Let's Play Shows

I just have this feeling that the slickly-produced "Youtube way" of roleplaying, like shows like Critical Role, is going to end with D&D missing out, or some sort of merger or buyout with a big tech company. I watch these recorded play shows and have nothing against them, other than people coming into the hobby should temper their expectations that the professional acting and slick presentation isn't what they will get at the average pen-and-paper session.

Until, that is, a tech company with huge plans and a Fortnite style dream of recreating that "shared storytelling" with "enhanced multimedia presentation" experience comes in and takes the entire audience of these shows and gives them what they want.

Wizards has never been a technology or services company, and I just have this feeling we are on the edge of a technological shift in how people "expect to" play pen-and-paper games, much like the change between AD&D 2nd Edition and when Magic the Gathering came in and took over the narrative. People watch shows like Critical Role and expect their game to be just like that. They get to the average table and it is not.

Old-time role-players like myself say, "Adjust your expectations and have fun!"

A big tech company sees this same situation and says, "Clear opportunity to deliver services."

And I get this feeling that big tech always wins, and tell myself, oh it is coming all right. Everything we wanted as dungeon masters, 3d models, soundtracks, tools to create multimedia presentations, a Twitch-like paying audience brought in, subscription models, and everything we ever wanted to recreate that rich and enhanced "let's play" experience is coming.

They will build it. Like the cell phone becoming a desktop PC, it will happen.

D&D? At first it will be optional, big tech is just providing a better way to play! And then big tech will realize the rules don't matter and there is more profit in making your own and selling expansions, so the new, better, feature-rich game system better suited for "let's play" will be rolled out to much fanfare. Fans of the "let's play" system and content delivery steam will switch to it, and Wizards will go the way TSR did when Magic the Gathering took over the hobby store. Either that, or the billion dollar tech company will just buy D&D and Wizards and fundamentally change the game to be a live service.

As much as I hate it, everything these days seems to become a live service.

That said, I like these shows - and also the ones where they aren't slickly produced. But I see stories of people getting into pen and paper because of these shows and walking away because the experience "wasn't like their favorite show" and I can hear the wheels turning in some tech company's mind somewhere.

What if we could deliver that experience?

If this fictional company could do it well, heck yes I would be on board. I love bringing people together. If they were pro-player and generous with their content and services, even better. If they could make that dream a reality, yes, I would be 100% on board.

As much as I love the old way of doing things, I am not so stuck in them I don't see a better way. I am skeptical today's tech companies could pull this off, because, you know, raw greed always wins.

I guess this is why "who is in charge" of these efforts matters. You get your typical "AAA game" company and console game management team in there and it is a guaranteed disaster. You get someone with a dream and a vision, who is a player and DM advocate, and it could happen.