Every time this particular cycle of discourse comes up - "Stop comparing all RPGs to D&D!" / "It's daft to expect that" / "There are other games though and good reasons not to support Hasbro" / "Stop shaming me for playing D&D" - I wonder how exactly we get to that last point.

(This is a thinking aloud thread. I might phrase things as questions. I'm not really asking for input. There's also no value judgements attached to the stuff I'm going to say here.)

I'm starting to realise some stuff today that's making things clearer. This might be obvious to everyone else. Maybe I'm the last to catch on?

Anyway.

Broadly speaking, it seems to me that 'indie RPGs' are a hobby but that 'D&D' is a fandom. And that's an important distinction.

D&D has its own culture. There are memes, in-jokes, references to a shared set of media (be that a handful of big name Actual Plays, the WoTC hardcovers, or anything else). There's branded accessories. There's *coffee*.

Especially in the past few years, the way people are introduced to D&D in the first place is also through related but distinct fandoms - Critical Role being the big one, but even stuff like the Stranger Things fandom is a gateway.

It's a community. People have their personalities wrapped up in it. People take it *very seriously*. (I say this as someone who was deep into several fandoms in my late teens and early 20s).

And WoTC encourages this. They talk about community. They talk about family.

So it's easy, I think, to see how someone sees critivism of either the game or of Hasbro as criticism of the community and fandom itself. And at that point the walls go up. People feel attacked, and they want to defend their family.

Realising this, I'm going to make an effort to be more direct with my words if I do to talk about D&D. Because my problems with it aren't with the people who play it and - for the most part - aren't with the people who make it.

My problems with D&D are almost entirely problems with Hasbro and WoTC as companies. With the way they do business, the way they use marginalised people as a shield against criticism while actively doing harm, and the impact their hegemony has on the industry as a whole.

I still would like people in the D&D fandom to try other games, and to develop and indie RPGs hobby that sits alongside their love of D&D. I still think that's a good goal that benefits both D&D players and the industry.

But maybe the approach to that needs to be refined.

I don't know. Like I said, just thinking aloud here.

Anyway I'm done.