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Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your weary 'net denizen"):
Screwtapello@teh.entar.net wrote:
Matt Colville has recently been thinking about the division between people who think of tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons as a hobby (like model railroads, or stamp collecting) and people who think of them as a folk tradition (like hopscotch, or singing). For Matt Colville, who owns a company that makes and sells TTRPGs, the difference is money: hobbyists *love* to spend money on cool new accessories for their hobby, but folk-traditionalists think it's morally abhorrent to pay money to participate in their community-building tradition.
I'm beginning to suspect there's a similar divide in computing, but more so. You've got the people who see computers as a force-multiplier for their business interests, who are happy to spend any amount of money as long as it generates more than it costs. You've got the hobbyists who just like playing with the dang things and love to buy new accessories but only within their budget. Lastly, you've got the folk-traditionalists, who value that feeling of connection and collaboration with others in the present, and learning from and building on the lessons of the past.