Why Gamers Suck, Part II

Yeah, I know....I'm asking for it. However....

Gamers still suck.

Here's why: A little thing called "dead games".

I've heard, on more than one occasion, gamers lamenting the fact that certain game lines are "dead." Upon further investigation, I discovered that apparently a game is "dead" when it is no longer supported by the manufacturer.

Gamers suck.

Apparently, if a game is no longer the subject of regular supplemental release, it is no longer a viable game. Bear with me, here—I'm still trying to wrap my brain around this one. On a whim, I quickly ran down a list of my top five favorite RPGs of all time—games that I still play from time to time, and would play more often, had I more time to devote to such things: James Bond 007 by Victory Games, Dr. Who by FASA, Call of Cthulhu by Chaosium, Dungeons & Dragons by Wizards of the Coast, and Vampire by White Wolf. Of that list, two of them are "dead games", by the definition I've heard. Hell, one of 'em (CoC) has a support schedule that is hardly what I'd call "regular".

Are any of these so-called "dead" games any less valid or playable than the others, which are currently supported? Of course not. However, there appears to be a sizable chunk of the gaming community that considers un-supported games to be un-playable as well.

Yes, I know—this is obviously not the case with all gamers, no more than my last rant about the conservatism of gamers was meant to be all-inclusive. I am speaking broadly, in terms of general trends in the market I've seen this as a manufacturer—when you release a supplement, not only do you get an influx of sales of that supplement, but also a spike in sales of the core book and the other supplements for that line. So, simply, gamers buy when they see that a game is being supported. With no supplemental releases, sales reach a plateau and drop off.

That in and of itself would be perfectly understandable...after all, supplements mean shelf space, focus on the "new release" boards, coverage in online reviews, and general increases in brain-share. However, I'm not talking about sales here—I'm talking about playing a game.

The part that I still don't understand is why continual supplemental support is somehow viewed as necessary to play a game.

Last time I checked, the only thing you needed to play a game were the rules, the dice (or whatever), and some friends. I guess this makes me "old-school", however. Today's model requires the rules, the dice, some friends, and supplemental releases coming out at least quarterly, or the whole lot will loose interest and move on.

Gamers suck.

Part of the problem, I think, rests on the manufacturers themselves. We've managed to come up with a model that gives us a reason to keep pumping out product, which keep us earning income. To be fair, that model has always been there to an extent. The early RPGs were supported, primarily with adventure releases, which were optional and limited in use. Somewhere around 1980, somebody hit upon the idea of the supplement—a release that added official rules to the core RPG. Even that wasn't too bad—after all, these releases were few and far between. The 90s, however, saw the splatbook model take precedence —supplemental releases, packaged as "necessary", and essentially serialized. It's almost a booster-pack mentality—gotta catch 'em all.

So, the attitudes of today's gamers is pretty much our own fault. However, any time a manufacturer tries to break that mold, to release a game that can stand on its own, with supplements as options, or with no supplements at all, they are rewarded with decreased sales, and gamers touting the fact that the line must be "dead", because it isn't being supported. Kind of a nasty little Catch-22, isn't it?

And...the only thing I can see changing this trend is the gamers themselves. You, in fact. It's a known fact that gaming derives its power from networks...groups of friends and acquaintances getting together and playing the games. So, it stands to reason that if each person reading this column made an effort to pull a "dead game" down off their shelves, blow the dust off, gather some friends and play the damned thing, we could see something. Who knows...in a perfect world, games that are no longer supported by their manufacturers could see resurgence in popularity. Retailers would start seeing products that had been sitting in their discount bins start flying out the door. Games would be played...and gamers would stop sucking.

This week's recommendations-I'm reading Heechee Hendezvous by Frederik Pohl, and I'm listening to Dirty Little Secret, an album by Stella Soleil.

See ya in 7.