This is a much needed critique. I've seen a lot of people hurt themselves because they buy in to the toxic positivity of the scene. I love the esoteric art this scene can produce, but the idea that a person can support themselves or their family with that art just isn't borne out by reality.
i've been thinking about this post ever since i read it last night and i feel like a large part of why i stopped publishing writing for a year plus is because it did honestly feel kind of pointless to me to all be passing around the same $5 for pdfs and desperately scrambling to market yourself in the indie rpg space. i recently got back into writing in a niche where i basically can't take money for it and it's been so refreshing that i'm strongly considering just making most or all my stuff on itch free.
i feel like it also bears talking about that like... i want to say 2-3 years ago, there was a lot of conversation about how if you were publishing rpgs on itch, you not only owed it to yourself but owed it to *the community* to price it up, so that people trying to make a living off of it would have their price points taken seriously. which is logic taken from the artist commission space that i think makes sense there, but i think when applied to the indie rpg community got kind of... weird?
This is like such a breath of fresh air--im always surrounded by people online who insist on monetizing *everything* and ive always found it so suffocating.
For my part, ive found that when i put a price tag on my games, no one touches them (which is actually useful for when i make something i want to put out in the world but i want to limit how many people see it lol)--and i'd rather make something that connects with people than make $$$ off my passion projects that i wouldve worked on either way.
No
ReplyDeleteFirst way to destroy an industry outright; stop selling products.
ReplyDeleteI gotta say, the observation that everyone is just selling pdfs to each other is really spot on. thanks for the thoughtful analysis!
ReplyDeleteThis is a much needed critique. I've seen a lot of people hurt themselves because they buy in to the toxic positivity of the scene. I love the esoteric art this scene can produce, but the idea that a person can support themselves or their family with that art just isn't borne out by reality.
ReplyDeletei've been thinking about this post ever since i read it last night and i feel like a large part of why i stopped publishing writing for a year plus is because it did honestly feel kind of pointless to me to all be passing around the same $5 for pdfs and desperately scrambling to market yourself in the indie rpg space. i recently got back into writing in a niche where i basically can't take money for it and it's been so refreshing that i'm strongly considering just making most or all my stuff on itch free.
ReplyDeletei feel like it also bears talking about that like... i want to say 2-3 years ago, there was a lot of conversation about how if you were publishing rpgs on itch, you not only owed it to yourself but owed it to *the community* to price it up, so that people trying to make a living off of it would have their price points taken seriously. which is logic taken from the artist commission space that i think makes sense there, but i think when applied to the indie rpg community got kind of... weird?
This is like such a breath of fresh air--im always surrounded by people online who insist on monetizing *everything* and ive always found it so suffocating.
ReplyDeleteFor my part, ive found that when i put a price tag on my games, no one touches them (which is actually useful for when i make something i want to put out in the world but i want to limit how many people see it lol)--and i'd rather make something that connects with people than make $$$ off my passion projects that i wouldve worked on either way.