We are the Drifters

[You can read today's post on The Higher Path here]


Is there a point in arguing with stupid?  It's a good question.

At present, yes, I weep for D&D.  I loathe the company that has inspired this rhetoric, this fandom, this nerfed version of the game and the bleating of voices that have seized their opportunity to promote the company's stance for various reasons, most of them having to do with exploiting the game for money.

But.

I maintain that D&D will outlast the company.  One day, the fandom will subside in favor of other, glitzier things.  The wave of young children who lack imagination or intelligence with rush away in favor of some thing that is invented out of 2020s technology.  The company, which has no loyalty or love for the game, will abandon it once it has ceased to serve the bottom line.  Once it does, the products will dry up.  Game stores will dry up.  Game stores are suffering the same extinction as all brick-and-mortar business.  They're all going to die, no matter what happens with D&D.  Yes, that's sad.  I'm 56.  I've seen a lot of things die.  I'm sad about all of them.

The end of game stores and the company will be the end of the Adventurer's League.  That will be the end of children learning to play the game from a business-inclined authority.  Children, thenceforth, will learn direct from people who play the game from appreciation, and not from the pursuit of money.

The end of the Adventurer's League will be the end of corporate sponsorship of Let's Play videos.  I don't expect youtube to survive the 20s anyway.  If it does, it won't look the same as it does now.  Corporate youtube video creation is squeezing out everything that isn't funded already, with content that is just as staid, just as bland and just as politically correct as what youtube replaced in 2005.

If there isn't money in it, there won't be a media for it.

When all the smoke clears, and all the mirrors are broken, it will just be us, still playing the game.  If there still is an internet, people will still find us and read us.

Ever read Fahrenheit 451?  It's our responsibility to withstand the stupidity; we don't have to win against it, because it will die in its own hubris.  But we do have to maintain standards and keep the public aware those standards exist, being true to the game we love, because we're responsible for this game's legacy.  We are responsible.  Because we want to be.

We don't need to argue with stupidity, no.  But we do need to confront it, condemn it and outlast it, if we want to be true to ourselves.