Critique of the Conversation Surrounding Lyric Games
"What is a lyric game?" Wouldn't we all like to know! There might not be much use in trying to define something that, for many, is best left undefined. In their recent article for Dicebreaker [1], Linda H. Codega offers the following heuristic for how to determine if a work might be considered a lyric game: While the genre often defies definition, typically lyric games embody one or more of the following aspects: a removal of the distance between the ‘player’ and the ‘character’, the gamification of everyday experiences, and the reversal of assumptions to impact play . “Lyric games” as a term was coined by John R. Harness in late 2019 but, as it was a definition meant to encompass an emergent genre, many games published before 2019 are now considered lyric. Many lyric games are sold and distributed with anti-capitalist and community-forward priorities - often there will be community copies (copies donated by the author for those experiencing marginalisation or hardship)
First 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.