Fake "Lifestyle" gamers spending thousands on a fake #dnd experience.

Good video!

Lifestyle brand is what happens when the decision makers sit around the boardroom table looking at pie charts and talking about market segments. The people who want to improve the game, if there are any left at Hasbro/WotC (?), are several pay grades below and have zero say in it. D&D in a castle with voice actors is a marketing play. The people who drool over this kind of thing are the customers they want.

I've played D&D in a faux castle. No celebs. Much fun.



This was the Dunfey hotel in the San Francisco Bay Area which hosted the PacifiCon conventions for many years and it was California faux medieval castle with all the historical accuracy of Disneyland.

And it was FREAKING awesome for D&D games.

Total sadness when the hotel got "renovated" into lameness and soon thereafter, poor PacifiCon fell as well. Great memories though.

Quote from: rytrasmi on June 20, 2022, 06:32:55 PM
Good video!

Lifestyle brand is what happens when the decision makers sit around the boardroom table looking at pie charts and talking about market segments. The people who want to improve the game, if there are any left at Hasbro/WotC (?), are several pay grades below and have zero say in it. D&D in a castle with voice actors is a marketing play. The people who drool over this kind of thing are the customers they want.

Indeed. Share the video!

WotC has been pushing D&D as a Lifestyle Brand since 4th Edition, that is one of the major reasons why D&D has been colonized by the woke. Lemmings are gonna lemming.

Yes I watched your video.

Looking through their rogues gallery I see a few dangerhairs and more than a few drama llamas in there. But there are also a few who genuinely work in the hobby like James Wyatt and Ray Winninger. And some, like the Nerdarchy crew, who are in it more for the gaming, where the "celebrity" stuff is just a bonus. But I don't personally know anyone in the hobby who has the money or the inclination to go to such an event.

It seems they are doing a pretty good job of self destructing what with the Satine thing. I'm surprised they allow green-face. I wonder how long that will last?

Quote from: Spinachcat on June 21, 2022, 02:00:42 AM
I've played D&D in a faux castle. No celebs. Much fun.



This was the Dunfey hotel in the San Francisco Bay Area which hosted the PacifiCon conventions for many years and it was California faux medieval castle with all the historical accuracy of Disneyland.

And it was FREAKING awesome for D&D games.

Total sadness when the hotel got "renovated" into lameness and soon thereafter, poor PacifiCon fell as well. Great memories though.

Pacificon was back at the Dunfey (now called the San Mateo Marriott) for 2021 and had "Back to the Dunfey" as its logo. I played there last year and had a good time. I at least played a Victorian magician/engineer in the mock stone tower room.

https://web.archive.org/web/20210811122859/http://www.pacificongameexpo.com/

I'm not sure when you played, but I've played at Conquest/Pacificon for most years from 2003 to now, and I think there's still plenty of great gaming there.

Well, aside from  my "Come to Uruguay" pitch in the video, I think any gamer will be more satisfied spending, say, $500 to buy a ton of my products, than spending $4000+airfare to go to a hotel in rural northern england and play D&D with second-rate voice actors or pron stars who pretend to play D&D online.

Quote from: RPGPundit on June 21, 2022, 12:54:59 PM
Well, aside from  my "Come to Uruguay" pitch in the video, I think any gamer will be more satisfied spending, say, $500 to buy a ton of my products, than spending $4000+airfare to go to a hotel in rural northern england and play D&D with second-rate voice actors or pron stars who pretend to play D&D online.

The thing about dropping $500 on RPG books is the it's likely that most of the material in those books won't actually get used. Nothing against your books, Pundit, but I've bought four of your games (Forward to Adventure, Lords of Olympus, Arrows of Indra, and Lion & Dragon) and still have yet to play any of them. They look interesting, but I have hundreds of games and adventures, and most of them from any publisher get unused. I've been planning an Arrows of Indra game to run at an upcoming convention, but I haven't done it yet. Even though I'm running a D&D 5E campaign, I don't even get much use out of most D&D5E purchases. I've gotten very little out of anything except the core books.

Given this, spending more on airfare, hotel, and similar on a gaming convention or gaming event makes sense to me - because it is buying guaranteed gaming experience as opposed to something to sit on your shelf and hope to use at some point. Obviously, a $4000 price is targeting very wealthy people - but for rich people, it's buying something that can't be matched by books on a shelf. Personally, I have paid over $1000 for a number of gaming conventions I went to (factoring in airfare, food, lodging, and such). D&D in a Castle is outside my price range and I doubt I'd go even if I was super-wealthy, but I could see paying such for a different gaming experience.

Quote from: RPGPundit on June 21, 2022, 12:54:59 PM
Well, aside from  my "Come to Uruguay" pitch in the video, I think any gamer will be more satisfied spending, say, $500 to buy a ton of my products, than spending $4000+airfare to go to a hotel in rural northern england and play D&D with second-rate voice actors or pron stars who pretend to play D&D online.

