I think it was CCGs. Those completely grabbed roleplayers and got them hooked on gambling like you wouldn't believe. I can't find people into "roleplaying" these days who don't love playing with the CCG decks that they paid money for (for some reason) and sit there hoping randomly drawing cards will make them win. WotC's success was owed to Magic the Gathering (and lack of enforcement of gambling regulations), so that's the connection. The company got enough bank to buy TSR, through the same technique that trained roleplayers to value optimizing, since that's how you play CCGs.
Like seriously, my first real gaming group started that shit and I dunno why I was immune. I'd try to make up like, stories about what was happening in the game, with the lands and the creatures and everyone else just ignored me and was like "I'm going to tap 2 mountains and a plains to bring out the etc" and nothing but that forever.
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