31 October 2012

A hobby industry

I’ve certainly said before that the role-playing game hobby might be better off without the role-playing game industry.† But let’s be clear on one point. Virtually no one enters the RPG industry to make money more than for a love of the hobby. If someone did, they quickly learned that they’d made a mistake. Maybe during the faddish heydays it could’ve happened, but not today.

The closest you might get to that kind of climate is at Wizards of the Coast, and even there, I’d be surprised if there weren’t more lucrative employment options for the everyone on the RPG staff. They certainly have to work under constraints that other companies don’t, but I can’t believe any of them are in it primarily for the money.

†Though I keep being surprised that products keep coming out that I find interesting enough to shell out some coin for.

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