Well I play video games, and woo boy, let me tell you about microtransactions, crap DLC content, season passes, never ending early access, unfinished releases, and anti cheat root-kits! If you’re on console you pay a premium to play online, if you’re on PC you have 18 different game launchers and DRM bullshit. Digital only stuff means you don’t own your games, cant loan them or trade them or sell them. I’m sure there’s more, and admittedly there’s good with the bad. Graphics have come a long way, and some rare innovations are fun to see. I still have fun with it, but wow it is a fucked up landscape full of way more land mines than it used to be.
When I was a kid me and my friends who lived on my street would always trade or borrow our NES and SNES cartridges
Video games. Streamers, YouTubers, and other ”content creators” have had a massive negative effect on the hobby as a whole.
The bandwagons driven by these people can destroyed games that should have had a mediocre reception, but instead were panned by a couple creators then that criticism was parroted loud and wide. Where a game could have had a nice little niche audience, instead it was shut down a year after launch due to the shitty bandwagons.
These people also drive companies to make horrible balancing and content decisions. Since these people play games as their jobs, and play them daily for 8-10-12+ hours, they have wildly different desires and perspectives on games. These perspectives again get parroted loudly, the game companies hear it, and make changes/decisions based on people that play all day every day. This destroys gaming for not only casual gamers, but all gamers that don’t play one game for 8+ hours a day every day.
I could go on and on, but these trash reality TV stars for nerds have done so much damage to the industry.
gaming, so much better. more people can create games with more types of games.
Somewhat tangential, but Eddy Burback recently posted a YouTube video talking about AI, and how it’s being marketed in a way that’s intended to rob people of wholesome interpersonal experiences. Or at least dilute them by horning in.
Nothing is safe from tech bros. Certainly not hobbies.
Board games have been nearly ruined by kickstarter.
Instead of buying a well reviewed and recommended game from a store, you have to back a hyped up sales pitch, and then wait 4 months for delivery, if the producers don’t just bail with your money or go “oops, we couldn’t finish what we promised, and we already spent all your money…”.
And if you don’t back it to later read the reviews, the game is out of print and still waiting for the first wave of deliveries, meaning a second print is still at least a year off.
Also, the ratings are heavily skewed by people rating on the hype or early/review copies, meaning the rankings are heavily amazonified.
EtA: Also games are heavily bloated with social media candy: heavy and fragile minis, box stands, blingy crap periferals (branded dice holding toucan) and still needing organisers, player aids and mods from third parties who’ve gotten review copies to make said supplements…
Oh, and the stretch goal extras (get another 150 vanity minis/3D printed scoring tokens) for only $150 and an 18 month wait!
It sounds like you’re describing the consequences of FOMO rather than the ruination of an industry.all of these issues can be circumvented by simply not participating.
What is this thread but people yelling at clouds?
It hasn’t for me really because most of my hobbies are still done more or less the way they always have been lol I cross stitch and build models and the whole point of those is that they’re handmade. I collect vinyl records which hasn’t really changed much except that they’re more expensive now. I play guitar which technology has mostly helped more than hinder… The only thing I can think of is that a lot of the modern assembly line cheap guitars aren’t really built all that well anymore, especially considering the price you pay for them, but even that has gotten a lot better in the last decade
Go has been changed a lot by technology, mostly for the better. The ability to review every game you play with AI, for free, is an invaluable resource, and we’ve also learned a lot about the game from AI.
But, there are also several limitations that it’s important to be mindful of. The AI likes to play on the razor’s edge because it can read well enough to know exactly when it’s actually in danger. A human player trying to emulate that style will often just get themselves killed. Human teachers can still be more useful, despite being weaker, because they can better identify trends in a person’s thought process and explain the “why” behind a move, communicating the general principles that we as humans need to rely on because we aren’t computers and can’t read out every variation every time. Sometimes people get too obsessed with trying to play the “top engine move,” and it can blow up in their faces.
I was at a go event a couple years ago where a professional from overseas was reviewing people’s games, and somebody got in an argument over a move because the pro criticized his move, but the player said the AI backed him up. I can kinda understand both sides of that. On the one hand, if the AI says something, it’s not wrong. But on the other hand, I think it’s important to consider multiple perspectives and incorporate them into your play, and you’ll always be able to put things into the AI, so I think there’s something to be said for biting your tongue and just letting the pro give their perspective with the limited time you have them for. I guess I’ve never been one to be afraid of telling stronger players when I think they’re wrong, but it feels kind of disrespectful to me to pull AI on a visiting pro.
I guess one part of the game I find appealing and beautiful is that there’s so many ways to play it, and your moves can serve as an expression of your personality. Introducing this sort of objective lens can get in the way of developing your style and making your own judgements. On the other hand, getting feedback that tells you when your judgement is way off can help your refine your instincts going forward. It’s just that it’s important to understand why the AI is saying something, and to understand that a minor percent loss can be worth it to push the game in a direction that’s easier for you to play. It’s a complicated subject, all-in-all.
If you don’t like what tech has done to your hobby, just do it without the old way, right?
I assumed OP was asking about hobbies that can’t be done the old way anymore because everything has been converted to a newer way that makes it easier but not as much fun anymore. Like in the example I posted earlier it’s now impossible to buy a fully handmade high quality guitar anymore unless I want learn how to build it myself from scratch or pay thousands of dollars for a high end custom guitar because almost all affordable guitars are built on assembly lines now
Yeah I think this post is fishing for something that doesn’t make sense.
That’s funny, because I think fishing is probably the best example to answer OP’s question.
