Launch of gaming news site, Rascal

Anon Adderlan said:

Journalism is also a dead industry, and no those aren't happy noises I'm making. But let's be honest, anything that was reported by these founders would have come out from insiders soon after if not far sooner.

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This is an extremely dumb take.

Even in its current challenged state, the media -- including the gaming media -- routinely breaks news that the powers that be would rather be kept to themselves and, by holding them to account, helps effect change.

The OGL fiasco would have ended extremely differently if it hadn't been amplified up the media news chain, largely through the efforts of one of Rascal's founders.

Anon Adderlan said:

Competition puts media outlets out of business

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And this is an even dumber take.

You may not have ever lived in a city with multiple daily newspapers -- and, frankly, you don't come across as someone who actually consumes news media in general -- but on average, the amount of coverage of any given topic covered by a single outlet goes up when there's competitors in the same space.

That's true whether you're looking at multiple daily newspapers covering city hall or the Hollywood press covering the industry.

It's when outlets go under -- typically due to the rock-bottom revenue provided by advertising nowadays, or predatory hedge fund ownership stripping them for parts -- that the survivors end up doing the simplest work, just regurgitating press releases and talking points from business and government.

Anon Adderlan said:

there comes a point where the services themselves cannot be meaningfully improved

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No one can seriously argue that the gaming press is so vibrant and vigorous that it cannot be improved.

Anon Adderlan said:

if you're just entering the market you need to present a compelling value proposition right out the gate. So what is that beyond the good feeling one may get for supporting 'real' journalism?

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For someone who appears to have beef with Rascal for some reason, it's weird that you pretend to not know who Lin Cordega is.

Whizbang Dustyboots said:

This is an extremely dumb take.

(Edit)

And this is an even dumber take.

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Mod Note:

And this is extremely rude. You know better; do better.

Spectral Anomaly said:

Could some of you people complaining about 'paywalls' please explain how requiring an email signup equates to paying money?

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I initially misread the announcement that articles would be available if you sign up, but it’s only most that will be. I realized my mistake while working my way through their RSS feed. There are some articles that requiring a paid subscription (such as their interview series with Zooey Zephyr and Erin Reed).

I already have too many subscriptions, so now I need to decide whether I want to pay for yet another one.

So I subbed to give it a proper evaluation and add some commentary. Let's see where things are in a month.

bedir than said:

Ghost is a fully functional CMS (it's backend feels a bit like WordPress and a bit like Patreon). They don't need developers.

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Yes, that's my point. #Rascal on the other hand does.

Umbran said:

How on earth can you claim to know Rascal's business better than the folks at Rascal when you don't have the most basic of their actual information or plans?

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Because hypotheticals are my specialty, I'm familiar with the media industry, new businesses almost inevitably trip over the same bumps, presenting a business case is not an unreasonable expectation, and we're able and often required to make assessments with incomplete data. And you and Morris are perhaps the most qualified people in the world to weigh in on this despite being just as ignorant on the specifics.

Umbran said:

I mean, Lin Cordega is the top of the RPG investigative journalism food chain right now. It is a very small chain, admittedly, but the name has cache in the field at the moment.

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Indeed, but why more than the folks within the industry who've been reporting on these things for decades? And why start a media outlet when they could just leverage their name in more direct ways?

Whizbang Dustyboots said:

The OGL fiasco would have ended extremely differently if it hadn't been amplified up the media news chain, largely through the efforts of one of Rascal's founders.

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Considering how many were directly affected by and reported on this issue it would have caught fire regardless.

Whizbang Dustyboots said:

You may not have ever lived in a city with multiple daily newspapers

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Hate to break it to you but newspapers are also a dead industry.

Whizbang Dustyboots said:

No one can seriously argue that the gaming press is so vibrant and vigorous that it cannot be improved.

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Considering how accessibility is in rapid decline no, but we can ask how far it can be improved, and how this specifically improves it.

Whizbang Dustyboots said:

For someone who appears to have beef with Rascal for some reason, it's weird that you pretend to not know who Lin Cordega is.

