What happened to RPG subcultures?
>>96583523Still a thing
I'm bored enough, I'll bite. What are RPG subcultures?
>>96583523Those kids are now in their late 30s and early 40s, doing waggie jobs and looking the part>>96583541OP doesn't know himself, so that's why he's asking
>>96583523nothing, they're still aroundyou just hate them because a bunch of the nerds came out as queer
https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths
>>96583836Oh look, it's the gatekeep non-argument. Quick, someone post that idiotic comic about women and cool kids joining to play cards, so the original group feels alienated and leave.But more seriously:Goth subculture managed to die, raise again and die again THREE TIMES at this point. And it's never actually dead, the "death" is only when the popularity drops, but the subculture is doing perfectly fine on its own. It's the "mops" that leave for something fresh and new.
>>96583523They post in different generals. So, pretty much what was happening ten, twenty, fifty years ago with different tech.
>>96583836>>96583861It's funny how it all ends up looping back to goths.Back in late 00s my hometown and its region had a really, really weird local thing for goths going. And at the same time, it was peak of the Western bollywood craze. So you are in a rural fucking nowhere, mountains from all sides so it's almost literally cut off from the world in the winter, the town has population of like 30 thousands, and you suddenly have all the kids either in goth or in fucking salwars. And the bigger it was, the less popular it was becoming, along with kids bitching to each other that this other kid "stole their identity", because they dress the same (one of the joys of being a school counselor is then trying to sort any kind of childish bullshit). So eventually kids went for greener pastures of new, original things (in this particular case, predominately getting into the commercial punk, zero surprises)... but a handful stocked to their new thing.Of course by the "common sense" of gatekeepers, this should either be prevented in the bud, with the originators locking themselves up (good luck with that when the point of your subculture is to being seen as someone different) and, more importantly, once the thing explodes, everyone leaving, for it was "destroyed".Guess what never happens.
>>96583836>t. nogames tard gargling cocks
>>96583541I think the only group that was different and popular enough from "mainstream rpg" to be considered their own subculture were vampire larpers
>>96583915Mall goths are not real goths
>>96583541guess they mean edgy teens who played WoD RPGs, boomer grognards playing RAW DND3e, younger kids playing more larpy 4e, etc.Now it's mostly all the same soulless 5e homogroup, who sometimes feels spicy enough to try VtM for a one shot.
>>96584178all goths are mall goths.it's that rarest of subcultures, one which has no authentic source. it's posers all the way down.
Like this kind of stuff?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NPBIwQyPWE
>>96583861No shit Sherlock, the popularity of subcultures can increase or decrease according to cultural fluctuations. That doesn't invalidate the article.
>>96583523Millennials have a median age of 37 now and have to go to work, they don't have time for rpgs.
>>96583523Stranger Things and Critical Role
>>96583523Corroded by insufferable theatre kids
>>96584361>The very thing the article ignores doesn't invalidate its non-argumentYou were always that dumb, or that's result of tiktok?
>>96583915saar please, this larp is embarrassing>>96583523the people grew up; in the case of like WW fans they became npr libs. despite the proliferation of systems, monoculture prevailed, especially in the last two decades. the "holdouts" who eschew the popular culture are defined by their contrarianism and neurodivergence; more likely to roll for a trauma dump than to roll for initiative there. this isn't a huge surprise or anything though; just a smaller-scale version of putnam's observations
>>96584279>no authentic sourceit was a post punk music scene
I think it's because there's just too many ways to fracture someone's attention into various vectors of personal taste. Subculture requires at least some kind of direction and focus for taste. If everyone's attention is diffuse across too many different idiosyncratic things, then attention can't coalesce into a shared subculture.>>96583836Hey, I read a whole bunch of meaningness years ago. Good niche stuff.
>>96584565>saarThe joke is that I'm Polish and from rural Podkarpacie, aka the rurality of rural Poland
>>96583523They sold out to become people like Critical Role and it became fucking cringeSame reasons goth died out, Hot Topic and the like turned it into just another fashion trend
>>96584381Why are gen z and alpha not getting into RPGs
>>96586126I know some gen Z kids into ttrpgs. Good kids, I played OSE and Free League with them and they do a healthy spread of games. A couple fell fo the paid GM gig and collected worst (and funnier) anecdotes than I ever did. I was listening to one doing a single player WH40K rpg one shot in his server and I wasn't gonna ruin their work but the client was a millenial psycho. Making bizarre demands, demanding more weekly spots while treating him like shit, denigrating him for not knowing random bullshit lore. The dude wanted to pay for other players to be there, but he had to be the main character. Not bringing his friends, paying the GM for strangers to join but they had to be his side characters. And this 20 year old was taking it like a champ, some zen shit, I couldn't imagine that bullshit happening a decade ago.