Ah ok I think I understand now why I and the person who commented above me, misunderstood this. I thought it was asking how has the technology that the hobby has adopted, but I think it meant just tech in general.
Yeah I used to love stargazing with my telescope but more and more ambient light polluting the skies means there are fewer and fewer places within any populated region where one can get a real look at the natural night sky. :-(
I could have worded things better, as I wanted to know how tech hurt your hobby when it was supposed to make it better. My issue, we now have all these ways of connecting to people all over the place, there are more TTRPG groups that play online instead of in person. Used to be I could go into a game/hobby/comic shop and find people who are willing to start a game. I don’t do well with online only games with my ADHD.
I agree too many people have isolated themselves thinking a keyboard and a screen can replace being in person. It sucks and it’s a sickness. Such a foolish and self-destructive way to live and so, what is it, laziness? I don’t know.
At the same time, tech has enhanced a lot. It’s a matter of selecting the situation where tech has made the thing better and discarding the idea of tech when it’s just for the sake of it.
Writing
When it comes to crafting, it’s been great. So many free resources and videos. When I was little I pretty much only knew purl and knit and shyed away from more advanced patterns. I taught myself and if I couldn’t figure it out, I just couldn’t do that pattern. Now I can get even the most difficult pattern and have someone walk me through it, either via forums, if not a knit-a-long. Almost every stitch has a video tutorial. So many free patterns. So many stitches. And even the paid patterns are so creative now. Yes, there are classics, but do you want a mermaid blanket? A Cthulhu hat? Wanna make your cat a custom sweater? It’s just a search away. You can even get specific. I joined a discord for goth stitchers. I don’t talk, but seeing the patterns and resources specifically in that niche has been great.
I general, if you want to learn how to do something, there’s a tutorial for it. I’ve fixed my toilet, done minor car maintenance, and a lot of things that I usually think I’m just too dumb to figure out. But there’s almost always someone on the internet willing to walk you through it. I sewed my first (very basic and poorly done) garment this weekend. I have always wanted to learn how to sew, and, with a second hand machine and YouTube, I took the first step. I love how easy it is to access information. I love getting lost in the rabbit hole of this new information or that new hobby. I recently asked someone how they knew the history of Vermont curry on a lemmy post. I love that shit. I loved that someone looked it up because they just wanted to know, I like that know I just know a little something extra.
Definitely better. I play tabletop RPGs (D&D, Pathfinder), and technology has allowed us to do all sorts of things that would be challenging in a physical medium. We can create detailed maps with lighting effects, sound effects, and triggers. A lot of the more tedious parts of the game such as initiative and health tracking get automated, and applying damage and healing is as easy as clicking a button while having a unit selected. And to top it all off, we’re not restricted to playing with the people around us and physically getting together. You can sit at home in your PJs and just hop into a Discord call to play with your friends. I’m truly grateful for it because I was able to continue playing Tabletop RPGs with my sister when she moved 1300 miles away to live with her then boyfriend, now husband.
My issue with all that tech is now I can’t find players who are willing to meet up in person.
My issue, as a younger grognard, is that point and click character builders and sheets have led to a lot of players who don’t actually understand how to play the game without their buttons. They don’t get what I mean when I say “roll a spell attack” unless they have a button that does it. They don’t get how to build a character outside of something like D&D Beyond where it does everything for you.
I play darts, we used to write on whiteboards with sharpies. Now nearly every club has a computer with some kind of software. Usually this software is closed source and sends all the data to some kind of server. We as players have no choice if we want to play the tournament, we have no control. Many clubs also use the computer for training. So everyone can see when you are playing, where you are playing and how you are playing. Great to see how good your next opponent is. Also great to track people. But way worse is the fact that everyone just talks about their average. Oh I played so bad my average was under 60, I still won 3-0 but I was so bad. I hate this. I want back the times where I play shit, win the game with a nice finish and can proudly say it wasn’t good but a nice finish and we stop talking, not hear from someone not even in the room how bad I played.
Kinda a niche topic to rant about I know, but no one in this hobby seems to get my concerns.
I wonder if bowlers felt like that about electronic scoring?
I used to go out to bars with my friends and play darts in college and it was always fun to just play and even make up your own rules sometimes! That makes me kind of sad that something as simple as throwing pointy sticks at a board had to be computerized… I could see the benefit if you were playing in a pro tournament or something, but just trying to enjoy a game of darts with your buddies definitely doesn’t need all of that
Model trainers used to be 2 wires to the track from a DC transformer. Add in a switchboard if you want blocks. Set the locomotive on the track and it would run based on your output from the transformer.
Now they are mostly computerized, and prohibitively expensive. A decent steam locomotive used to be $300-500… Now in the $700 range. Granted there is new functionality, but it feels like a hobby simple enough for a 7-12 year old to enjoy became an old rich man’s hobby.
Electric guitar and the quality of digital amplification. Takes all the pain, inconvenience and expenses of the traditional amp as a PA system away while letting you sound good. Really awesome TBH.
Computing and Gaming both being internet reliant in the most part has destroyed the industry completely as it is used as a weapon to monetise everything pay or don’t play or you know that game you could play well don’t pay you now can’t play scenarios rule, and servers deliberately being shutdown to recapitalize on an updated game it’s just monoply and capitalism gone too far. They don’t need to login to play offline either so why the need for server access to verify ownership more than one time then provide a unlock key that’s for offline for life should be the way it is done for comoputers and consoles a occassional reconnection to update the built in database file that stores the keys encrypted resides on all machines would be the way around it you only need update once a game doesn’t exist in the current database and it happens automagically without any input other than one time in the life of the machine with an export to usb option and or cloud option to boom problem solved.