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It's more that I don't particularly care.

kenada said:

I initially misread the announcement that articles would be available if you sign up, but it’s only most that will be. I realized my mistake while working my way through their RSS feed. There are some articles that requiring a paid subscription (such as their interview series with Zooey Zephyr and Erin Reed).

I already have too many subscriptions, so now I need to decide whether I want to pay for yet another one.

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Ironically their article "Where Is The Tabletop RPG Hype Cycle?" is also locked behind a paywall.

Didn't Lin break the stories about the OGL fiasco AND Pinkertongate? Seems like a strong unit to keep the community aware of rpg stuff.

Theory of Games said:

Didn't Lin break the stories about the OGL fiasco AND Pinkertongate? Seems like a strong unit to keep the community aware of rpg stuff.

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I believe that Roll for Combat broke the news about the OGL first, on January 4th, 2023 (which was immediately picked up by other Youtubers, as confirmed in the description), while Linda Codega reported on the story the next day, January 5th.

Anon Adderlan said:

Yes, that's my point. #Rascal on the other hand does.

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Rascal uses Ghost. I think you missed that.

Alzrius said:

I believe that Roll for Combat broke the news about the OGL first, on January 4th, 2023 (which was immediately picked up by other Youtubers, as confirmed in the description), while Linda Codega reported on the story the next day, January 5th.

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Yeah Roll For Combat got the initial scoop and broke it on YouTube, then Lin Codega followed up with several articles covering it in depth. I covered it too on Jan 5th (after Codega reported on the copy of the license they'd been sent).

Note there was chatter about it as far back as November 2022 (and where I made my 'The OGL can't be rescinded' position clear, which I still believe).

Anon Adderlan said:

the folks within the industry who've been reporting on these things for decades?

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Not sure what you mean by "within" the industry.

If someone reports only on movie news, at say, Variety, wouldn't you say they are "in the industry"?

Anon Adderlan said:

Here's the #Reddit post which brings it up. Apparently it's the logo for 88rising, an Asian music company. And I seem to recall raising the same issue regarding that company too. And no, it's not a Nazi dogwhistle, but the RPG community has huge problem with interpreting ultimately benign and coincidental things as such. Hence my poorly conveyed bitter sarcasm.

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I'm glad you made that retraction. Not to derail the main topic too much, but I'm confident that 88↑ is actually a reference to the 17th rune in the Elder Furthark rune system known as Týr. It does indeed have the symbol form of "↑" and represented a god with that name. The Elder Furthark is comprised of 3 rows of 8 runes and Týr begins the final row; hence 88↑. I'm not aware of anything that ties the 17th Týr rune to NAZIsm, as the NAZIs used an alternate, pseudo-historical rune system known as the Armanen and within its ordering Tyr is 12th. Týr is present in A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary under the more common Old English form Tir, and was synonymous with such concepts as fame, glory and honor. The God Týr partly survived posterity, as he's the origin of our day of the week Tuesday.

As to why a women of color might have created it and symbolized it that way...the preceding 2 rows of Elder Furthark contain runes such as Gebo (gift), Wunjo (joy), Naudiz (need), Jera (good year, harvest) and Sowilo (sun). So perhaps she was inspired by the concepts embodied by those to represent the entire preceding rows with numbers. Or maybe she was born on the 17th in a month for which that date falls on a Tuesday. The God Týr was also a heroic figure - he sacrificed his hand by placing it in the jaws of the monstrous Fenrir wolf, so that he could distract the dangerous beast and shackle it.

I wasn't aware of a music company named 88 Rising using it, but I'm curious if they're aware of its runic significance. As to any contemporary supremist groups using it, I wouldn't be surprised because IME such groups will ignorantly grasp and misrepresent or misconstrue just about any symbol with Germanic orgins. And from what I've seen, they typically do it with ridiculous applications and interpretations.

Anyhow...back to the main topic. I wasn't aware of RASCAL, but I'm curious enough to give it a try for a month.