As an indie creator I can attest that there is a veritable landmine waiting for you to step in it. You have to keep your political and many personal opinions separate from your work. The cancel mob has nothing better to do than to dive on any perceived insult and drag you down. If they ruin you this makes them happy in some sick demented way.
It is far easier to destroy than create.
I love making games. I love that people enjoy my creations and have geniune fun playing them. I write my games so ANYONE can play them without having ANY sort of agenda pushed between the pages. Just a game for gaming sake. One day I hope to make some money off it, too. haha
I'm a simple dude.
I've lived (and gamed) all over the world for 40+ years. I'm a retired combat infantry veteran with strong common sense opinions and some (sad to say) outdated values. I have no patience for disrespect. I come from a different era where words meant something and disrespect usually led to a fist sandwich.
But this is not the world I grew up in. This era is akin to the fall of Rome. Imploding from within while the barbarians are at the gate. Topic for another offline time. I digress.
What does this rambling mean?
About 5 years ago when in the early design stages, I made the mistake of being dragged into an online discussion - I countered some nonsense with logic and facts and was immediately under assault by a slew of psychos that I'd never heard of. At first I laughed... then it got annoying when a week would pass and then some new rando would chime in and stoke flames for no reason. It blew my mind. It also enraged me. Keyboard warriors are the worst form of weakling scum.
So I had to take a step back and analyze the situation.
I knew that these same hate mongers would just keep attacking for no reason and I didnt want my creations dragged down into their garbage. I also knew that my opinion or facts or anything contrary to whatever they were screaming about made any difference to these people. They only want to destroy with zero accountability.
In the short do they irritate me? Sure. In the long does it make a difference? Not one bit. I just recall the old addage of "mind over matter" - I dont mind and they dont matter.
So rather than give them fuel, I made accounts just for my games and do my best to avoid the landmines. Their fringe hateful opinions mean nothing - they change nothing about me and all they want is to get a rational person mad enough to jump in their hate pit... so I simply scroll on by. I try not to comment on politics, though I might give a like or a laugh or joking gif response sometimes.
I try instead to focus on the positive. The love of the hobby. The fun of the game. Those people are nothing and never will be anything more than we give them power to be. So ignore them. Dont feed into or repost their nonsense - they are toddlers who want any attention - good or bad. Ive no interest in validating them and I refuse to negotiate with terrorists. ;-)
This honestly made my online experiences better. Without giving the trolls flame, I focus on my games rather than letting someone twist my words to match whatever vitriol of the week they choose to spew. Simply put - if no one gives them the attention they crave... no comments, no clicks, no interaction... they will wither like the sick little weeds they are.
I see too many times where creators force their opinions into their games for the sake of pissing someone off and it rarely ends well. Some are able to minorly capitalize on a niche market but that wont last.
The best way to win against the cancel rage is just to focus on what you love about the hobby and pour that into your creations. Social media be damned. Create interesting and fun games that arent reliant upon one group or anothers opinion to succeed. Just make good games for the sake of enjoyment across the board.
So in the end - like I always say - play what you like and like what you play.
I swear, dude, you and Troll Lord Games are just fuckin' tops on that.
Oddball thing. James Raggi IV doesn't really get political either. He addresses issues in some of the most eloquent and articulate ways possible. Shirtless videos and him running around in the Finland snow, bare-assed aside, of course, his games don't contain any of that. They're just really damn weird and leans toward body horror which is something I'm good with.
Kelsey Dionne, same thing. Shadowdark's only negative attention was when Tarnowski went completely unhinged on her and started harassing her and then The Basic Expert.
It's like this. Every time I have ever played Assassin's Creed, there's that screen that tells me the game was "made by a diverse group of people." I play it, I enjoy it and my conclusion is "Okay look, I don't give a fuck about what color, nationality, creed or any of that shit. That group did a good job making this game. Keep them workin' on games." That's it. That will sell to me at least but these people are crying foul now that they've been caught and personally, no sympathy. What they did, they should be thanking whatever they believe in that no one unalived themselves over that because if they did, they'd be 100% on the hook for that. I have made the mistake of buying games that some of them have worked on. Thankfully, that's a mistake I no longer have to keep making. I don't need a mob to make them face bankruptcy the same way they did. That's easily remedied by me going "Nope." and buying a game or supplement from you, TLG, LoTFP, etc.
I dig it. Yeah Troll Lord has gotten my money too. :-) I have more than a few of their adventures in my collection. Funny, when I first heard of them I thought they were connected to Ken St Andre (Tunnels & Trolls, Grimtooth) since he is the "Trollfather".
My main goal is to get back to that feeling that lured me in to the hobby. The wonder of discovering new worlds, playing epic adventures like my favorite authors wrote about, and the sheer fun of gaming. No politics of any kind were part of it for decades and that is the beauty of games - no matter who you are, what you believe, you can be swept away on a journey with friends and even people you dont know and just escape the everyday drama downers for a bit. Leave it all behind and jump on that magic carpet, cast that spell, answer the Bat-signal, avoid imperial entanglements... that is the soul of role playing - NOT being you for a bit. I feel sad for the new generation who seem hellbent on injecting themselves devoid of imagination into their games. Theyve missed the point. Sure every character has a bit of YOU in it... but RPGs are your chance to let your imagination explode and go along for the ride.
