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I know there is a small but growing tabletop rpg community on there. After drivethrurpg (the current de facto leader in rpg distribution - think of them like S

I know there is a small but growing tabletop rpg community on there. After drivethrurpg (the current de facto leader in rpg distribution - think of them like Steam, but for PDFs) had a kerfuffle about whether they should/should not take down a product that was offensive to many, the community started to notice that there wasn't really any competition to threaten to move to. That got some companies looking at itch.io. (I'm not aware of any high profile switches, but companies like EvilHat have started to make sure they are selling on both) Meanwhile people as have an indie community there developing tabletop RPGs that dont always follow traditional expectations - I dont know if that community was already in place and just got some new attention, or if it coalesced as a result, but I assume the former.

baud147258 7y ago
> kerfuffle about whether they should/should not take down a product that was offensive to many I hadn't heard about that, do you have a pointer to find more information?
- ergothus 7y ago
  TL;DR: Someone put out a product called "Tournament of Rapists". This followed on the heels of a good year+ of debate about the role companies in the RPG market should play when dealing with people like Zak Smith (see also controversy about Zak Smith as alleged rapist, largely recognized jerk, yet well-known author and credited for work with D&D 5E) and products like a GamerGate card game that also caused debate with DriveThru. This led to people yelling at DriveThru for selling this supplement, so DriveThru followed through with a new content policy, which led people to be angry because they were either not doing enough or doing too much (debates that should be familiar to the HN crowd). Regardless of position, the realization that DriveThru is an effective monopoly and neither players nor companies have much leverage somewhat sunk in, so alternatives (itch, indiepressrevolution) got some more attention. This has links to what should be decent summaries, though my work is blocking them so I can't confirm. https://michaelduxbury.com/2015/09/03/on-the-drivethrurpg-offensive-content-controversy/ https://michaelduxbury.com/2015/09/03/on-the-drivethrurpg-of... Here's a tweet I have in an open tab waiting for a tuit: https://twitter.com/levikornelsen/status/1184949595685543936 https://twitter.com/levikornelsen/status/1184949595685543936
  - baud147258 7y ago
    Thank you for the explanation.

baud147258 7y ago

> kerfuffle about whether they should/should not take down a product that was offensive to many I hadn't heard about that, do you have a pointer to find more information?

ergothus 7y ago
TL;DR: Someone put out a product called "Tournament of Rapists". This followed on the heels of a good year+ of debate about the role companies in the RPG market should play when dealing with people like Zak Smith (see also controversy about Zak Smith as alleged rapist, largely recognized jerk, yet well-known author and credited for work with D&D 5E) and products like a GamerGate card game that also caused debate with DriveThru. This led to people yelling at DriveThru for selling this supplement, so DriveThru followed through with a new content policy, which led people to be angry because they were either not doing enough or doing too much (debates that should be familiar to the HN crowd). Regardless of position, the realization that DriveThru is an effective monopoly and neither players nor companies have much leverage somewhat sunk in, so alternatives (itch, indiepressrevolution) got some more attention. This has links to what should be decent summaries, though my work is blocking them so I can't confirm. https://michaelduxbury.com/2015/09/03/on-the-drivethrurpg-offensive-content-controversy/ https://michaelduxbury.com/2015/09/03/on-the-drivethrurpg-of... Here's a tweet I have in an open tab waiting for a tuit: https://twitter.com/levikornelsen/status/1184949595685543936 https://twitter.com/levikornelsen/status/1184949595685543936
- baud147258 7y ago
  Thank you for the explanation.