Reply To: Are we the grognards?

[onlyonepinman 18060xp 1]

There’s only one person jabbing at anyone (as far as I can see) and those jabs are being largely ignored – I am certainly not offended by it.  I wouldn’t worry about it.

The problem is, and this is true with most discussions about most big cultural shifts, conspiracy theory comes with the territory.  What’s the agenda, who stands to gain etc etc. And there is usually a grain of truth behind most (not all) conspiracy theories.  There are absolutely agents for change in the world, some overt and some covert.

However in this case I don’t think there is a conspiracy theory on account of the fact that Hasbro have been pretty up front about why they’re doing it – the CEO of WotC was on record as saying that D&D was under-monetised.  It’s not a conspiracy if the people doing the thing are open and honest about what they’re doing and why.  This actually something that Bill Gates was talking about 20 years ago – that the way to make money off the internet will be by selling “content”.  And it should not be a surprise that Microsoft Office is now a subscription model, not a product based model.  What we are seeing right now is an expansion of the definition of “content” to essentially be anything and everything that a company can monitor, control and thus restrict, via software.

Software as a Service is very much a term in software development circles and that is the primary means by which this whole sorry state exists.  10 years ago, you bought a car and if you wanted heated seats, you paid extra and they installed them.  Now, BMW’s operating model is to build the car with ALL the features already built in but disabled.  You can either pay a one off fee to enable them or pay a monthly subscription to have them enabled.  People should really think about the implications of that and some of the dark roads that particular concept could take us down as a society.  That’s not suggesting a conspiracy here, think of it more as a science fiction book, exploring the potential worst case scenarios of certain aspects of humanity.  Not saying it WILL happen only that it could happen and what BMW are doing is actually setting a dangerous precedent.

And then of course we are seeing a desire by companies like WotC to drive their product into the digital world.  That’s bad both for the hobby, as it will drive people out of a social setting and into a virtual setting and it’s bad for consumers as it simply means paying a premium for something you will never truly own.

So, while I totally accept that conspiracy theorists will be out in force over this, I actually don’t think it can be helped – it’s par for the course.  But it’s also definitely something worth taking a stand over, even so far as standing with the tin foil hat brigade.  Whether we agree on WHY it’s happening and WHO is behind it or not, it’s going to affect us all.