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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cergorach" data-source="post: 9413880" data-attributes="member: 725">That's like saying, you have to buy a house to play D&D in... People that are interested in playing with Tech (D&D via VTTs) generally already have Tech. Be it a tablet, a laptop or PC. You could theoretically even play on a smartphone or console... People that aren't interested in playing that way, generally don't.Buying new Tech every couple of years is purely in people's heads and people that just don't understand Tech do that. How many people buy a new car every couple of years? Many. Way more just don't. The time of having to buy a new PC every year/couple of years is long, long past. A new smartphone or tablet have also reached the performance threshold a long time ago. Even laptops have surpassed the threshold of 'functionality' and performance.My PC is on 12+ hours per day, I work and 'play' behind a computer, and even my last workstation lasted 7+ years before being replaced by a very energy efficient mini PC. Sure, it is a little less powerful in the GPU department then it's 7 year older brother, but extremely impressive for an integrated GPU, but the CPU runs circles around that same brother. The reason I upgraded is not because the previous machine lacked power but the difference in power consumption and thus heat was a couple of hundred Watts. Which especially in summers adds up when it's running 12+ hours per day...Even in my players group, people are not buying a new PC every couple of years (anymore). An old Linux laptop, a family iPad, the family laptop, etc. We play on a VTT just fine.Computers are like cars, you buy a good car and it will serve you well for a long time, you buy a clunker and it won't. The trouble is, most people that complain about computers in your way, don't know how to choose the good computer from the clunker computer... And thus wind up with a machine that won't last for a long time. You bought a Best Buy $300-$500 budget laptop and it won't hit that 7 year mark (well)? Or bought that minimal spec Mac? Yeah, you're going to run into issues eventually...Do I need a $1000-$1500 GPU to play the newest games? Hell no! I can play a lot of games on my integrated low power GPU and I'm not powering a space heater at the same time. If I want, I can stream games via Geforce Now if I want the extra bling. Does the average consumer need to buy a new AI laptop? Hell no! You want to play with AI, first learn to use the online services, many of which are free... Would I be willing to pay thousands for a heavy workstation with a big GPU for AI? Absolutely! But I'm in IT and that would definitely be a business expense. But I'm not actually there yet that I need it, and I realize that I might never get there. There's only so much time in the day/week/year...And depending on what you're using, you might even be able to play a VTT on a sub $100 Raspberry Pi 4/5 (8GB RAM) board on your TV...Blaming Tech, without understanding said Tech is a problem of the user. Big Tech is doing the same thing every other company is doing, convincing you that you always need the latest and the greatest. TSR/WotC/Hasbro have been doing the same for 50 years with every new edition of D&D... It's up to the consumer to wise up and make better purchasing decisions!If your computer potato can't run VTT X, you're maybe running the 'wrong' VTT, not properly updated your PC, or you just bought the wrong potato back in the day... And maybe your expectations are out of whack on the Tech front...</blockquote>

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