Working Over Time

"Working Right Now" - The Modern Toymaker

Episode Summary

For decades now, the independent toymaker has been eclipsed by corporate toy marketers in a position to fund defense-department-sized ad budgets across print, radio, TV, and, today, the internet bannerscape. In this episode, we have a conversation with thoroughly modern indie toymaker Bobby Vala, giving us hope that this hopelessly stacked landscape is shifting, finally, as savvy small operators find ways to harness the power of story to hook and retain players, and to build authentic grassroots fan engagement, through the leveling effects of social media and the internet more generally, as a two-way communications channel. This is surely good news for players everywhere, from the smallest child to the youngest-at-heart “kidult.”

Episode Notes

For decades now, the independent toymaker has been eclipsed by corporate toy marketers in a position to fund defense-department-sized ad budgets across print, radio, TV, and, today, the internet bannerscape. In this episode, we have a conversation with thoroughly modern indie toymaker Bobby Vala, giving us hope that this hopelessly stacked landscape is shifting, finally, as savvy small operators find ways to harness the power of story to hook and retain players, and to build authentic grassroots fan engagement, through the leveling effects of social media and the internet more generally, as a two-way communications channel. This is surely good news for players everywhere, from the smallest child to the youngest-at-heart “kidult.”