic has demanded and unfortunately, brought about changes to various hobbies and pop-culture IPs including TTRPGs--and old timers like me aren't happy about it. From my perspective these WOKE, pandering companies are bending over backwards to please what is estimated at roughly 5.6% of the U.S. population. Keep in mind that far, far less than that have even a passing interest in TTRPGs, so why all the virtue signaling for such a small group of people often at the expense of the existing fanbase? I can't answer that, but I want to give some more facts and percentages that Wizards of the Woke and Panderizo may want to think about.

<from this article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20130604134550-284615-15-statistics-that-should-change-the-business-world-but-haven-t

* The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60 – 70%. The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20% – Marketing Metrics.

*For every customer complaint there are 26 other unhappy customers who have remained silent –Lee Resource.

*A 2% increase in customer retention has the same effect as decreasing costs by 10% – Leading on the Edge of Chaos, Emmet Murphy & Mark Murphy.

* A dissatisfied customer will tell between 9-15 people about their experience. Around 13% of dissatisfied customers tell more than 20 people. – White House Office of Consumer Affairs.

*A 5% reduction in the customer defection rate can increase profits by 5 – 95% – Bain & Company.

*It costs 6–7 times more to acquire a new customer than retain an existing one – Bain & Company.

*eCommerce spending for new customers is on average $24.50, compared to $52.50 for repeat customers – McKinsey.

*96% of unhappy customers don’t complain, however 91% of those will simply leave and never come back – 1Financial Training services.

So, what's the take away if that was TLTR? Companies should want to expand their audience, but not at the expense of the audience that actually..you know...buys their products. D&D in specific and TTRPGs in general are probably more popular than they've ever been, but are all the new SJW types lifers or are they as flighty as I perceive them to be? As for me...