Thomas Aquinas argued that merchants had a moral duty to charge only a 'just price' for their goods. If there was high demand for those goods, it was immoral to raise prices, because to do so would be to take advantage of the buyer's needs.
There isn't much space for Thomas Aquinas in the RPG kickstarter world, where prices grow ever more exorbitant and frothy. And there probably shouldn't be - if there is any justification for just price theory in relation to the necessities of life like bread or milk, it isn't really relevant when it comes to luxury goods. There, raising prices is not taking advantage of anybody's needs - it's taking advantage of their excitement and enthusiasm (and perhaps stupidity). That might not be exactly moral, but it's not like hiking the price of foodstuffs in the aftermath of an earthquake.*
Should producers of RPGs nonetheless keep pushing up prices and expanding the boundaries of what the market can bear? I have no problem with creators making money. But I do have misgivings about ever-more expensive products. One the one hand, it raises expectations in regard to production values, which I think makes it difficult for new entrants. And on the other, it seems to have the effect of pricing some people out of the hobby and making it ever more a bourgeois, hipster pursuit (which it never used to be). In theory, there should be cheaper options undercutting all the mega big-ticket items. In practice, those big beasts seem to hoover up all the hype and leave only scraps for the rest.
So I am genuinely conflicted. Do creators owe a duty to the hobby to limit how expensive their elf games get? I daresay you will let me know you own opinions in the comments.
*Aquinas was probably wrong anyway. As Locke later pointed out, if there is a shortage of a particular good (say, grain), it is morally neutral and perhaps even preferable for merchants to raise prices, because that encourages others to enter the grain market and thus causes the supply to increase, while also acting to depress demand among those who don't really need grain in the first place. This solves the shortage problem.
I'm not bothered about this. Unlike grain, fresh water or electricity, RPG kickstarters are a luxury, not a necessity - I don't think anyone is forced to pay extortionate prices for an RPG product or else suffer severely. And there is also a lot of free stuff out there already (Dragonsfoot, Vaults of Pandius and various blogs). There is even a considerable back-catalogue of TSR & WotC products for sale on various web outlets. I only rarely back kickstarters (and have never attempted to do one of my own) and when I do, I pledge as much as I would be willing to pay if it were sitting on the shelf of a bookshop.
ReplyDeleteThere is a point where aggressive Kickstarter goals can undermine the quality of the product or else the perceived quality. If your 12 keyed sites were hidden behind 12 stretch goals or if you have to pledge an extra £20 to get a player's handout, you'll give the impression that this isn't the work of auteur but just a cash grab.
ReplyDeleteHowever if you are selling a deluxe serialized version bound in chinchilla fur with your signature at the bottom of every page and charge £1000 for it, it might have the opposite effect and make it look like you have a great deal of faith in the quality of your product.
But that's just my opinion. I'm personally willing to pledge extra for hardcover but probably not much else.
I find the more expensive KickStarters are the ones that A. aren't ready for delivery upon pledge (unlike, say, Kevin Crawford's) and B. go on sale to the general public the same time that backers get their copies. So why bother pledging early? There aren't too many that have KS-exclusive items.
ReplyDeletePeople are willing to support creativity dude, which you have in spades. Maybe don’t charge an arm and a leg, but an arm is probably cool. OSR folk are practically slavering at the mouth for version 2 :)
ReplyDeleteGotcha, £60 for the PDF it is!
DeleteIf someone wants to burn their money, who am I to stop them?
ReplyDeleteAt a certain point we just have to acknowledge that people have their own agency and wants. The market reacts to our whims.
When I support things I definitely have my price point - anything over like $20 - 25 starts to feel expensive. I've only supported creators I know pretty well over that level. I don't understand the appeal of the really expensive full color WOTC style books. I always feel like that means means more flash and less content. Though if there was a really awesome artist involved maybe.
ReplyDeleteNobody is being priced out of the hobby, especially this segment of it. Just in old-school gaming, you have OSRIC, BFRPG, Labyrinth Lord, Blueholme, Swords & Wizardry (multiple versions), Mutant Future, and a whole lot more games for the price of free. There is a massive catalogue of free adventure modules, including several really good ones (last year's No Artpunk contest alone had a bunch, and this year will repeat the feat). If you want print, you can pick up a hefty collection for a little money. Someone interested in the old stuff can just pirate them, which is not something we talk much about in polite company, but of course it happens a lot. We didn't think twice about it when we were kids, and it is now much easier.
ReplyDeleteYou are right that some Kickstarters can get silly with their stretch goals (this is also a common way to tank a promising campaign, and these days, I have more trust in a project that doesn't have too many of them), but I would not link the issue with basic accessibility. Those who want to play shall find their way.
I dunno. How big is "this segment" of the hobby and how readily accessible is it outside of our circles? Since I'm in those circles, I genuinely have no idea.
DeleteBasic Fantasy BFRPG prints certainly seem to sell well on Amazon to a much wider market than just OSR afficionados.
DeleteI would think that rising costs indicate increased perceived value. That value is socially determined. As games created to foster shared fantasies with small groups lose their stigma as deviant behavior, the more expensive they are likely to be; the more expensive they become, the more they are likely to lose their stigma.
ReplyDeleteA surprise, to me, is that gamers not only think they need to buy something to play these RPGs, but they *want* to buy things to invest in their games. They (we!) crave the purchases. It's an investment in value, a signal of commitment. The purchases also put them in touch, notionally, with other small groups beyond their own. That is a paradox of the hobby. Most of them wouldn't be in the hobby of creating unpredictable fantasies shared with small groups if they had not bought products, but none of the products is truly needed to play, not one.
You did ask for opinions. Addressing this blog entry in particular, to me it hints at discomfort with the changes over the decades in the association of social class in the UK with this RPG hobby (a theme of several entries of yours, as you have pointed out). It's also a personal change. Those of us who acquired "social capital," and maybe even income, unavailable to our family of origin (through higher education, for example), but retained or recovered an old hobby that seemed to be associated with a lower social standing and deviant behavior (what you called "the extreme lower middle class"), have to manage that discrepancy of associations as we age. What happens when our hobby, once marked as deviant, is more socially acceptable and then becomes more expensive?
It's an extreme microcosm of the tale of TSR. When D&D came out in 1974, one of the biggest complaints was that it was too expensive. That was one reason that T&T was created in 1975, in what we'd call today "zine format."
Good points. Yes, the discomfort is there. I don't like the way the hobby has become gentrified and I've never liked or felt comfortable with bourgeois English people.
DeleteWhen people are fed up, they might start talking about my Kickstarters... that's when the healing begins.
ReplyDeleteOh boy do I have an overpriced product coming up for you (p_-)
ReplyDeleteIs the purest diamond "overpriced", Patrick?
DeleteIf the expensive, hyped-up products delivered quality gameplay, that would be one thing - but they so rarely seem to. That's fine with me, I suppose... P.T. Barnum addressed this a while ago. Of course it's frustrating to watch hacks make big money on these hype campaigns, but - it's not like I have the skills required to mount an effective raid on the marketplace, so why worry? The OSRIC pdf is *checks notes* still free, torrents exist, no real people who want to play are being prevented from doing so, while hipsters & their money are being parted. Has a fine symmetry to it.
ReplyDelete