I've been a gamer for over thirty years. It has been the hobby I have loved and enjoyed. Many friends were made, good times were had and it's been a real blast.
But this last week has taught me that the hobby has changed and I'm pretty sure I no longer want to be part of it. All it took was one sign to set it all off and plenty of people opening their mouths to show just how little people cared.
It started with a single pdf packet going up on DrivethruRPG for 99 bucks of a game I would never have bought into anyways. Me, and several others, simply said that the price point was to high and out of price range to afford. I mean that amount of cash puts a lot of groceries on the table at my house where when we have soda it's the cheapest generic we can find. Stretching every little bit we can to cover meals for the week. We buy what we can from the Hope Store which sells out of date products donated to them my regular grocery stores. So yeah, 99 dollars is a lot of money to me.
But once it was stated that by several that it wasn't affordable that's when it began. The lectures about how much value was actually in there, how they were pricing it at a range so they could pay their employees well, as if we didn't care about the people making that product. We do, but we still can't afford to cough up money like that. Then we were the reason people pirate games so much in the hobby, that we were expecting to get everything for free. No idea where they got that from but that was laid on anybody who said that the price was to high.
This has made it obvious. The hobby doesn't want poor people involved. I scrape and save up what I can to buy something every now and then but that is far and few between. So I'm not somebody they want around... well except to have someone to place the blame on.
I think I'm finished here. The hobby that I loved for so many years has become a hostile environment because I don't feed enough cash into it. People I respected and followed; bloggers, content creators, publishers, many of them raised their heads and spit some poison at those of who said they can't ever see paying 99 bucks for something.
You don't want me here. Fine. I don't want to be here anymore either.
Why would you consider leaving the hobby because of other people?
ReplyDeleteYour creativity is a real blessing, and I would genuinely miss you and your participation in this lovely passion of ours.
Don't let the bastards grind you down.
I agree with Timeshadows - why leave a hobby you love and have contributed so much to over the years because of that? There are loads of free games out there and I'm sure you still keep your old favourites around.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time I agree with that the RPG hobby has become more industry-like and lucre focused in the last decade, which is a pity...