Scoundrel on Nostr: What about Smash Bros Melee players? It is commonly said that the biggest draw of ...

What about Smash Bros Melee players? It is commonly said that the biggest draw of that hobby is the opportunity it gives for people to express aspects of their preferences and style through their gameplay choices. It seems to me that they are stroking their ego not only on the fact that they are able to do something most people can't, but the fact that they are doing it with a style most people don't. Is Smash Bros a hobby for a person like that? Are those the right reasons to enjoy a hobby?

I myself have a physical hobby like you, and while I also can't perform as well as the best, the most fun I have at that hobby came when I started performing it in a way that I felt was unique to me. My hobbies are certainly like puzzles, but like jigsaw puzzles, the fun is in the freedom you have, the choices you make, and the strategies you follow. A hobby without freedom, strategy, and expression is no hobby at all.

And when every option that interests you is something you've already seen the outcome of from other people's actions, I believe it spoils the hobby. Any counter example you can come up with would only be fun due to additional choices and outcomes that you haven't yet seen.

I think you underestimate the strength of my ego. I already said that I didn't move on to something else. In a way, my personal anecdote is a bad example because while our code was superficially similar, the actual goals I had chosen were still different from the library's creator. Just because artists aren't often interested in replicating existing paintings that they have seen, that doesn't mean they avoid using the same colors or brush strokes too, simply because there is still a choice that differentiates them.