Streamification

Streamification.

Netflix makes a few billion dollars per month. They need to fill the system with new content, constantly, to keep the beast fed. This is watch hours, returning viewers, binge-watchers, live event watchers, and all the other viewer categories who use the service.

As a result, they are green-lighting everything and hoping something sticks. I have been watching one season shows lately and suffering through a very poor quality of content. Most all of it sucks.

Streamification happens when demand outstrips supply and there is no easy way to fill the market, and the streaming services and viewers cease caring about quality. There is a certain level of support that services can keep going along with, and then all of a sudden it collapses. It is always a glut, then a crash. The Atari 2600 proved that. These days, streaming services are again walking that glut market level of oversaturation.

The 5E market collapsed due to this phenomenon.

We had such demand that most major crowdfunding projects broke a million easily. PDFs were flying from online stores. We had a massive glut of books, and the market could not keep up. Quality dropped, but we kept doing on due to the size of the market. Many books were just AI created and few cared.

With 2024 D&D it created the first major off ramp for the market. The OGL outrage setup many and they were waiting for a time to exit. We got a new version, and the mass market moved on. Baldur's Gate 3 was D&D's Avengers Endgame. This was the pinnacle moment. People finished that game, and they finished D&D.

And we are left with tons of abandoned content, one season shows, and 5E books that very few want. Streamification got us here and the 5E market has a glut of junk.

Combine this with the rampant revisionism and disrespect for the genre, and you are giving most a reason to walk away, and no good reasons to come back. A lot of those shows on Netflix are like this too, historical shows that toss out real history and film what they wanted to happen instead. You get role playing games that go off on strange tangents, they are more the fantasies of the writers than they are playing to the fantasies of those who play the game.

They forget the fans. The writers write the game for themselves. The streaming services just need content, they have no care for quality level or value to the customer. The writers just do whatever pleases them.

Nobody cares.

It is a strange form of fan-fiction, lack of connections, and cultural revisionism. Seeing people dressed up in steampunk cosplay with modern dyed hairdos, not even wearing helmets to protect their heads, is just dumb. I don't know what I am looking at. Please get the Tumblr art out of my books.

Even the NFL wears helmets. Bike riders should. It is not a fantasy to be careless without them. Want it that way? All my goblins are trying for head-shots, +4 AC, and I will rule triple damage if they hit.

Rule zero says I can.

In a way, this era feels like the moment that all of entertainment is dying, and this includes gaming, the last gasps of legacy content before AI takes over everything. 

I get the feeling Tales of the Valiant, Level Up A5E, and all the open 5E clones are doomed. I like some of them, but the main D&D market is collapsing so fast it will take down everything with it. The entire market won't be held up by the smallest 5% alternative. All the eggs were in one basket, and the basket is gone.

Shadowdark still has a chance. It isn't Open 5E, it is OSR. 

There are still a lot of players out there, yes. But even D&D YouTube videos by big names are getting a fraction of their traffic these days. Call it the algorithm if you want, call it YouTube depressing viewers, the trend is clear. You would think the natural reaction is to bring in more players?

This is Wall Street. They will wall it off and raise prices. 

We are entering an era where entertainment will only be for the rich.

Gaming will only be for the rich.

You will not own your books or all that DLC they expect you to buy. 

Protect yourself and invest in physical media and open gaming.

Walk away now.