1/ Okay, here's a fun thread we should all read: The role of social media plays within a community.

2/ This is a thread I almost posted a long time ago, and almost posted again not so long ago, but lately I've seen so many people in TTRPGs falling into the trap of thinking that the Twitter TTRPG community is the TTRPG community and I think it's important that we challenge…

3/ …that idea and remind ourselves that this is only a small piece of the hobby and the greater community.

Let's talk about Pokemon. More specifically, let's talk about the release of Pokemon Sword & Shield(I will be referring to it as SwSh).

4/ I remember when SwSh was first announced. The world was in HYPE mode. A new Pokemon game, and FOR A HOME CONSOLE?! The first Pokemon game for a home console?! Immediately, the internet started speculating, as it does. And of course, expectations were BIG.

5/ Was it going to be open world? There were rumors of an entirely revamped real-time combat system, and that's only a few of the things people were saying and expecting.

And then we started getting more info.

And it was just another Pokemon game.

6/ Not only that, but it didn't even really look all that good. Not even close to the standard of modern Nintendo games. And woah woah, did you say NO NATIONAL DEX?! Oh that's it, we're fucking boycotting SwSh because GameFreak is being LAZY!! Yeah, remember that?

7/ That #BringBackNationalDex thing? The whole internet was certain they were going to teach Nintendo a lesson by not buying this game. And I almost believed them.

8/ Right up to the day of release, Reddit was full of posts about how poorly this game was going to sell because everyone in some corner of the internet had sworn not to buy it.

"We will show them that quality is important," they shouted, "With our money!

9/ Nintendo won’t see a dime out of me until they step up their game!"

And then it released. Amidst a number of online communities screaming their heads off about how awful it would be, it released. And in 6 weeks, it sold 16 million copies. I'll say that again.

10/ SIXTEEN MILLION COPIES- IN SIX WEEKS. But wait, how could this be? All I had heard from 'influencers' for literal weeks was how poorly this game would do.

11/ Oh yeah, it’s because the majority of Pokemon's core audience exists outside of the echo chamber into which these fans were screaming.

Now to be clear: Social media matters. It really does.

12/ Companies invest millions of dollars into social media presence and advertising on platforms like Twitter every year. But it doesn't matter as much as you'd think when you're embedded in one of these online communities.

13/ Here's a scene that has happened to me about 100 times: It's weekly game night with my IRL group. The 10 of us are sitting at my house and getting ready to start playing, and I bring up the TTRPG drama of the week.

14/ What awful thing has WOTC done, what indie darling game is exploding because it was mentioned on a big podcast? You know, that sort of stuff. And they all look at me like I have 5 heads.

15/ 9 people who have been playing in a weekly game for 5+ years and have played more TTRPG systems and characters than a lot of the people who are reading this- have NO IDEA WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT. Because they aren't on Twitter. And guess what, that's probably the norm.

16/ In every group of 10 TTRPG players, chances are 1 of them has a strong presence on Twitter and actually follows what is happening on a day-to-day basis. But the majority of people who play these games don’t even know what 'subtweet' means.

17/ And that means that the majority of opinions about TTRPGs exist outside of- and are mostly uninfluenced by- Twitter.

So what does this all mean? Well not a whole lot, really.

18/ But as a person who is heavily involved in a very specific online community, it can be very easy to forget that the implications of what happen here mostly only matter here.

19/ Yeah, some of the largest happenings can spill out into the rest of the world, but for the most part, what happens here stays here.

20/ So remember, this is an important place for the people that are here, and your voice matters, but at the end of the day, this is A TTRPG Community, not The TTRPG Community, and to think otherwise is just silly.