tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617677799085549365.post2908206916935615328..comments2024-03-12T22:45:16.936+01:00Comments on The Disoriented Ranger: Repost: Misconceptions about Gatekeeping (Opinion Piece, not a rant)Jens D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18394303166081684904noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617677799085549365.post-62692431181902442172022-01-17T17:46:03.837+01:002022-01-17T17:46:03.837+01:00Thank you for commenting and sharing your thoughts...Thank you for commenting and sharing your thoughts! Caveat on my side, before I go into answering: it may be that I talk about a different, mostly "older" OSR and that my perception is skewed as I don't see anymore what I used to see. I have no reddit account, for instance, so I might miss out because of that alone! Our bubbles may only marginally intersect, I realize :D<br /><br />TRANSPARENCY: Is a mixed bag, I guess. Many people offer affiliate links, which obviously only bring money if the product gets promoted, so there is an intrinsic motivator to only make save bets in that regard. Another aspect would be that many popular reviewers out there actually ALSO publish their own stuff, which can (obviously) lead to problems and biases ... That's just two cases of bad practice I can see in the scene right now. Another problem would be publishing and professional standards. There are almost none. Who's to say what's good design? By what metric? With what professional background?<br /><br />FAIR MODERATION: That's about how content is curated by those in favor. That can mean a proper blog roll or shout-outs or even just dialogue between blogs initiated by those with huge followings. Used to be that bloggers exchanged content that way (a bit like I do here). Used to be that big bloggers shared their opinions on new content, all that good stuff. I just don't see that happening anymore. Everyone seems to cook their own little soup (or just no one wants to play with me! ha!).<br /><br />QUALITY OF ARGUMENT: what you say is true for most bubbles, but only after several schisms went through the OSR, mostly political (left vs. right, Trump vs. Biden, Vaxxed vs. Unvaxxed, woke vs. unwoke, this creator vs. that creator ... in short: a lot). It hadn't been that way (well, edition wars, maybe), as it hadn't mattered that much, say, up to 6 years ago? I do not know of any OSR community where people are civil towards each other across those schisms. I'd love to see that, honestly, so if you know any, I'd be happy to learn about it and check it out.<br /><br />QUALITY OF CONTENT: Agreed, to an extent. Ennie Awards had some, say, questionable votings in the past. Scandals, even. Especially regarding the OSR. So I don't know about that or if it changed? Anyway. What would be examples of "true excellence", in your opinion? Honest question, always looking for good shit :)<br /><br />MOBILITY: Depends on how you define being famous, I guess. If the early OSR is used for indications, someone coming to prominence would be known across the board, not only in their respective bubble. I just don't see that happening anymore. Not from where I'm sitting, anyway. Who'd be a good example for that, in your opinion?<br /><br />GRATUITOUSNESS: What I mean with "administrative things" would mostly be about those people who willingly process the output of a scene and share their insights. Aggregators, if you will. A good example for that was Dreams of Mythic Fantasy for publications or Dyvers for blogs. If that's missing, there's no way (or "just" the corporate way) to find out what's going on. Again, I don't see it happening anymore (actually, ever since g+ went down ... that was a hard blow in that regard).<br /><br />I hope this explained why I see it a bit less optimistic than you seem to see it. Maybe I've just lost touch, as lots of things I used to like and associate with the OSR, are no more. Either way, I hope you'll point out some goodness I just might have missed! That'd be nice.Jens D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/18394303166081684904noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617677799085549365.post-71062464285683971432022-01-17T16:42:09.291+01:002022-01-17T16:42:09.291+01:00Yeah, the g+ exodus was huge. That's definitel...Yeah, the g+ exodus was huge. That's definitely one aspect. I landed on MeWe ... it's alright, but no replacement. I just won't go back to fb and I won't touch twitter, which somewhat limits what I can see. That said, I think 5E is another huge aspect. It's popular and seems to work for many people. For now, at least. WotC show some bad corporate practice how they tread their small creatives AND their politics are quite aggressive, which will ruffle some feathers as soon as 5.5 is a thing, would be my guess. that said, many flocked to the corporate version of D&D that had been active in OSR cycles, I think. The rest is little bubbles all over the place, definitely. Almost no cross-pollination anymore.