When you talk to RPG fans now you’re find a lot of people who like the idea of RPGs and Kickstarter superbackers who’ve never played a game. Feels like you’re talking to the audience at an improv show.

Some would call my comment gatekeepy. I’m just wondering why everyone is choosing to sit outside of an open gate?

The people who started playing with 5th ed. are about to go through their first “Edition War”. Their true journey is about to begin.

I'm torn in replying because I think you're basically right, but also a little bit gatekeep-y, but also agree that "gatekeep" is regularly leveraged by people with financial interest against those trying to encourage a healthier attitude towards "the hobby" than capitalism would otherwise want us to have...

Buying books you don't play is nothing new. When I was a kid, maybe you owned 10, knew 5, really played 2; if you were hardcore and had the cash, more like 50/20/5. The number of kids today buying but with zero played doesn't sit right with me; but this is also a definitional issue of what "in the community" means as much as it's some capitalist land grab. It is cool that you don't need to play to appreciate it now. It is also not cool how much kids today are pushed to perform anything they do for fun, and while part of me is like "just log off", I also don't pretend to understand the entire social milieu pressuring them to not do that. If I take anything from my youth spent on games, it's that being a kid is rough and adults really don't understand.

Regarding "edition wars" - nah, I think this is generational projection, and I say that as a veteran of a couple. Whatever drives wedges into the communities today will be just as arbitrary and silly-looking to anyone outside it THAC0 vs. DC. (And that's fine.) Also, with simulationism on the outs, it's hard to imagine anyone under 25 caring too much. What's going to split them will rather probably be some issue in worldbuilding or narratology I'm too old to understand. (And that's fine too.)

I mean, what you've written is basically the subtext of my comment.

I want them in, hence the open gate. You find more 5th edition "audience members" than DMs, players, or even readers/collectors.. Which is notable because it's a new class of D&D nerd that didn't, couldn't, really exist before 4th.

Not everyone at the improv show needs to get up on stage, but there's also nothing stopping them from trying but fear and some prep work.

All edition wars are dumb.