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I had to remove a comment on the blog this morning. I don't think it was up long and with Google's on and off again server problems today, I doubt many people saw it. Thankfully. It was a diatribe against people like me who do not support current editions of D&D. Normally, I would have left such a comment up and replied to it, but the comment was made to my post on Gary's death, almost 10% of the words in the post were profanity, and there were insults to Gary in the comment.
Good grief...kids these days eh?
The poster's argument was basically that those of us who refuse to "get with the program" and abandon older editions for the latest edition from the current publisher are harming the D&D hobby by:
- not buying current books which hurts the profits of WOTC and Hasbro making it less likely that they will continue to publish D&D materials.
- fragmenting the hobby. When everyone plays the same edition and plays it by all the books, it makes it easier for players to find games. The more people refuse to upgrade to the latest version every few years, the more fragmented the hobby becomes and the harder it is to find players.
The first argument is partly valid, I concede that. If people do not buy a company's product in sufficient number it will tend to be phased out. Just look at all the gaming companies which went belly up when the Magic:TG and D20 crazes began.
However, the poster forgets none of us is under any obligation whatsoever to purchace any company's products. he might as well attack my grandfather accusing him of never having bought a RPG or boardgame or video game during his lifetime, thus "harming" the industry
The second argument is silly and bears a hint of gaming facism. The poster is basicaly whining that if not everyone plays his favourite game there is a possibility that any particular gaming group he finds will not be running it...duh.
It's like advocating the banning of hollywood action movies because you feel they aren't doing enough romantic comedies.
I don't know about you, but I don't feel any obligation to keep WOTC or Hasbro in the black and I feel that the second argument makes as little sense as saying that American Football fans should stop watching their favorite sport and support Soccer (Football to the rest of the world) because Soccer is the more popular game.
Amen.
I don't buy gaming material to "keep a company afloat" or anything like that. Actually, at this point in life I have an extended RPG library and I don't believe I have the need to purchase any RPG material for years to come. That's how long it would take me to literary use all the stuff I own if I wanted to. Not to mention that the current avaiability of free material on the internet these days, including fully playable rule systems that cater to a diversity of tastes extend this period even longer.
Unless WoTC comes out with a brand-new, revolutionary, "kick-ass", unique, remarkabely user-friendly (from both the GM and player prespective) roleplaying game which appeals to my personal tastes and cannot be emulated by any of the current games I own...they will not be seeing a penny of my money.
What do you think? Are we fans of older versions of D&D hurting the hobby by our refusal to fall in love with, buy, and play the current edition of D&D?
Of course we are. Exactly the same way "the hobby" hurts us fans of older versions of D&D by its refusal to produce, promote and market material for our older editions of D&D.
What goes around comes around...