Post by Ghezzi_TCG on Dec 11, 2020 22:15:41 GMT -5
Pretty much the fastest way to turn off a millennial is by asking them to read something more than a single page. I think we can all kinda get behind this. Everyone is super busy all the time and even one second longer than needed spent reading is probably longer than most can handle. Everything is speed read and the TLDR culture is king. This I have come to realize over the course of searching for even one scholarly article or even the faintest smell you get when cracking a newly purchased and unused book.
Yes. We should write more.
I think this is the most critically needed thing at a time when the TCG world is always at its highest point every day. Each day another record is broken and people have pretty much resigned their old way of collecting as a thing of the past. You would think that such profit and such attention would generate a slew of people with the diction and intellect required to author even one scholarly book about any major TCG.
You would be wrong.
Most of the information that people need doesn't exist in the public forum, or if it does it is inside of peoples' heads waiting to be dropped on a proboard (like this) rather than bound behind two hard covers. Instead it is left for people to find only through exhaustive searches and relentless outreach on multiple social platforms, if it is even available. So why is it this way? Perhaps we still don't even take ourselves that seriously...
This may be true, but it also may be true that people who are of the collecting age simply don't feel that they need a book to read about it since the information they need might be found online, or is readily available. Added to this, most of the information required to collect is surface level, and as a result hard work is not typically required of people simply looking to the next big thing to buy and flip or 'collect'. This begs the question, is a deeper understanding of our hobby really important? I think the answer is yes.
Any collector who wants to make that quantum leap to professional needs to understand how important literature and the exercise of that thing between one's ears is. Getting on a proboard is easy. Making a YouTube is also the same. These venues require little to no editorial work, very little actual preparation and for some absolutely no real knowledge of anything they talk about. Writing a book or real literature is quite the opposite. Doing so puts you in a vulnerable spot and open to criticism. You don't have the ability to simply hit the delete button if things turn out poorly. Once you write a book, it is always there in some form. To make things even more important, the writer needs real knowledge of the topic to even be considered a professional. Churning out good literature requires real forethought and a good grasp of what people want to know and knowing how to present it.
This difference isn't small, its massive. To become an author on something requires a true passion for what it is you write about, or at least should. I am positive that while there are periodicals about all three major TCGs the amount of professionally written books (with MLA/APA/Chicago styles) are very few and far between. As a result the collecting base and those aspiring to hit it big have a very real dearth of information to suffer through as they spend hours combing through the internet to find an answer to a question that could be looked up in an appendix.
If this isn't an opportunity to monopolize I don't know how else to say it. So where are all the collectors who know about these TCGs? Well, sitting behind YouTubes and Social Media where life is easy. Yes criticism happens a lot on those platforms and many YouTubers do consider them professionals, and to some extent they are in the sense that they are the foremost experts in many different fields getting paid to consult, and sometimes getting paid a premium. That said, what is a professional?
Well when you you google it like a millennial the internet tells you a professional is someone who makes money and is an expert of some sort. Well, I would posit that this is really only half of the equation. Yes, you need to be a responsible citizen to be a professional, e.g. work and make some money to take care of yourself, vice having others care for you for no real reason other than lethargy and bad spending habits. But, being a professional (I think) entails being involved in what it is you do. Maybe YouTubers get to be professionals by that definition, however I would still go further.
Being a professional means you should be some kind of expert, yes? Well, experts have an opinion. Now, let's knock a few YouTubes off the list real quick then. Does pack opening and buying out Wal-Mart rip-off cubes count as an opinion? Not really... So I think that we can say these YouTubes aren't really run by professionals. Yes, they make money, but they don't really bring anything back to the world they operate in.
The remaining YouTubes and social accounts do actually bring things back to the hobby. These guys/gals do a lot of good work talking about things like varieties and types of cards, present opinions about the market and other such things. These people we can probably consider professional. Yes, they have an opinion and present it, and sometimes in a cogent way.
Let's add one more layer to the professional though. Imagine that Social Media (YouTube included) is simply a forum, like this proboard. I can put anything I want into words and slam it down in here. Does that make me a professional? Well I do have an opinion, right? Here is the problem... expression in a setting like this does not preclude professionalism, but limiting work to this venue might in some cases make you less of a professional than you think.
All the powerpoints and data driven assessments I make could make would never weigh more than a bound piece of literature that presented the information in a concise and useful format. That product would not only be indicative of the professional attitude I took towards my 'profession', but also of the quality of research and the time invested to make such a thing would far out weigh any number of YouTube videos I could have made presenting the same information. Beyond that, any book that captured the cogent and salient points I would make, had I invested the time, would be almost singular in existence at this point in time.
It would serve as a compass for others coming into this hobby, as well as for those who already live here. Further, it would be an example of a higher goal in the hobby itself, something possibly even more noble than a ProBoard or YouTube. This is where the TLDR bullet is for all the millennials... A professional is someone who cares about his/her profession. This is a person who is a care taker or steward. Someone who wants to present an opinion that will last and someone who means to make a difference. This quantum leap is again, massive, and yet we are still waiting for the first real piece of literature about it.