As an indie creator I can attest that there is a veritable landmine waiting for you to step in it. You have to keep your political and many personal opinions separate from your work. The cancel mob has nothing better to do than to dive on any perceived insult and drag you down. If they ruin you this makes them happy in some sick demented way.
It is far easier to destroy than create.
I love making games. I love that people enjoy my creations and have geniune fun playing them. I write my games so ANYONE can play them without having ANY sort of agenda pushed between the pages. Just a game for gaming sake. One day I hope to make some money off it, too. haha
I'm a simple dude.
I've lived (and gamed) all over the world for 40+ years. I'm a retired combat infantry veteran with strong common sense opinions and some (sad to say) outdated values. I have no patience for disrespect. I come from a different era where words meant something and disrespect usually led to a fist sandwich.
But this is not the world I grew up in. This era is akin to the fall of Rome. Imploding from within while the barbarians are at the gate. Topic for another offline time. I digress.
What does this rambling mean?
About 5 years ago when in the early design stages, I made the mistake of being dragged into an online discussion - I countered some nonsense with logic and facts and was immediately under assault by a slew of psychos that I'd never heard of. At first I laughed... then it got annoying when a week would pass and then some new rando would chime in and stoke flames for no reason. It blew my mind. It also enraged me. Keyboard warriors are the worst form of weakling scum.
So I had to take a step back and analyze the situation.
I knew that these same hate mongers would just keep attacking for no reason and I didnt want my creations dragged down into their garbage. I also knew that my opinion or facts or anything contrary to whatever they were screaming about made any difference to these people. They only want to destroy with zero accountability.
In the short do they irritate me? Sure. In the long does it make a difference? Not one bit. I just recall the old addage of "mind over matter" - I dont mind and they dont matter.
So rather than give them fuel, I made accounts just for my games and do my best to avoid the landmines. Their fringe hateful opinions mean nothing - they change nothing about me and all they want is to get a rational person mad enough to jump in their hate pit... so I simply scroll on by. I try not to comment on politics, though I might give a like or a laugh or joking gif response sometimes.
I try instead to focus on the positive. The love of the hobby. The fun of the game. Those people are nothing and never will be anything more than we give them power to be. So ignore them. Dont feed into or repost their nonsense - they are toddlers who want any attention - good or bad. Ive no interest in validating them and I refuse to negotiate with terrorists. ;-)
This honestly made my online experiences better. Without giving the trolls flame, I focus on my games rather than letting someone twist my words to match whatever vitriol of the week they choose to spew. Simply put - if no one gives them the attention they crave... no comments, no clicks, no interaction... they will wither like the sick little weeds they are.
I see too many times where creators force their opinions into their games for the sake of pissing someone off and it rarely ends well. Some are able to minorly capitalize on a niche market but that wont last.
The best way to win against the cancel rage is just to focus on what you love about the hobby and pour that into your creations. Social media be damned. Create interesting and fun games that arent reliant upon one group or anothers opinion to succeed. Just make good games for the sake of enjoyment across the board.
So in the end - like I always say - play what you like and like what you play.
I swear, dude, you and Troll Lord Games are just fuckin' tops on that.
Oddball thing. James Raggi IV doesn't really get political either. He addresses issues in some of the most eloquent and articulate ways possible. Shirtless videos and him running around in the Finland snow, bare-assed aside, of course, his games don't contain any of that. They're just really damn weird and leans toward body horror which is something I'm good with.
Kelsey Dionne, same thing. Shadowdark's only negative attention was when Tarnowski went completely unhinged on her and started harassing her and then The Basic Expert.
It's like this. Every time I have ever played Assassin's Creed, there's that screen that tells me the game was "made by a diverse group of people." I play it, I enjoy it and my conclusion is "Okay look, I don't give a fuck about what color, nationality, creed or any of that shit. That group did a good job making this game. Keep them workin' on games." That's it. That will sell to me at least but these people are crying foul now that they've been caught and personally, no sympathy. What they did, they should be thanking whatever they believe in that no one unalived themselves over that because if they did, they'd be 100% on the hook for that. I have made the mistake of buying games that some of them have worked on. Thankfully, that's a mistake I no longer have to keep making. I don't need a mob to make them face bankruptcy the same way they did. That's easily remedied by me going "Nope." and buying a game or supplement from you, TLG, LoTFP, etc.
I dig it. Yeah Troll Lord has gotten my money too. :-) I have more than a few of their adventures in my collection. Funny, when I first heard of them I thought they were connected to Ken St Andre (Tunnels & Trolls, Grimtooth) since he is the "Trollfather".
My main goal is to get back to that feeling that lured me in to the hobby. The wonder of discovering new worlds, playing epic adventures like my favorite authors wrote about, and the sheer fun of gaming. No politics of any kind were part of it for decades and that is the beauty of games - no matter who you are, what you believe, you can be swept away on a journey with friends and even people you dont know and just escape the everyday drama downers for a bit. Leave it all behind and jump on that magic carpet, cast that spell, answer the Bat-signal, avoid imperial entanglements... that is the soul of role playing - NOT being you for a bit. I feel sad for the new generation who seem hellbent on injecting themselves devoid of imagination into their games. Theyve missed the point. Sure every character has a bit of YOU in it... but RPGs are your chance to let your imagination explode and go along for the ride.