Friday, September 20, 2019

Crass Commercialism

Well some of you may have noticed this blog has been down, restricting access for some time. For various reasons I've decided to step away from the OSR and the tabletop gaming web community - possibly permanently. Part my decision to withdraw is personal, I find myself with insufficient time and desire to write about games but I also have the sense that the 'OSR' scene this blog is devoted to has become a rather disgusting place where crass commercialization is strangling a formerly creative amateur community ...
Gus L., Dungeon of Signs 


In the last few years, I've seen several of this sort of post ~ not always expressing the end of their blog, but often disparaging selling of gaming products by single designers as "crass" and couched as detrimental to "creativity."  Gus L. goes on to include "alt-right" influences also causing his action, but we don't need to talk about that here.  I am quoting this blog only because I remembered where it was, so it was easy to find.  It is the sentiment that concerns me.

I don't want this to be a post excusing my behaviour, or explaining at length why I moved towards commercialism.  In 2015, I lost my comfortable job and turned to the internet as a means to help support myself.  I had published two books about role-playing in 2014, I published a third in 2015 ... and since then I've had a hard time of things.  I haven't been able to maintain reliable employment in an ongoing recession, along with tens of thousands of others in Calgary.  The news keeps saying the recession is coming and going, but no one I know has been able to identify any improvement since four years ago.

The most successful thing I've done has been to employ myself.  I am my only reliable source for income.  Three of the restaurants I've worked for in the last three years have closed permanently; the brick and mortar store I worked for last year is showing signs of collapse.  A straight job, working for a straight employer, obeying the cult of work, has been the bane of most everyone I know personally.  Amazon is killing retail employment across the board, and those I know who were comfortable in customer sales positions 10 years ago are scrambling for whatever they can find.

And this brings us to the subject of robotics replacing human employees, highlighted in at least one American presidential candidate running on a platform that acknowledges this is actually happening.  It is.  And while the magic solution of the government giving people money is a fantasy, the reality is that each and every one of us has one option left in the coming economy.

Find something you can do, and do well, then do it for money.  Being self-employed and a solitary worker, you can sell directly to your customers with a minimum of overhead, potentially finding the means to pay for your food, your rent and your small personal needs.  If you are too high-and-mighty to exploit your own abilities, because you believe abilities should be exploited traditionally by others who offer you a paycheque, and that self-employment is "crass," then may jeebus help you.  The capitalists and the government won't.

But, I would like to express an observation that has arisen out of my experience with this.  Success is often ... shall we say ... a bitch.  I've recently been told by a fellow artist [which I'm accepting as hearsay for now] that I am in the top 10% of earners on Patreon.  Yet I'm making barely a third of my needed income.  I make a bit more through my book-sales.  And I am quite often stressed by this, as anyone might be as they realize they need a second job or simply the panic they feel as they struggle to get more customers to walk into their shop.

I watched this happen three times with restaurants, as I said.  The managers cut the staff, they cut the hours, they cut the food quality, they cut the amount of food on the plates, they water the drinks, they adjust their hours, they police waste of every kind, they make the employees work insensibly on make-work tasks because they're being paid, after all ... and the stress level coming from the top increases palpably.  It is a frustrating and bitter thing to be manically polishing a restaurant until it glows for no customers that will ever come in.  When a restaurant bites the dust, it is often the cleanest it has ever been.

The worst part of commercialism is desperation.  The slow swing around the drain, knowing that you're going down, or merely the knowledge that you're not making enough and this can't last forever, is how it changes your intent.  We start thinking, "This is a good idea; I love this idea."  And we end thinking, "What can I sabotage?  What will keep me alive?"

Ladies and gentlemen, based on the receipts Mrs. Crummles has shown me, Liverpool has little relish for high-minded theatrical entertainments properly conducted. We must give them our pity. Now, we must give them something they will pay to see. "Romeo and Juliet."
Mr. Crummles, Nicholas Nickleby (2002)


Steadily, the all consuming purpose becomes, "What can I create, or write, that will win me an audience, since what I'm writing has such a limited appeal?"  And like polishing the brass and scrubbing the floors, and even pouring money into rebuilding the bar in an attempt to drum interest, there is always the risk that, no matter what we try, it won't work.  The fear that even if Mr. Crummles stages Romeo & Juliet, the ticket sales won't improve.

Maintaining your virtuosity in this mindset is difficult, for the pervading thought becomes, "Can I waste my time with this."  Years ago, when I lived comfortably and could afford to scatter my time, I could waste my hours with all kinds of things.  And now, there is a niggling voice in my head that is always saying, "Is there money at the end of this?"

I've never wanted that voice.  I watched that voice consume my 20-something friends decades ago, burying themselves in cars and houses and five-day trips to Cuba squeezed between ten hour days and mountains of stress.  Some of them were artists, who no longer sit at a piano or take up a brush to paint ... but they have space and means to travel and the enslavement of commitments.  I wanted to write.  I grew up in a wealthy neighborhood, I'd had space and travel, I'd ceased being impressed.  I wanted the freedom to waste time.  I think there is nothing so precious as having so much time that it can be wasted fruitfully and well.