The TCG community needs scholars.
Yes. We should write more.
I think this is the most critically needed thing at a time when the TCG world is always at its highest point every day. Each day another record is broken and people have pretty much resigned their old way of collecting as a thing of the past. You would think that such profit and such attention would generate a slew of people with the diction and intellect required to author even one scholarly book about any major TCG.
You would be wrong.
Most of the information that people need doesn't exist in the public forum, or if it does it is inside of peoples' heads waiting to be dropped on a proboard (like this) rather than bound behind two hard covers. Instead it is left for people to find only through exhaustive searches and relentless outreach on multiple social platforms, if it is even available. So why is it this way? Perhaps we still don't even take ourselves that seriously...
This may be true, but it also may be true that people who are of the collecting age simply don't feel that they need a book to read about it since the information they need might be found online, or is readily available. Added to this, most of the information required to collect is surface level, and as a result hard work is not typically required of people simply looking to the next big thing to buy and flip or 'collect'. This begs the question, is a deeper understanding of our hobby really important? I think the answer is yes.
Any collector who wants to make that quantum leap to professional needs to understand how important literature and the exercise of that thing between one's ears is. Getting on a proboard is easy. Making a YouTube is also the same. These venues require little to no editorial work, very little actual preparation and for some absolutely no real knowledge of anything they talk about. Writing a book or real literature is quite the opposite. Doing so puts you in a vulnerable spot and open to criticism. You don't have the ability to simply hit the delete button if things turn out poorly. Once you write a book, it is always there in some form. To make things even more important, the writer needs real knowledge of the topic to even be considered a professional. Churning out good literature requires real forethought and a good grasp of what people want to know and knowing how to present it.
This difference isn't small, its massive. To become an author on something requires a true passion for what it is you write about, or at least should. I am positive that while there are periodicals about all three major TCGs the amount of professionally written books (with MLA/APA/Chicago styles) are very few and far between. As a result the collecting base and those aspiring to hit it big have a very real dearth of information to suffer through as they spend hours combing through the internet to find an answer to a question that could be looked up in an appendix.
If this isn't an opportunity to monopolize I don't know how else to say it. So where are all the collectors who know about these TCGs? Well, sitting behind YouTubes and Social Media where life is easy. Yes criticism happens a lot on those platforms and many YouTubers do consider them professionals, and to some extent they are in the sense that they are the foremost experts in many different fields getting paid to consult, and sometimes getting paid a premium. That said, what is a professional?
Well when you you google it like a millennial the internet tells you a professional is someone who makes money and is an expert of some sort. Well, I would posit that this is really only half of the equation. Yes, you need to be a responsible citizen to be a professional, e.g. work and make some money to take care of yourself, vice having others care for you for no real reason other than lethargy and bad spending habits. But, being a professional (I think) entails being involved in what it is you do. Maybe YouTubers get to be professionals by that definition, however I would still go further.
Being a professional means you should be some kind of expert, yes? Well, experts have an opinion. Now, let's knock a few YouTubes off the list real quick then. Does pack opening and buying out Wal-Mart rip-off cubes count as an opinion? Not really... So I think that we can say these YouTubes aren't really run by professionals. Yes, they make money, but they don't really bring anything back to the world they operate in.
The remaining YouTubes and social accounts do actually bring things back to the hobby. These guys/gals do a lot of good work talking about things like varieties and types of cards, present opinions about the market and other such things. These people we can probably consider professional. Yes, they have an opinion and present it, and sometimes in a cogent way.
Let's add one more layer to the professional though. Imagine that Social Media (YouTube included) is simply a forum, like this proboard. I can put anything I want into words and slam it down in here. Does that make me a professional? Well I do have an opinion, right? Here is the problem... expression in a setting like this does not preclude professionalism, but limiting work to this venue might in some cases make you less of a professional than you think.
All the powerpoints and data driven assessments I make could make would never weigh more than a bound piece of literature that presented the information in a concise and useful format. That product would not only be indicative of the professional attitude I took towards my 'profession', but also of the quality of research and the time invested to make such a thing would far out weigh any number of YouTube videos I could have made presenting the same information. Beyond that, any book that captured the cogent and salient points I would make, had I invested the time, would be almost singular in existence at this point in time.
It would serve as a compass for others coming into this hobby, as well as for those who already live here. Further, it would be an example of a higher goal in the hobby itself, something possibly even more noble than a ProBoard or YouTube. This is where the TLDR bullet is for all the millennials... A professional is someone who cares about his/her profession. This is a person who is a care taker or steward. Someone who wants to present an opinion that will last and someone who means to make a difference. This quantum leap is again, massive, and yet we are still waiting for the first real piece of literature about it.
The TCG community needs scholars.