>>96583523They stayed young and you got old.
>>96584242The boomers still exist, though these days they include X and some Millennials. They're still playing AD&D, Traveler, CoC, Battletech, etc.The goth & emo whiners seem to have mostly disintegrated as a distinct roleplaying group.The 4e sloppers and 3.5 autists have gone on to 5e and Pathfinder, respectively. Or sometimes to other subcultures for the terminally smelly and autistic, like MTG and MLP.
>>965835232000's era gamers split. The low functioning neckbeard types simply played newer editions. Higher-functioning gamers quit by age 30 - the token girls from my college groups are all moms now. The OG Vampire the Masquerade players are all Gen X business people. Maybe they'll goth it up a bit for Halloween A lot of the original 70's/80's Silent Gen and elder Boomer gamers are dead now. I went to an estate auction and saw the Warhammer army of a guy I played with a couple times in 2002. Kind of a similar story for the traditional 90's nerds(Comic Book guy from the Simpsons types). Unhealthy lifestyles did them in.
>>96584548Do you have some sort of mental impediment? Both things can be true at the same time. Subcultures can get subverted by bad actors but then revive because the souls of the people are too big to be contained or controlled.
>>96587409>I went to an estate auction and saw the Warhammer army of a guy I played with a couple times in 2002.Jesus, dude. That's a low blow from life.
>>96583523Subculture in general is dying due to cultural homogenization. The only cultural divide that's allowed to spread is the political culture war.What's left is a few millenials and even less zoomers that were old enough to join a subculture which will slowly fade away and e-girls cosplaying in their flavour of the month "retro" outfit.
>>96587599I was recently thinking about the ugly sweater parties of the 2000's. The whole idea was that it was an excuse to go thrifting or raid your parents' closet in search of some abomination from the 80's. You were giving an old article of clothing a sort of afterlife. And then companies rushed in and started making ugly sweaters on purpose. It's just so fucking exhausting. If anything has the potential to make money, someone will swoop in to make it more expensive and streamlined and advertised, like a vampire sucking its prey dry. Nothing cool is allowed to just grow organically or be cherished by a niche subculture anymore.
>>96587655This may be true but I don't think subcultures died due to shops catering to their tastes. I would say the shitty culture war crap has more fault
>>96587676Marketability was surely a factor. Online platforms and their companies are way too influential nowadays and way too easy to manipulate for investors and investors don't want you to listen to a small garage band with a novel style, they want no one to say "fuck the system" in a none system approved way, wear diy clothes or do creative things with your friends. They want you to listen to taylor swift, to go after your fellow citizens, to buy tons of fast fassion and your hobbies should ideally be tied to a subscription model.
>>96587599appearance coded subcultures was a fad, it lasted under 30 years and it was pumped constanty by brands and products trying to use your desire of belonging to sell you music you didn't care for, clothes that made you look like a cliche, even cigarette brands were in the game. It got turned into culture war because things keep getting shittier and making a divide between "you wear pink and listen to VH1 so I hate you" feels retarded when you could do the exact same thing but with political indicators (that don't mean shit because that people are just following a party like it was their favorite radio DJ)
>>96584279>which has no authentic source. it's posers all the way downBauhaus, The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sisters of Mercy, the list goes on and on.THAT is the source of the subculture.
>>96587409>I went to an estate auction and saw the Warhammer army of a guy I played with a couple times in 2002.Memento Mori.
>>96583541Hardcore nerds or goths if it was VtM. All the normalfags and everything that came later is an abomination.>>96587409>went to an estate auction and saw the Warhammer army of a guy I played with a couple times in 2002.Could be worse than death. My flatmate got an entire army for free because he works at the garbage dump and some dudes new wife was making him toss it out. That dude will regret everything when she leaves him a year later.
>>96584381>34 years old, married, just bought a house in a major metropolitan area, and still running games (now in our dedicated game room)Unironic skill issue. Hell, for a third of the year, I’m working 50 hours or more per week, but I still find time to plan and run games.