But hauntingly, there is the voice.  The audience does not care for high-minded designs and writings.  Pity them.  But get their asses in the seats.  It's not a choice.  It's a "must."

Sigh.

7 comments:

  1. So true. So true.

    I won't write 5E material but I might try re-purposing their existing stuff "for a buck."

    I am fortunate to live in Seattle and not Calgary where at least I have the option of applying for a gig with Amazon. But your point about the closing stores is well taken. Hell, the Goodwill down the street from my house just closed! Where am I supposed to donate baby clothes now?!

    Anyway. Find your own crass commercialism, man. No judgment on *my* end.
    : )

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  2. A true artist will create art despite financial gain. A true magus will thread the needle between commercialism and artistic expression.

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    Replies
    1. Ha, a "no true scottman" fallacy ... Unpalatable.

      No judgement on my part, Alexis. And while I'm employed, in a nice job, as a consultant for a big bank consortium, I'm also feeling that, one day or another, it'll go down. And I don't have a clue what I could do then ...

      Take care, be well !

      Delete
  3. What a crock, Venger. Does it really merit intellect to throw out a sweeping, indefinable statement in reaction to a specific set of circumstances? We might just as well say, "God will protect us," or "Praise be Allah."

    I'm mystified by this proper need of humans to strain to produce a fail-safe "out" mixed from words, as though human problems aren't real or things to be managed.

    Define "true." Wouldn't it be as well to say, "A blessed artist will create despite financial gain," or, "An artist who believes in themselves," or "never loses their sense of self," or "has a really good family," or, "is good to their fellow man," or whatever other silly shields we may care to conjure.

    How about, a true blogging troll will never fail to delineate a subject until is a mess of stinking drool.

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  4. Alexis, you've never been one of my favorite bloggers - but that's not really a slight on you, more a difference of play style and interest, but since you've decided to use me as your straw man I'll respond.

    I indicated that I was burnt out on the "OSR" (Not gaming as a whole, not even old games), but that particular grubby moral and imaginative outhouse that was the 2017 "OSR" scene. I certainly have no problem with people trying to make a go doing what they love, making their art, either because they dare to or need to, and that goes for your efforts as well. I think it's a brutal and painful effort, especially in the TTRPG scene, but that's not the issue.

    Crass is the issue - that blight of painfully blank-souled shovelware, derivative,repetitive, seeking to replicate the current thing to sell a few rank copies - birthed prematurely, malformed and unplayable. The junk Bryce at 10ft Pole despairs over weekly. Stuff that I'd be ashamed to give away for free - and if you look at my old blog, I've given away some pretty crap adventures. I don't think I'm alone in feeling sickness at that sort of thing, the "OSR" I once enjoyed being part of becoming a branding device for authors that never played a G+ campaign, don't have any interest in player choice, or the theory and practice of classic TTRPGs.

    I wouldn't characterize your work in this category, but if one strives to make a quick buck for the sake of a quick buck, cribbing adventure paths from old copies of early aughts Dungeon and subbing in B/X stats, that's a lot less financially rewarding and ethical then selling "Fresh Kratom" on the street corner like an entrepreneur I saw downtown yesterday. This is what I mean by crass, and from looking a RPGNow's small press it abounds. I didn't want to be part of that scene anymore, and I still don't, but I do enjoy high quality TTRPG writing - even if I have to pay a few dollars for it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Gus,

    The quote did include, "the tabletop gaming community," which is general. I trust I did not misquote you.

    I did not see you as a "straw man." Your blog is still linked on JB's Blackrazor blog, which is why I could find it. In no way did I mean to disparage your perspective or your choice.

    Everyone who becomes commercial asks the question, "Am I crass?" And while most make their peace with it, I'm the sort to be vigilant, and to deconstruct that question constantly. I am feeling pushed into adopting commercial strategies to increase my income online, because offline I am having trouble finding consistent and reliable employment. The post is about things in my head as I decide, one way or the other, to take the Crummles route and see what happens.

    Alas, I strive to be no one's "favorite" blogger. I strive only to be the blogger who can't be ignored, because what I have to say about the craft is irrefutable. Most often I hear, "I don't agree with Alexis, but ..." People read my blog grudgingly. They know they will find concepts here they will not find most anywhere else.

    This does not mean they like these concepts.

    Thank you for dropping by. I appreciate that you were able to make your position clearer, and that I was able to talk with you.

    ReplyDelete
  6. You can view lots of stats about your Patreon (or anyone else's) on https://graphtreon.com/
    There are currently 133,654 creators with at least 1 patron on Patreon today, and you're ranked 16,620th. In the "game" category that you fall into, you're 880th out of 8,831 - so just on the fringes of the top 10%.

    Not sure how much this is of interest, but the data is available.

    ReplyDelete

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