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<blockquote data-quote="Mallus" data-source="post: 5951614" data-attributes="member: 3887">I didn't mean to sound overly harsh and snarky (I probably did) and it isn't that I don't care about growing the hobby, it's that I think it's important to have realistic expectations, and not to operate under the mistaken belief that other people will find an activity enjoyable and rewarding simply because you do. There's sometimes a fine line between being an evangelist and a scold. A brief story: my wife once worked doing marketing and publicity for an opera school. Now a lot of the people in and around the organization couldn't quite understand why more people didn't love opera. I mean, they did! And opera was once quite popular. If only we reach out to more people, make it more accessible. If only contemporary audiences weren't so lazy and resistant to more challenging music. We have to do something, because our core audience is getting older each year, and younger fans aren't replacing them. Sound familiar? The thing is, no matter how beautiful, how enriching, how beneficial opera appreciation might be, it's not for everyone. Do like you opera? What about contemporary opera? That Nixon in China is pretty damn good.If you like opera, great. If you don't, well, that's perfectly okay, too. You can lead a perfectly good and rich life without ever enjoying a note of opera. Ditto pretending to be an elf. Gaming is a hobby, not coursework.How would you feel if a bunch of dedicated mountain climbing enthusiasts called us&nbsp; lazy, doughy, risk-averse, dice-happy couch (basement?) potatoes?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mallus, post: 5951614, member: 3887"] I didn't mean to sound overly harsh and snarky (I probably did) and it isn't that I don't care about growing the hobby, it's that I think it's important to have realistic expectations, and not to operate under the mistaken belief that other people will find an activity enjoyable and rewarding simply because you do. There's sometimes a fine line between being an evangelist and a scold. A brief story: my wife once worked doing marketing and publicity for an opera school. Now a lot of the people in and around the organization couldn't quite understand why more people didn't love opera. I mean, [i]they[/i] did! And opera was once quite popular. If only we [i]reach out[/i] to more people, make it more [i]accessible[/i]. If only contemporary audiences weren't so [i]lazy[/i] and resistant to more challenging music. We have to [i]do[/i] something, because our core audience is getting older each year, and younger fans aren't replacing them. Sound familiar? The thing is, no matter how beautiful, how enriching, how beneficial opera appreciation might be, it's not for everyone. Do like you opera? What about contemporary opera? That [i]Nixon in China[/i] is pretty damn good. If you like opera, great. If you don't, well, that's perfectly okay, too. You can lead a perfectly good and rich life without ever enjoying a note of opera. Ditto pretending to be an elf. Gaming is a hobby, not coursework. How would you feel if a bunch of dedicated mountain climbing enthusiasts called us lazy, doughy, risk-averse, dice-happy couch (basement?) potatoes? [/QUOTE]

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