Tavern Chat

Joe and Tenkar return for another Friday night of mayhem and D&D memes...

BlizzardActivisionKing employees are seeking to organize and possibly unionize. Was Paizo's Workers Union merely a move on the chessboard for the Communications Workers of America (CWA)? 

https://cwa-union.org/news/releases/employees-of-activision-blizzard-file-unfair-labor-practice-charge-against-gaming https://www.inverse.com/gaming/activision-blizzard-union-abetterabk-could-change-the-games-industry

Why do so many players enjoy player Murder Hobos? I strongly suspect its the adrenaline rush attached to risk and reward.

Glen and Tenkar are back with a Friday Night Livestream

When George from Emperors Choice offered to send me a few copies of various Arduin releases for me to cover, I never expected this amount, not just the pure number, but literally the amount of gaming content.

Christmas arrived early for your Tavern Keeper ;)

https://empcho.com/

Last week Geek Native posted an article that Paizo was changing the word "phylactery" to "Soul Cage", and that they mentioned such change in the preface of their newest release in their current Adventure Path. Aside from the fact that "Soul Cage" is simply boring, it appears that Paizo is making such change more for getting the credit for doing so instesd of such change being "the right thing to do." 

https://www.geeknative.com/136257/soul-cages-paizo-drops-religious-phylacteries-from-pathfinder/

How detailed do we need our adventures? At what point is too much detail detrimental to adding a commercial adventure to your campaign. Is less more?

Diamond Comics got hit with a ransomware attack and has yet to fully restore functions 3 days later. Robinhood - the stock trading company - got hacked by a hacker who got access to the data of 7 million customers.  Just how vulnerable is OneBookShelf, Frog God Games, Paizo, Goodman Games, Itch.io and so many others?  

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/diamond-comics-switches-to-emergency-website-reports-delays/ https://bleedingcool.com/comics/diamond-comic-distributors-targeted-by-ransomware-attack/ https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/8/22770861/robinhood-7-million-customers-hacker-breach-extortion-security

Back in the old-time, Google+ and Forums ruled the roost. Blogs were looming large. Today, Google+ is dead, blogs are dying, and forums are suffering. It is the day of social media, podcasts, and YouTube. Do you read RPG forums? Which ones? If you don't, why not?

No one has "game designer" as a fall back position in their potential jobs list. You become a "game designer" because you want to create games, not because you failed in some other occupation. 

There are so many would be game designers, and so few positions that pay a fulltime salary, that anyone going into the "game industry" as their primary occupation better think good and hard. Because if game design isnt your side gig but your primary occupation, you likely need a lucrative side gig.

This does not mean that creatives are paid what they are worth. They are, however, likely paid what the market can bear.

The opportunities to make a living wage in game design are few, and as a general rule, only go to the most skilled. Being "good" at game design simply isnt good enough, not when there are thousands of would be game designers vying for a small handful of well paying spots.