Artificial Influence

I am glad there was no such thing as "influencers" when I entered this hobby, because if there were, I would have probably dismissed it as puerile. There was a time when it was assumed—rightly or wrongly—that role-playing gamers had above average intelligence, but the tone of these influencers (and their willingness to shill for certain companies) makes it clear that they, and certain companies, believe their audience is composed of gullible dullards. Every video they make has a clickbait title and seems like a commercial or an infomercial. The influencer has, at this point, become a product whose goal is to promote official products released by companies that, in some cases, are actively pursuing a strategy of transforming the hobby into a mass of passive consumers dependent on their products rather than a community of creative individuals who sometimes like to do it themselves and share what they create.

I have learned to distrust these companies and their influencers. I ignore their videos. I'm just glad my generation wasn't subjected to this particular form of commercialization when the hobby was young.

Ides of March

The controversies surrounding Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast and its dominion over recent, current, and imminent versions of Dungeons & Dragons leave little room for optimism for those of us who like earlier editions, later variants, and different role-playing games altogether, but I can't say it's surprising. I haven't trusted TSR since it published Zebulon's Guide to Frontier Space for Star Frontiers (and I ought to have distrusted them starting with the bifurcation of D&D and AD&D), but I've never trusted Wizards of the Coast with or without Hasbro's overlordship. As media personalities jump ship from D&D and launch their own vessels of variable seaworthiness, I think it's worth looking at the craft of great designers, young and old, who have been perfecting role-playing games without regard to, or interest in, Hasbro/WOTC's self-defeating nonsense. There are so many satisfying alternatives from the very beginning of the hobby to the present, and more are being created right now by actual independent game designers who actually play the games. The best part of role-playing is that it's a hobby. The best publishers of role-playing games are hobbyists themselves. The corporations don't care about hobbyists. In turn, we owe them nothing. We can do it ourselves.

Regarding the Recent RPG Industry Kerfuffle

Game rules themselves cannot be copyrighted. You never needed permission to publish something that is compatible with something else. Your game is yours to use as you see fit. Morality clauses are tools of oppression and weapons against self-expression justified by "good intentions." Adhering to "official rules" does not make your gameplay more or less valid in the hobby of role-playing games. Only the joy you get from engaging with the hobby validates it. You do not need a stamp of approval from anyone to create what you want to create or play the way you want to play. Your hobby is yours.