<br /><br />And I agree, it's funny how Tenkar turned out to be the last one standing ...Jens D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/18394303166081684904noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617677799085549365.post-18792036630622157642022-01-17T16:33:16.123+01:002022-01-17T16:33:16.123+01:00I'm not sure I agree with your addendum about ...I'm not sure I agree with your addendum about the status of the OSR community. Now, I don't feel particularly knowledgeable or involved, in that I just follow some blogs, vlogs and authors, read some Reddit, leave a comment here and there, and move on. But here's what I perceive, according to your metrics:<br /><br />- TRANSPARENCY and FAIR MODERATION: honestly, I can't say I have an informed opinion here.<br /><br />- QUALITY OF ARGUMENT: I do see some bad actors and harsh comments, but also many more good actors and constructive comments, and the bad actors tend to be pushed to the margins. So, not ideal but pretty OK?<br /><br />- QUALITY OF CONTENT: the OSR has some of the best quality in the industry at the moment, in my opinion (but the Ennie Awards don't seem to disagree much, if that's of any indication). Blogs, zines, games, adventures. There's some true excellence out there. I see in the published material an emerging culture of efficient presentation/layout and strong usability at the table that I really appreciate, and I hope it spreads more to other RPG subcultures as well.<br /><br />- MOBILITY: I've not been following the OSR closely or long enough to see many stars rise and fall, but I've certainly seen some. It seems to me that new content gets promoted on its own merits, and not because of established renown, and there's a lot of it, especially in the so-called NuSR sub-branch. Or maybe that's just what I follow most closely?<br /><br />- GRATUITOUSNESS: There's a lot of free/pwyw published material, and it keeps coming. As for "administrative things that make a community work", I must admit I don't understand what that means in this context.<br /><br />So, I most certainly have bias and blind spots, but it doesn't look so bad to me?emarskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10733243569261035165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617677799085549365.post-48944135395452063162022-01-17T16:20:07.267+01:002022-01-17T16:20:07.267+01:00Thanks Jens, that's really helpful. It does s...Thanks Jens, that's really helpful. It does seem like the OSR community lost a lot once G+ went away a few years ago. There was no one older place like an EnWorld or Dragonsfoot to continue anchoring cross-publisher discussions the same way - although I'm sure the relevant publishers all have their own active community hubs within their gardens - Labyrinth Lord might be on Facebook, same with LOTFP, and ACKS is on Discord. Frog God and S&W seemed to have embraced economic pragmatism and gone mostly dual OSR and 5E compatible with their efforts. Funny to think in the end Tenkar's Tavern might be the "last lonely house".Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18031181424520125213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617677799085549365.post-21066098697268732692022-01-17T15:50:34.769+01:002022-01-17T15:50:34.769+01:00Thanks for commenting, John! As far as I can see, ...Thanks for commenting, John! As far as I can see, I'd say that there are three big cliques out there right now. Everything aggregated around Tenkar's Tavern would be one (main drum for OSE, the new Ascendant ... more "traditional" flavors of the OSR, maybe?), the second and third are mainly along the artpunk/no-artpunk axis (clique around Patrick Stuart on the "artpunk" front and clique around Prince of Nothing on the "no-artpunk" front ... interestingly enough, mostly non-US players in those two, Venger being the notable exception). Venger is still doing his thing, Gabor Lux is running strong (both maybe in the no-artpunk camp). LOTFP seems to be in hard decline, not sure about ACKS (but Macris seems to be doing okay, being the author of Ascendant). OSE seems to be a new standard, more so than Labyrinth Lord or S&W, but mainly through product, not so much through buzz, if that makes any sense? It's all compatible anyway, so idk ... I think the Hostile RPG is considered OSR (seems to be a Traveller Clone, if I'm not mistaken) and I see lots of people talking about it. Z. Smith is still around, but he's not popular anymore (although going strong and with a strong following ... just no buzz at all). Oh, there might be a fourth group, the "sworddream" folks, but I haven't seen or heard anything from that side of the OSR (seems to be a lot of Twitter, I reckon).<br /><br />However, only my two cents. My impression is that there is no movement anymore and rarely enough hype for anything new other than in-goups lauding and supporting themselves. Hope it helped to give you an idea?<br /><br />Great to see you blogging again, btw. Here's looking forward to your play-reports!Jens D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/18394303166081684904noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6617677799085549365.post-3927842852962983492022-01-17T14:52:00.990+01:002022-01-17T14:52:00.990+01:00Jens, who do you see as the current "popular ...Jens, who do you see as the current "popular kids" in the OSR movement? I admit I'm out of touch. The two OSR games I gravitated to the most (LOTFP and ACKS) have both been no strangers to attempted censures. I'm not as familiar with the story behind OSE but can see it's become fairly popular.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18031181424520125213noreply@blogger.com