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I remember buying the D&D Blue Box at Spencer's in a small mall in Michigan. It was an impulse buy in a specialty store that had nothing to do with a genre that was in the infancy of its birth. I was 13 then. I'm now 45. My life has been through many changes from marriage and parenthood to facing the very real possibility of dying for my country. In that time, I've watched a passion of mine grow, change, grow again and become something that might be able to persevere into generations beyond my own life time.
There have been so many systems, rules, variants on rules that it really doesn't matter any longer that a fantasy genre is based in the past, present, or future.
Gamers exist on all social and economic levels now. You don't have to buy anything to become a roleplayer. Its a social community now. I've literally provided dice and books to new players who want to play. I know I'm not the only one. DM's....craft players. Players...develop DM's.
Were I to subscribe to a greater spiritual awareness, I would say the first has generated energy for the many and affected all. Gamers are rather karmic as a group. So many believe in the energy of that die or set of dice. Bards of Gamemastery create such passion that other's will endeavor in a pastime that they would otherwise ridicule.
Sometimes it feels worse to be a gamer than being gay. LOL.
Old timers are proud of their investment in a hobby that can be so outside the lines. New players are what many of us were years ago when there was not web resource, internet, and companies such as Paizo to break ground and invest in our passion.
We, collectively, have embraced something that still reveals itself in a world that doesn't like change an acceptance.
Somewhere a few years ago, a small group of people who understood this and knew, trusted, embraced, this passion along with thousands of others, probably now hundreds of thousands of gamers and called themselves Paizo.
I truly believe Paizo is a gamer company who provides a service to gamers. We are new, we are old, but we are all Gamers.
Paizo, you have forged a diverse community into a business. An old time gamer like me has remained loyal to you because you've embraced a tradition and not a business. You've remained true to what TSR, Chaosium, West End Games and so many others have built and bred. Where will you be in 5? 10? 20 years...I cannot predict. I do hope that the spirit you embraced will continue on today and well into our future.
Innovation and change will always imbue what we embrace tomorrow but in my experience its the day-to-day gamer that grows an industry relies on group participation.
I'm that day-to-day gamer and I very much appreciate you've bravely embraced what is the essence of a gamer. Gamer's will tolerate so many bad things but they don't tolerate a bad DM.
You've been the best DM to come along in years, perhaps a decade or more, and I thank you for this.
Good job Paizo. I happily remain a loyal customer because you've been a loyal gamer.
Lord Silky.
Amen brother!
Wish I still have that old Chainmail. Thing would be worth a fortune now.
Where are we now that it is nearly 8 years later? Well, we have just 4 replies (including this one) to the original post. But on the other hand, Pathfinder 1st Edition (= D&D 3.75) has survived for the whole time, so that says something right there.