The Hobby Is Dying

 

There is a lot to this very simple meme that I agree with. I've seen so many older folks who've been in the hobby for many years doing everything possible to push new people out. Especially those new folks who may have a different idea of what they want from a roleplaying game. This has been going on for decades.

Saw it with Vampire the Masquerade when White Wolf suddenly exploded with their idea of a roleplaying game that leaned into telling stories. Including focusing less on rules (at least with the early first editions) and more on character motivations and goals. All the people who were running ADnD 2e were upset when suddenly there were all these new people who were coming into their sacred spaces. Especially when they had zero interest in doing standard fantasy sessions. Instead of realizing that more variety and styles were growing the community they instead decided to draw lines in the sand.

This continued on through various pops of popularity for other indie games in the years after that. Every single time it was the 'old guard' getting angrier and angrier over these 'new kids' coming in and supposedly ruining everything. 

Now we see the screeching still going on as they twist their nuts into knots over the fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons. They scream it's to easy, they coddle the players, it's impossible to die in the games. But yet more people are enjoying this edition than any other edition ever before. I've also seen more 'noobs' turn and look at the old guard and tell them to go fuck themselves. That, I must say, warms my old over worked heart. The dickheads are finally drowned out, those who drew the lines are the ones who lost. Yes there are still some folks who love the old school games. But their numbers are nowhere even close to the number of people who are actively involved playing and running new games while going in new directions.

Finally the asshole grognards are now seeing nothing but a shit load of people flipping them the bird as progress moves forward and leaves them behind. All we can do is laugh as they declare, even to this day, that the hobby is dying. When in fact it's flourishing better than ever before.