Sir Kill Alot wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:When did differing viewpoints get so toxic.

'It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.'

I don't think so - Let me show you what I see here in the UK and hopefully we won't wake he troll.

But I do think we're at the beginning of an uptick in valuations of the rares and uniques in our collections (I hove none of these things).
I think there is money out there that would normally be invested in the traditional sense in other areas of the economy, and is looking for securities outside of the normal spread of investment securities. I think we'll see that money going onto rare collectables in all aspects of the collectables markets - cars, furniture, art, books - anything people think will not loose value. I don't think this is about pricing or desire and interest in hobbies at all. I think this is about asset protection and diversification.

In the wider RPG market, if there is an increase in readership and gameplay, or an influx of new players, those are things that come from people having a greater time to play, people having a desire for meaningful socialisation, and people having greater awareness of what is available and access to those products. The traditional avenues for these things in the UK - games stores, school clubs, conventions, playground chat - are all gone. Replaced by YouTube at best. I don't know if we get Critical Role over here, but I understand that has helped in the US cos its relatively mainstream geek, and geek is going through a renaissance.

But, here in the UK, as well as a major contraction in the introduction to RPGs spaces, there is also a major contraction in both disposable income filtering down to the younger generations, and an increase in savings among those who do have access to disposable income as a hedge against unemployment and uncertainty.

That leads me to think we're going to see a divergence in pricing between the common and uncommon stuff which I think will drop in value, the run of the mill uncommon to rare items that have always been valued favourably which I think will maintain value, and the high quality rares and uniques which I think are going to pull away and make significant gains. A fanning out of the spread in values as it were.

Here in the UK we have whole generations sitting around in houses with the time to play, but it is illegal for them to congregate to play games inside or out, and even when it was legal last summer, it was frowned upon and actively discouraged by nosey neighbours phoning the police to complain, police approaching groups in public or knocking on doors, and general disgust towards the young by society and the press. They have a narrative line they have to follow, and they will follow that it or lose their jobs.

Zoom and similar does not appear to give people the same gaming opportunities, and there is a whole different dynamic a play with online socialisation only. And a lot of the UK is still not able to get broadband, because whilst they have broadband infrastructure in place throughout the UK, in a lot of areas outside of cities they do not have the capacities on the lines and in the exchanges to handle moving everyone over to broadband. I imagine huge chunks of the US are in that situation also.

Besides, it would seem as though if you have no choice but to play a game online, people prefer to play video games because they still get the same team gameplay, objectives, goals, planning, and reward, but they get a much more visceral experience playing with others in Realtime. RPGs traditionally were a table game, and I don't see them translating to online successfully as a genre, only as a niche experience.

Do you's have gaming groups meeting, games in games stores, afterschool clubs, etc? Or are all those things dead in the US too?

I’m hoping my mega drive (Genesis) with the games becomes valuable, but I don’t see it. There were too many and they’ve been re-made so easily replaces with the new model

mbassoc2003 wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Here in the UK we have whole generations sitting around in houses with the time to play, but it is illegal for them to congregate to play games inside or out, and even when it was legal last summer, it was frowned upon and actively discouraged by nosey neighbours phoning the police to complain, police approaching groups in public or knocking on doors, and general disgust towards the young by society and the press. They have a narrative line they have to follow, and they will follow that it or lose their jobs.

Do you's have gaming groups meeting, games in games stores, afterschool clubs, etc? Or are all those things dead in the US too?

Technically, it's not illegal (no official laws), just mandated by the individual states. That being said, there are those who are complying out of a sense of public well-being and civic duty. If your social circle already includes these people, no harm done in meeting as a small group. And no, the neighbors don't really give a damn (you are not really affecting them, right?), so no one is going to call the police or drag you to prison.

My group is five people - we are not meeting because one member is diabetic, and he doesn't want to risk it. Oddly enough, the diabetic member of my group DMs two Discord Groups - one 3.5E game and one 5E game, with all the rest of my group (except me) in the 5E game. I prefer the face-to-face of a game, and get no pleasure from a remote game session.

I believe no one wants to risk exposure and/or being sued (we're very lawsuit-happy here) over playing a game, so there is a METRIC SHIT-TON of remote games going on at the moment.
I also believe that after all is said and done, face-to-face gaming will make a comeback, and may even surge past what it was before the pandemic.

mbassoc2003 wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:I don't think so - Let me show you what I see here in the UK and hopefully we won't wake he troll.

But I do think we're at the beginning of an uptick in valuations of the rares and uniques in our collections (I hove none of these things).
I think there is money out there that would normally be invested in the traditional sense in other areas of the economy, and is looking for securities outside of the normal spread of investment securities. I think we'll see that money going onto rare collectables in all aspects of the collectables markets - cars, furniture, art, books - anything people think will not loose value. I don't think this is about pricing or desire and interest in hobbies at all. I think this is about asset protection and diversification.

In the wider RPG market, if there is an increase in readership and gameplay, or an influx of new players, those are things that come from people having a greater time to play, people having a desire for meaningful socialisation, and people having greater awareness of what is available and access to those products. The traditional avenues for these things in the UK - games stores, school clubs, conventions, playground chat - are all gone. Replaced by YouTube at best. I don't know if we get Critical Role over here, but I understand that has helped in the US cos its relatively mainstream geek, and geek is going through a renaissance.

