This is pure speculation and I have no actual evidence, but I wonder if he is bummed because Stars Without Number is such a commercial success, compared with Diaspora.

I never understood the rpgnet nerdgasm over Diaspora, back when it came out (and when I still used to check in there). Even allowing for the fact I don't like Fate, Diaspora seemed fairly broad-brush, lacking in genuinely new ideas and generally over-hyped.

Quote from: Alderaan Crumbs;1122264https://vsca.blog/2020/02/12/bugging-out/

Anybody know why anybody should care? It reads like a typical cry for attention online and whiney as fuck. All I kept hearing in my head as I read it was "Doing things is haaaaard..." in a nasally voice. This guy can be tits on toast but my Spider Sense makes me believe he's deeply invested in SJW culture and won't be a loss. Please feel free to say otherwise.

He made Hollowpoint. I don't know what his politics are, and I am actually a bit surprised that he mentions game violence as being an issue for him (given the premise of Hollowpoint). Generally most of the online comments I've seen about his work have been positive (provided people like the kinds of games he makes obviously).

Most of the other issues he raises though, are things pretty much any designer will tell you has happened. Google plus going down was a huge crater for a lot of peoples' social media reach for example (and social media reach pretty much equals sales). I don't know what he means exactly by worrying about what people think, but I can say, just from my own experience and observations that there is definitely a big difference between when I started Bedrock in 2009 and now in terms of the way online conversations play out around games. I think no matter where you stand politically and socially, it is safe to say the conversation around games is less fun, and grown more serious. There is also just a lot more people putting out games and the platforms for marketing games are way more fragmented.

I don't know if he is whining so much as honestly expressing frustration. He probably should have held off a day or two before making a blog post like that IMO. But I think anyone who has been on social media has had those moments where they get frustrated in a discussion, and say something overly honest or overly emotional. That can be particularly true if you are active in the hobby, or if you make games for the hobby, and you feel attacked for some reason by people in it. I try not to worry too much about what people think. Still it is easy to mistake five posters on a twitter thread or facebook thread for somehow representing a majority opinion (when you are in the middle of an intense discussion). Probably he just needs a break from social media.

Just as a sidenote, on the topic of violence in RPGs, I really don't understand how this has suddenly become an issue for people.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;1122350Just as a sidenote, on the topic of violence in RPGs, I really don't understand how this has suddenly become an issue for people.

Is it sudden? I seem to recall various people taking issue with it since I first started gaming. Isn't that a chunk of what the 'murderhbo' slur is about? What was that editorial on game violence, disguised as a game, that was on the flipside of Puppetland?
I don't mind violence in games at all... except when I do. When I want something else and find it hard to get away from... even coming from myself. Like, when we're playing a game meant to evoke fairy tales but keep falling back on combat/violence to solve problems... not that fairy tales lack violence, but they're not usually full of melee.

Quote from: Simlasa;1122353Is it sudden? I seem to recall various people taking issue with it since I first started gaming. Isn't that a chunk of what the 'murderhbo' slur is about? What was that editorial on game violence, disguised as a game, that was on the flipside of Puppetland?
I don't mind violence in games at all... except when I do. When I want something else and find it hard to get away from... even coming from myself. Like, when we're playing a game meant to evoke fairy tales but keep falling back on combat/violence to solve problems... not that fairy tales lack violence, but they're not usually full of melee.

I don't know. To me the change seems sudden. Maybe I haven't been as keyed in on certain discussions. Murderhobo, when I first encountered it years ago, was just a funny label people gave to campaigns that were almost entirely about killing things (and it wasn't even really judgmental of the violence, it was just a funny observation that the characters were wandering around like hoboes and killing things). But maybe it carried different meaning outside where I gamed. I definitely never would have labeled it a 'slur'.

Everyone's appetite for violence is going to be different. But I think finding combat tedious, isn't the same as a moral critique of violence in RPGs. I can understand a person finding violence in RPGs tedious. I don't really understand taking moral issue with violence in an RPG or boardgames.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;1122350Just as a sidenote, on the topic of violence in RPGs, I really don't understand how this has suddenly become an issue for people.

At least in my gaming circles one would have some players complaining on how they thought D&D promoted more violence than roleplaying in rpgs. To the level it is now either a whole bunch of gamers suddenly become incredibly socially aware of it just seems everything and anything is offensive. It's like sexualized art in rpgs where almost no one up until recently cared about it suddenly we have a whole bunch of pearl clutchers complaining about the art.

As for the OP I can respect the guy for not being happy yet barely knew who the hell he was in the rpg industry. Over at TBP they make it out to be as if Gary Gygax quite rpgs.

Quote from: Marchand;1122343This is pure speculation and I have no actual evidence, but I wonder if he is bummed because Stars Without Number is such a commercial success, compared with Diaspora.

I never understood the rpgnet nerdgasm over Diaspora, back when it came out (and when I still used to check in there). Even allowing for the fact I don't like Fate, Diaspora seemed fairly broad-brush, lacking in genuinely new ideas and generally over-hyped.

SJW author + FATE = rpgnet nerdgasm

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;1122354I don't know. To me the change seems sudden. Maybe I haven't been as keyed in on certain discussions.

