My day job is what, in modern parlance, is called immaterial labor. I don’t create much that takes physical form — I’m not producing material goods or growing food. I spend a lot of time sitting in meetings and typing up documents that get sent in electronic form.
One of the characteristics of this type of work is that, because it’s largely contained in emails and Word documents (and always in need of updates and revisions), it’s hard to look at what you’ve accomplished and say, “This is done.” As a result, many people in such jobs find it difficult to feel a sense of accomplishment.
That’s one of the reasons I love producing physical things in my hobbies. Holding a cutting board I crafted from wood or a printed zine I wrote allows me the pleasure of the fruits of my labor. I can say, “I made this, and it is complete.”
As our RPG hobby continues on a “digital first” path, I hope that we’ll always delight in physical books, playing in person, and the other incarnated aspects of living in a physical world. There’s a qualitatively different value to playing and creating in the real world that we would do well to never forget.
