Am I a Content Creator? (Patreon)

There was a big stretch of my career, roughly 2002 to 2012, where I referred to myself as a "content creator" because, as a game design and development freelancer, I kept hearing horror stories of other freelancers who claimed their "author's vision" was more important than publisher's needs or desires.

And, that pissed me off. It was unprofessional, and I wanted to set myself apart from that trend.

Now, if you write something of your own and go to a publisher to get is published, sure --- your authorial intent matters. Keep the rights, be the copyright holder, and make sure your agreement with the publisher protects your ownership and ability to shape how your material is molded and presented.

But if a publisher is paying you by-the-word or by-the-hour for a wfh project to give them what they ask for? To add material to their intellectual property, the thing they control how it is shaped and presented? Then they want specific content, and your contract says you'll give it to them. If your vision differs with them, sure mention it, but the service you are providing is to create what content they need and you said you'd write.

It's important to note that I am speaking of issues aside from cultural, ethical, or representational concerns. I fully support "I won't turn that culture's historical figure into a demon, that wasn't in the brief it's insensitive and I'm not the person to do it." I have no patience for "I can't make a CR 11 version of this totally imaginary monster because I like it better at CR 3." And, again, I'm talking about work where you were contracted to provide things to meet the publisher's needs, not dealing with someone publishing your independent creations. Even worse were freelancers who wanted to "fix" things in a publisher's setting they didn't like but the publisher never suggested should be changed.)

So, I wanted to be clear, professionally, that I could be a content creator. A creator of specific bespoke game content for the publisher's system, setting, and needs. Want 5,000 words of spells related to different flavors of cheese for a Fromagethurge? I was your huckleberry. The creator for your content.

I don't hear those kinds of horror stories much anymore. I think a lot of them came from the d20 Glut years, where a lot of people published one adventure themselves, and thought writing for bigger companies would be just like that but with a bigger budget, when in fact the publishers wanted to have THEIR ideas get written up and were willing to pay to do it.

When I started to get more work as a freelance developer than writer, and was writing more of my own material as the publisher of my own game company, I backed off the term "content creator" quite a bit.

But it still took me as surprise when RPG Content Creators suddenly did not include me in their numbers, at all. Because now, when people use the phrase :content creator," they mean videos. "RPG Content Creators" are apparently people who do actual plays, reaction videos, reviews, opinion pieces, game-themed comedy, interviews, and tips and tricks.

I don't have a problem with that role existing. I'm not a huge fan of it taking a term that was already in use for another role, but much like "RPGs" becoming the common term for computer games of a specific style, and thus the things that were originally called 'RPGs," now have to be 'Tabletop Roleplaying Games' if you want a wide audience to understand you, it's not something there is any point in me fighting.

And by that definition, I certainly HAVE been a content creator. I did the Demiplane of Gaming, which had 51 episodes, along with dear friend Steve Russel, who left us much too soon.  I have my own YouTube channel, with various stories on it. I've been part of official streams by Paizo, helped launch and name Green Ronin's ThursdAGE, and made game-industry-related videos with friends (as recently as this month!). To me, all of that is "Streaming," which would make me a "Streamer."

(Yep, that's me, on an episode of ThursdAGE)

And it's not my primary focus atm, though once I have moved into the new house, beaten cancer, and caught up on the things inevitably falling by the wayside as I focus on those, I DO want to get back to doing it regularly.

So, yeah. I guess I am a content creator.

But it feels weird.

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