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This is completely wrong re: tabletop which is in its first golden age right now almost exclusively because it is now much more accessible.

I have a friend who studied this academically, and the act of roleplaying is especially popular among people questioning themselves and their place in society.

As for the lack of risks, check out itch.io for new table top RPGs, there's never been more variety! Its a really exciting time for it, with tons of new voices doing interesting things, with games ranging from super crunchy tactics to super free form one-page narrative games, and everything in between. Happy to offer any reccomendations

tabletop publishing is a viper's den of liars, bullies and trolls who live by the mantra of "cancel or be cancelled". I'm not going to bring up individuals and wade into that controversy but "The Worst People You Have Never Met" is a great summary of what's out there.

And despite everything going on in the industry right now, D&D is still an enormous, inescapable gravity well. I would say even more so than 20 years ago. We have more games and better games than ever, but I had an easier time finding groups to play not-D&D then versus now. Across multiple cities.

I have over a thousand role playing books in my collection, was very involved in The Forge when it mattered, have been a vendor at the biggest RPG conventions and know lots of authors and artists in the industry. probably half of the popular systems out there right now I have played with some of their creative teams --- not exactly a clueless normie here.

Not gonna disagree with you re: D&D. Its funny, I see people playing "hacks" or "homebrews" of d&d that strip it to the bone, no feats no weapon damage, just roll a d20 and higher is better. And those players won't consider running a different system actually designed for that style.

At least we can all take pleasure in the fact that in Japan, instead of D&D being the de-facto RPG, it's Call of Cthulhu.

That always puts a smile on my face.

> Science Fiction is plagued with all the same problems facing comic books and tabletop gaming: the entire publishing industry only cares about representation and winning industry accolades for said representation and it isn't resonating with fans so sales are cratering. The industries are focused on people who aren't already customers and they aren't attracting them as customers either.

How does this square with, for example, the Dragon Awards? These kicked off after the initial 'sad puppy' Hugo drama, and many of the early winners were from that group, but in the last couple years once they've become more widely known outside that demographic they're looking a little more like the other big popular-vote award.

I'm not sure our statements really connect with each other. I think the industry's navel-gazing is a huge part of the problem. I don't give a shit about awards or what work wins them and I don't think other people should either. The same way I don't care about the Grammies and their impact on what music I listen to.

Awards are always going to be dominated by things that have nothing to do with the work being voted on.

I think the problem is not so much that the stories feature characters who are not white men, but more so that they've completely saturated the market for those IPs.

At this point, in the Star Wars and Marvel universes, it all feels pretty formulaic. The stories have already been told, but now they have to keep producing something in order to make this quarter's earnings numbers. None of it feels essential to watch.

> I think the problem is not so much that the stories feature characters who are not white men

It's easy to read what I'm saying that way but that's not really it. It's more about who the authors are and who the awards committees bend over backwards to exclude.

There's been tons of Hugo Award controversies related to authors, excluded authors and content the last....15 years or so. (Although, to be fair, controversy and Hugos go back as long as the awards have been around).

In scifi literature the formulaic over-told stories aren't even being published anymore. It's more like stuff that's barely even science fiction...

Again, the sales numbers show that the classics in the genre are still selling. It's the new content that isn't moving.

Yeah the fundamental problem is that a committee of suits have taken over the creative reins of big franchises trying to please the population at large. This is never going to work long term as it feels completely fake.

Usually creatives will do something that resonates with them personally and sometimes this touches people universally. This isn't something you can create artificially IMO.

Oh, they brought the IPs already saturated. They are losing ground on almost all of it.

What isn't a given like you tried to say. A saturated segment just means it won't grow. They could have kept all of it forever if they handled it well.