Self-sufficiency

This is why I'm not concerned about the fate of D&D.

If the game cannot sustain itself for another generation, then it clearly hasn't got the value I ascribe to it.  I'm therefore a member of a certain culture and time, whose interest in the game was cultivated by events around me ... and if the next generation isn't so cultivated, then c'est la vie.  Our opinion of D&D is next to nothing when stacked against an insurmountable cultural indifference.

But, if D&D is as good as I think it is, then it'll survive no matter how incompetent its masters are, including those of the company and those of each little table to be found.  The game will thrive nonetheless.  Moreover, I expect the game to improve, to take steps forward from where it is, and not in the name of merchandising ... and the reason that I think so is because the game has so far advanced for me, personally, in my small part of it.

One way or the other, the plight of D&D has no effect upon me.  I am self-sufficient in my game.  If I were the only person in the world playing, because everyone else had ceased, I'd still have my players because they, like me, love this game ... specifically, the way I run it.  The best way to sustain a love for anything is to become self-sufficient.  I depend on nothing produced by any other person, or any comment made by others, or any blog post that's written, or any public presentation of the game, or the game's existence as a movie, or any cultural phenomenon whatsoever.  Worries about what the company might do, or say, or legally demand, or rules they make, or content they might release, simply do not exist for me.  The world cannot stop me in doing what I have been doing for forty years.

Those who have to worry, who feel compelled to concern themselves with every change, perhaps deserve my pity, but not my sympathy.  No one needs anything except what already exists in order to play D&D.  What's more, there are so many copies of what exists, that it's impossible not to find everything that one needs.  So those who will not be self-sufficient, for whatever reasons they give for themselves, deserve what happens to them.  That's how dependency works.  If you will be dependent, then the thing you are dependent upon will always be your master.

Am I not, however, dependent upon the reader?  I am, arguably, dependent on some readers, but not upon them all, and not upon any one.  Moreover, any readers I have must be readers I've earned ... for if I haven't given them cause to read me, then what are they doing here?  Giving cause is a responsibility that falls upon me.  If I want readers, I must earn them; which must be done through effort, empathy and the distinction of providing relevant material.  If I cannot do that, I don't deserve readers.  It's really that simple.

In any case, my desire to earn readers is additionally rooted in self-sufficiency.  I have read and reconsidered the material, I have researched the material, I've expanded the material, and in doing so I believe I understand the material better than most.  Taking the time to propound upon the material, then, suits me ... and if I have readers, it's because it suits them also.

So I put it to the reader.  IF you would have D&D survive for you, then become self-sufficient.  Make your own world, your own adventures, your own rules, and never rely upon the opinions and actions of others in how you run, except those of your players, whose loyalty to your world you must earn.

So long as it survives in this capacity, for you, then you never need worry about the "death" of D&D, or what other players of other games want, or do.  Make your game valuable ... and worry about absolutely nothing else.  Because objectively, nothing else matters.