Sheesh, it's been a month!

Right, this will not do. This will not do at all.  A month with no posts? How could I let my readers wait so long? But no more!

Over at grognardia the author just made a post about how to bring Blackmoor and Greyhawk back through a modern publication from WOtC. As much as I normally respect and agree with everything JM says about the old-school renaissance, in this case I disagree. The schools of old and new have fractured too much. The modern world has affected even RPGs, and if Wizards wants to stay competitive as a company, they'll have to adapt or die.

Wait, they already have. When 3rd edition first came out, my friends and I were enthralled at Wizard's business strategy. Sure, they made the game uncomfortably close to Magic: The Gathering (which even back then struck me as a sign that something was wrong with this new edition). But personal feelings aside, Wizards' approach to the business side of RPGs has been unquestionably successful. They realease new products and expansions and whatnot, and have a dedicated base of buyers that are absolutely convinced that in order to remain a viable participant in the hobby they must equip themselves with these new publications (an attitude partly created, and continually reinforced by the Company itself).

Unfortunately, the old school has nothing of the sort. Its products are cheap and from third-party publishers, who traditionally (at least in many fields) produce cheap knockoff crap. Whether or not that's actually the case with RPGs, these types of products have a public conception as being, well, crap. So there's one mark against them.

Instead of a single company with the force of a huge corporation behind them, modern old-school products are designed by individuals or small groups. And, unlike Gygax and Arneson, they're not inventing something new, they're trying to recreate something old, amid a consumer community already flooded with more fantasy games than you can shake a piercer at. So there's another mark against them.

There is no way an old-school product will ever be commercially viable. It will always be a niche in a hobby that itself is already a niche (just think of people that play WOW versus people that play D&D). The old-school movement will never die, because there will always be the occasional gamer that becomes fed up with the new and finds the old to be genius in its simplicity. But in the long run, the old-school will remain the old-school. IMHO, I think this is for the best.