It's the GamerGate affect. A lot of gamers are in its bubble and don't know it. The new normal for them.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;1122354I don't know. To me the change seems sudden. Maybe I haven't been as keyed in on certain discussions. Murderhobo, when I first encountered it years ago, was just a funny label people gave to campaigns that were almost entirely about killing things (and it wasn't even really judgmental of the violence, it was just a funny observation that the characters were wandering around like hoboes and killing things). But maybe it carried different meaning outside where I gamed. I definitely never would have labeled it a 'slur'.

Everyone's appetite for violence is going to be different. But I think finding combat tedious, isn't the same as a moral critique of violence in RPGs. I can understand a person finding violence in RPGs tedious. I don't really understand taking moral issue with violence in an RPG or boardgames.

1: Oh it is very much a slur. This is not new.

2: The slurs. Old School, Murderhobo, RPGs are only about violence, etc all seem to have originated with the damn storygamers and especially Puntit's Swine. Not helped that various idiots "embrace" these slurs which only spreads the disease further by enabling it.

We saw this during 5e D&D for example as over on BGG. Rare, but it was allways the same tired line as if they just cut-n-pasted it from some manifesto. "D&D/RPGs are only about fighting and killing because all the rules are for fighting and killing!". Some will change their mind when its pointed out that the rules are there to cover the combat part which is mostly technical as it were. While the interaction part was kept pretty simple because players were expected to role play talking to people with minimal rules in the way. Pretty much the pinnacle of storygaming. The die-hard haters just double down and demand more rules for talking.

Quote from: Simlasa;1122291Seems like another person who tried to turn their hobby into a business and got burned out.

I think so.

About ten years ago when I was writing the rpgnow guide for navigating through Lulu, self-publishing was known as "vanity publishing." It was clear to most: I am doing this for vanity, not for a living. If you make it clear to yourself that you're doing it all for vanity, it helps you put things in perspective.

Bedrock Brendan brings up a good point about how online marketing has changed. In October 2019, there was an algorithm apocalypse on Instagram as Farcebook has pulled the rug on free and low cost marketing. The platform is now fully monetized, like Facebook, so unless you're dropping $100k/month in ads, you're not seeing the value that used to exist.

Between the loss of G+ and the revamping of algorithms that disfavor organic searches, I am not surprised that small publishers are feeling the crunch.

Unfortunately, that puts even more power in the hands of DriveThruRPG.

Quote from: Omega;11223662: The slurs. Old School, Murderhobo, RPGs are only about violence, etc all seem to have originated with the damn storygamers and especially Puntit's Swine. Not helped that various idiots "embrace" these slurs which only spreads the disease further by enabling it.

I think 'murderhobo' goes back farther than the 'storygames' arguments. I'd swear it's a friction that existed between gamers back when terms like 'Monty Haul' and such were vibrant and new. Even between game groups in my home town there was friction, people telling other people they were 'playing it wrong'. The pro-Gygax vs. the anti-Gygax.
Some groups favored lots of combat, lots of loot, fast levelling... others were into crafting props and writing songs and poems for their PCs to use... having romances and getting married (my own group had a PC marry the queen of the centaurs).

Quote from: Spinachcat;1122375Bedrock Brendan brings up a good point about how online marketing has changed. In October 2019, there was an algorithm apocalypse on Instagram as Farcebook has pulled the rug on free and low cost marketing. The platform is now fully monetized, like Facebook, so unless you're dropping $100k/month in ads, you're not seeing the value that used to exist.

Between the loss of G+ and the revamping of algorithms that disfavor organic searches, I am not surprised that small publishers are feeling the crunch.

Unfortunately, that puts even more power in the hands of DriveThruRPG.

People need to switch to duck duck go or other search engines.

Also make your own store.

I kind of don't get the "it is too violent!" angle. I run a lot of RPGs and the violence is really up to the group. I ran a Labyrinth Lord campaign recently with sessions of no violence or combat, I gave the players experience for great roleplaying during these sessions and we all had just as much fun those nights as when there was combat. These games are what you make of them, not what they make you do.

Quote from: bat;1122414I kind of don't get the "it is too violent!" angle. I run a lot of RPGs and the violence is really up to the group. I ran a Labyrinth Lord campaign recently with sessions of no violence or combat, I gave the players experience for great roleplaying during these sessions and we all had just as much fun those nights as when there was combat. These games are what you make of them, not what they make you do.

I can't really agree with that. Many, perhaps most, games give a lot of rules space to ways to use violence to reach your goals. D&D usually presents you with scenes set with encounters that are more-or-less intended to be combats. While you can sometimes find another way to overcome them, that's very much not the intent. Even when simply slugging it out isn't the best way, the best way is often a matter of finding a bigger advantage so that you can slaughter the foes more easily. The violence doesn't bother me, but for those that are bothered by it, there is a lot of it.

Quote from: GeekyBugle;1122408People need to switch to duck duck go or other search engines.

Also make your own store.

Pretty much this, ya. Get out of the mainstream and build your own distribution channel. It's really the only way.

Quote from: HappyDaze;1122416I can't really agree with that. Many, perhaps most, games give a lot of rules space to ways to use violence to reach your goals. D&D usually presents you with scenes set with encounters that are more-or-less intended to be combats. While you can sometimes find another way to overcome them, that's very much not the intent. Even when simply slugging it out isn't the best way, the best way is often a matter of finding a bigger advantage so that you can slaughter the foes more easily. The violence doesn't bother me, but for those that are bothered by it, there is a lot of it.

RPGs are rooted in pulp and heroic fantasy, which typically features violence in some form or another. Maybe those people should take up a new hobby like playing fucking cards or checkers.