But, here in the UK, as well as a major contraction in the introduction to RPGs spaces, there is also a major contraction in both disposable income filtering down to the younger generations, and an increase in savings among those who do have access to disposable income as a hedge against unemployment and uncertainty.

That leads me to think we're going to see a divergence in pricing between the common and uncommon stuff which I think will drop in value, the run of the mill uncommon to rare items that have always been valued favourably which I think will maintain value, and the high quality rares and uniques which I think are going to pull away and make significant gains. A fanning out of the spread in values as it were.

Here in the UK we have whole generations sitting around in houses with the time to play, but it is illegal for them to congregate to play games inside or out, and even when it was legal last summer, it was frowned upon and actively discouraged by nosey neighbours phoning the police to complain, police approaching groups in public or knocking on doors, and general disgust towards the young by society and the press. They have a narrative line they have to follow, and they will follow that it or lose their jobs.

Zoom and similar does not appear to give people the same gaming opportunities, and there is a whole different dynamic a play with online socialisation only. And a lot of the UK is still not able to get broadband, because whilst they have broadband infrastructure in place throughout the UK, in a lot of areas outside of cities they do not have the capacities on the lines and in the exchanges to handle moving everyone over to broadband. I imagine huge chunks of the US are in that situation also.

Besides, it would seem as though if you have no choice but to play a game online, people prefer to play video games because they still get the same team gameplay, objectives, goals, planning, and reward, but they get a much more visceral experience playing with others in Realtime. RPGs traditionally were a table game, and I don't see them translating to online successfully as a genre, only as a niche experience.

Do you's have gaming groups meeting, games in games stores, afterschool clubs, etc? Or are all those things dead in the US too?

Hey! im in the UK also actually!

mbassoc2003 wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:There's a few of us. Not as many as there once was (unless they lurk).

Yeah, well im a transplant from Aus and married locally - so here I remain.

Re your comments I agree. Though I would say the move in valuation is basically a repricing to low interest rates and perceived overvaluation in other markets (including housing). Which means collectibles/bitcoin/other 'assets' are roofing - though perhaps just repricing to the stock market after decades of low/tame inflation.

Still, as with MTG cards, the question is if there is a player base in 20-30 years at these valuations. The market at the moment relies heavily on high disposable income working adults who are buying up scarce nostalgia from their childhood. If WoTC screws up D&D (or MTG) to the extent that the playerbase dives then theres a big problem. Would be easier to be more constructive if the online D&D/roleplaying software was a little more coherent and WoTC had a better offering.

on that note: why are WoTC so shit at software? Its laughable really.....

shadeun wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:

Probably because their business model is based on shifting physical products, which is a completely different mindset to selling 'an experience', which is essentially what you are buying when you buy a computer game. The core mechanics of tabletop RPGs and collaborative computer gaming are different, which is why I think we'll see a move away from RPGs and towards collaborative online computer games if the world remains in rolling lockdown for the next 5 years.
At the moment I don't see anyone capable of transferring RPGs to an online platform, so there is a gap there than many have recognised, but we don't have the talent of the understanding in that space yet to build the bridge.

Sir Kill Alot wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Who here thinks Biden will make it to the 4th of July?

I don't really want to offer political opinions, but it might be useful to observe how the Biden's administration might differ from Trump's. Here's a recent article:

https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-ra ... 175f1625f0
'Paul Chavez had no idea where a sculpture of his father, Latino American civil rights and labor leader Cesar Chavez, would end up in the White House. He agreed just this week to lend the bronze bust to President Joe Biden and hustled to get it wrapped up and shipped across the country from California. It was an utter surprise Wednesday when he saw Biden at his desk in the Oval Office, with the bust of the late Cesar Chavez right behind the president. “We’re still smiling cheek to cheek,” Paul Chavez said in an interview Thursday. Biden pressed themes of unity and inclusivity and advocacy for racial justice during the campaign, and Chavez said Biden appeared to be trying to convey that through a series of quick decorative changes he’s made to the world’s most powerful office.'

How to interpret this? What cues might Biden take from Chavez that would be different from Trump? Here are a few incidents for comparison:

Cesar Chavez Legacy: From ‘Wet Lines’ To An ‘Illegals Campaign,' A Dark Side In Latino Icon’s Opposition To Undocumented Immigrants
'Probably the most severe example came in the form of the so-called “wet lines.”...the wet lines were set up by Chavez’s close cousin Manuel, who in 1974 paid about three hundred United Farm Worker members to patrol a stretch of the border between Yuma, Arizona and San Luis, Mexico. They were intended to intercept unauthorized crossers en route and persuade them to turn back... The patrols turned violent quick. Stories began surfacing in papers on both sides of the border about crossers being beaten and even robbed. Mexicali’s La Voz wrote that thirty-seven people were attacked in all -- possibly a fraction of the actual total, since as Pawel notes, unauthorized crossers were usually loathe to report crimes to the police. Meanwhile, the UFW bribed Mexican officials in San Luis to patrol their own side of the border for people heading north. There was also the Illegals Campaign, a central piece of strategy which saw the UFW direct members to report the presence of undocumented immigrants in the fields and turn them in to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the agency which preceded Customs and Border Protection (CBP). In East Fresno alone, Cesar bragged in 1974, twenty-two hundred undocumented workers had been identified through the Campaign.'

Okay. Totally different, then.