Should We Monetize? If So, How?

#21

GM for hire doesn’t sound like something that’s going to buy you a new boat. But if you look it as something that could keep you in sourcebooks, or pay your internet bill you might be satisfied.

If kickstarter has shown me anything, its that running a successful kickstarter is way more difficult that you’d think it’d be. For that reason I’d lean away from the make+sell a system. Plus this hobby is swimming in systems right now.

As to starting a podcast, if you don’t have a solid idea of what you want to say, don’t do it. And if you want to do an actual-play, you can’t do it alone. You need a solid crew of fiends to will do it with you…same time…every week…for the rest of your lives.

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#22

I disagree that there is ethics agreed upon by most ethicists or philosophers, and I’d be very hesitant to use Singer as the standard extent philosopher. I think Singer is a weird stand in to go to if discussing what most philosophers agree to, including most modern philosophers. I’m not sure I’ve ever met an academic philosopher who actually argued for the liberation of animals, for example.

In any event, not treating people like objects is about as close as I could get to a moral universal, though a lot of utilitarians (like Singer) may well disagree. The claim here is, essentially, that capitalism as designed treats people as objects.

There are those who manage not to, but once there is competition there’s an design towards reducing humans to bits.

So, personally, I take not treating people as objects as a groundwork for how to build the right sorts of habits, so that I am more likely to do correct things when life get stressful and hard. That’s my sort of contextualism, and I think its a pretty good position for most of us most of the time.

As I said in my last post, making money from RPGs isn’t any worse than making money in other ways. Of course it isn’t. So long as you have to participate in a corrupt system to pay rent or groceries, then its not morally blameworthy to do so. The problem is in what it does to your relationships, and how it makes you view the community and those who are paying you.

And, to nab a fuller Singer quote from Wiki: Capitalism is very far from a perfect system, but so far we have yet to find anything that clearly does a better job of meeting human needs than a regulated capitalist economy coupled with a welfare and health care system that meets the basic needs of those who do not thrive in the capitalist economy.

Emphasis mine; the US doesn’t do a good job of meeting those requirements. We have more bankruptcies from medical care than any other cause, etc. We don’t meet what Singer is talking about, and Singer is a particularly odd modern philosopher. Dennett? Sure.

Additionally, to the question of “How do I pay the rent?” , it seems a particularly weird answer to say “Charge (your friends) for what others (including them) do for free, all the while risking ruining your relationships and fun.”

That’s a weird answer to that question, and a really hard one to make work.

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#23

Very true!

It only makes sense as a part of a larger, long term strategy.

#24

@Paul_T - Is that the Ross Rifles guys? They seem to be living the dream! I am backing their Kickstarter. The game and the guys seem like the kind I would love to know!

#25

This is true in general sense but I don’t think that’s important in the specific scenario we’re discussing here. With all other things being equal I feel that for an unprivileged person the ability to barter with like individuals buys you “social score” faster than simply giving things away to make a name for yourself. If your ultimate goal is to contribute to your bottom line with something that has to do with your hobby, more kudos faster is better. I guess that’s all I was implying when I said barter is a good idea.

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#26

I don’t think many people would agree with this claim for at least two reasons: 1. designed by whom? - unless you can specify this, it’s a logical fallacy; 2 as objects how? - unless you can show that in some perspective I’m perceived in the same light as a chair or a hairdryer, I simply don’t buy it.

To me your stance is completely devoid of relationship to the reality around us. It sounds great when one says that he doesn’t want to participate in corrupt capitalism but if you don’t you have no stakes at the table and you’re simply not doing anything, while pretending to do something. Buy great products from people who need the money to level the playing field. Praying to anti-capitalist gods will cause no tangible change. No praying ever does.

#27

I can see your point about capitalism dehumanizing people but that is only if you do not bother to respect humanity in general. You simply need to add ethics into your capitalism. Simply selling a creation that people are interested in does not dehumanize them. That is really not that hard until a corporation becomes large or products become very complicated.

Personally, I plan on having my friends playtest and give them free copies in exchange for their help. If I can’t get enough friends to playtest a game, it probably doesn’t really have a market to sell to any way.

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#28

That’s right!

You can read a little blurb about some of the people who run an organization/business working with various forms of autism (and other challenges) here, for instance:

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#29

Well, on that we are agreed. The rest of that … I’m having difficulty reading with any degree of charity.

I will fix one part for you, though:

The rest … I don’t know what to make of.

#30

That’s interesting because it can lead to exposure in a way that allows you to pursue or strengthen other goals like indie games or podcasts as well, interesting thought.

You bring up some awesome ideas and points for getting your name out there in your post, I wish I could heart it twice!

As for the rest of the conversation, it’s been an interesting read, I wasn’t sure if my post would get any notice or fit here but I’m glad it’s sparked at least an interesting discussion. It’s largely confirmed things I’ve suspected but wasn’t sure were true for sure:
TL;DR so far
*The market is saturated because the barriers to entry were low, leading to lots of competition for a pool of limited resources (attention, revenue)
*Generating clout by doing little things here or there and establishing yourself is probably your best bet, become a name that people recognize and it’ll give you a platform from which you can lift off further
*It’d be nice to live off of my hobby but that’s super unlikely, just like most hobbies

I appreciate everyone’s feedback and contributions to the conversation!

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