  You ever consider hosting a small con out there?  I researched the city a good bit, and it seems certainly more interesting than Indianapolis for people to visit. 

Quote from: oggsmash on June 21, 2022, 02:48:19 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit on June 21, 2022, 12:54:59 PM
Well, aside from  my "Come to Uruguay" pitch in the video, I think any gamer will be more satisfied spending, say, $500 to buy a ton of my products, than spending $4000+airfare to go to a hotel in rural northern england and play D&D with second-rate voice actors or pron stars who pretend to play D&D online.

  You ever consider hosting a small con out there?  I researched the city a good bit, and it seems certainly more interesting than Indianapolis for people to visit.

There are actually gaming cons in Uruguay. There's a big geek con, called Montevideo Comics, and then there's a number of specifically RPG focused mini-cons organized by local clubs. I'm sometimes invited as a guest to those.

Quote from: jhkim on June 21, 2022, 01:50:51 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit on June 21, 2022, 12:54:59 PM
Well, aside from  my "Come to Uruguay" pitch in the video, I think any gamer will be more satisfied spending, say, $500 to buy a ton of my products, than spending $4000+airfare to go to a hotel in rural northern england and play D&D with second-rate voice actors or pron stars who pretend to play D&D online.

The thing about dropping $500 on RPG books is the it's likely that most of the material in those books won't actually get used. Nothing against your books, Pundit, but I've bought four of your games (Forward to Adventure, Lords of Olympus, Arrows of Indra, and Lion & Dragon) and still have yet to play any of them. They look interesting, but I have hundreds of games and adventures, and most of them from any publisher get unused. I've been planning an Arrows of Indra game to run at an upcoming convention, but I haven't done it yet. Even though I'm running a D&D 5E campaign, I don't even get much use out of most D&D5E purchases. I've gotten very little out of anything except the core books.

Given this, spending more on airfare, hotel, and similar on a gaming convention or gaming event makes sense to me - because it is buying guaranteed gaming experience as opposed to something to sit on your shelf and hope to use at some point. Obviously, a $4000 price is targeting very wealthy people - but for rich people, it's buying something that can't be matched by books on a shelf. Personally, I have paid over $1000 for a number of gaming conventions I went to (factoring in airfare, food, lodging, and such). D&D in a Castle is outside my price range and I doubt I'd go even if I was super-wealthy, but I could see paying such for a different gaming experience.

Sounds to me like you're not playing enough RPGs. Or not playing the right kinds.
And of course, the thing about OSR play is that you don't necessarily need to play Lion & Dragon to use Lion & Dragon, or any other book. The compatibility of the products means that you can use all kinds of stuff in any campaign. I've never run a Yoon Suin campaign, but I've used a lot of stuff from that book.

Quote from: jhkim on June 21, 2022, 01:50:51 PM
The thing about dropping $500 on RPG books is the it's likely that most of the material in those books won't actually get used. Nothing against your books, Pundit, but I've bought four of your games (Forward to Adventure, Lords of Olympus, Arrows of Indra, and Lion & Dragon) and still have yet to play any of them. They look interesting, but I have hundreds of games and adventures, and most of them from any publisher get unused. I've been planning an Arrows of Indra game to run at an upcoming convention, but I haven't done it yet. Even though I'm running a D&D 5E campaign, I don't even get much use out of most D&D5E purchases. I've gotten very little out of anything except the core books.

Given this, spending more on airfare, hotel, and similar on a gaming convention or gaming event makes sense to me - because it is buying guaranteed gaming experience as opposed to something to sit on your shelf and hope to use at some point. Obviously, a $4000 price is targeting very wealthy people - but for rich people, it's buying something that can't be matched by books on a shelf. Personally, I have paid over $1000 for a number of gaming conventions I went to (factoring in airfare, food, lodging, and such). D&D in a Castle is outside my price range and I doubt I'd go even if I was super-wealthy, but I could see paying such for a different gaming experience.

There's a lot of knowledge in my RPG library. It represents 1000s of hours of thought and creativity. I reference it all the time. Even if I don't play many of the actual games, I borrow and mix and match ideas.

But yeah, I'd trade it all for a weekend of gaming with rich people in a castle-hotel, "woo hoo"...are we having fun yet?

Hmmmm, if I'm going to a hotel with a porn star it's not to play D&D.

Quote from: Persimmon on June 21, 2022, 08:24:28 PM
Hmmmm, if I'm going to a hotel with a porn star it's not to play D&D.

Are you going to play FATAL instead?

For me, a good GM and a character sheet on scrap paper would make a better game then a lousy GM and thousands of dollars worth of props. Props and rules are only tools, the GM player interplay is the heart of the experience. I would pay money for a campaign with a good GM and good players that are all looking for a similar experience as me, and no castles, game boards, or fancy miniatures would be necessary.