>>96592618survivor bias at it's finest
>>96584242>boomer grognards playing RAW DND3e??? Those guys never stopped playing AD&D. The only division there are the ones who thought "2ed" was a real thing worthy of distinction.GenX and Millennials were the ones who jumped on 3ed.
>>96587409>A lot of the original 70's/80's Silent Gen and elder Boomer gamers are dead now. I went to an estate auction and saw the Warhammer army of a guy I played with a couple times in 2002.>Kind of a similar story for the traditional 90's nerds(Comic Book guy from the Simpsons types). Unhealthy lifestyles did them in.It is interesting to see "so and so game designer passed away. He contributed to all these games you heard about. He weighed 450 pounds, had both Types of diabetes, and was 60." There's a warning in there.But even ignoring those dudes, as time passes more and more game devs from the 90s and 80s and 70s are dying off. We're all getting older.
>>96587409>Unhealthy lifestyles did them innice try, but I will NOT eat the bugs and drink your ONIONS milk!!!!
>>96592548Man, can you imagine what society would say about a dude who made his wife throw away all her books or knitting supplies or whatever and wouldn't let her see her friends? >>96592709I'm always surprised when an actor or something who was middle-aged when I was a kid in the 90's passes away like Pee Wee or the dad from Home Alone. Always takes a second to click with me that it was 30 years ago.
>>96592734>Man, can you imagine what society would say about a dude who made his wife throw away all her books or knitting supplies or whatever and wouldn't let her see her friends?It's a fucking simple litmus test: "you don't have to love my hobbies, but you have to love that I enjoy them." If a person doesn't pass that test, the sex/security/whatever isn't worth it.
>>96583831sybau fag
>>96583861That's an exception cause the Goths have the Undead trait, dumbass. There is a powerful lich in the shadows that revives Goth culture when he has enough power.
>>96584381I hate that this is true, the last ttrpg I ran/played in was over christmas for some family.I have hope that when my kids are older I can get back into it for now I find the arkham horror card game is much easier to fit into my schedule and it mostly scratches a similar itch but I crave a good TTPRG
>>96586177Poast greentexts nao
>>96587409>Unhealthy lifestyles did them in.Damn straight. I was one of them until a health scare in my late 20's, 10 years later I am still dealing with a few of the issues that being a fat slob that didn't take care of himself can cause. go to the dentist guys. seriously.
>>96592709I never thought it this way. If the knowledge old RPG designers have is not passed to the new generation of RPG players and makers, that knowledge is going to be lost and everything is going to be replaced with corporate trash. Is the job of the new generations to keep the flame alive and don't let it die.
>>96583523Why should I care that emos are gone? Everyone dogged on them while they were around.
The "subculture" is now keeping Critical Role as background noise while you do other things.
>>96593559I think you're on to something.
>>96593400The dentist can't save you. Boo! You're going to die!
>>96593400i genuinely feel sorry for americans for living in a culture that allows them to mistreat themselves so much and not only do they do absolutely nothing about it, they glorify the products that do this to them or act in complete denial.i hope you get a healthy lifestyle and stay that way anon
>>96594357They can save your chompers though!Took several years for my mouth to stabilize, shoulda gone earlier coulda saved a lot of pain and money.>>96594428Yeah I lost 65lbs, I exercise and eat healthy now. It's crazy that the people I loved and spent time with never told me how unhealthy I was until AFTER I made all of these lifestyle changes.
>>96593514They aren't gone. I saw some middle or high school aged girls the other day that might as well have been poster girls for hot topic straight from my own childhood. Maybe the kids are alright.
>>96594515>emos todayAny "emo" after like 2019 just listens to mumble rap/soundcloud rap.
>>96587409>Higher-functioning gamers quit by age 30Or they've just continued playing with their old groups and there's no reason for them to interact with (you)
>>96584242Don't forget actual LARPers. I didn't engage with RPG culture at large until I was 23 and went to my first convention while I have played since I was 16. Even then it was still unusual for the LARP crowd to venture into the tabletop parts, now 10+ years later they seem to mix pretty freely
Everyone grew up or roped
>>96593400>go to the dentist guys. seriously.Doing the recommended cleanings every 6 months makes a huge difference. Probably one of the best things you can do for yourself or your kid and it should be covered by your dental plan. I'm 42 and haven't had anything more serious than a filling.
>>96583523>What happened to RPG subcultures?You got old.
>>96599489Most decent gaming groups are pretty insular. If someone's on Discord or loafing around the LGS begging to join games, there's probably a good reason.
