         Money, prizes, and friendship

It  may  be  a  sequel  to  my  previous article
'Lamer,   Elite,   Conceited'.  I  want  to  say
something  about the black side of the PC scene:
the thirst for money.

I  saw  many  party  invitations since the early
90's,  and  where  PC compos were held, I always
saw  a  smaller  or  larger  number  showing the
overall   value   of   prizing.   The  more  the
organizers  promised,  the  more attenders came,
with  more  contributions.  But I never saw such
numbers  in  Amiga  and  C-64 party invitations.
Why?  Why  the  PC  freaks  always  have  to get
valuable prizes, while 64'ers are satisfied even
with  a  box  of diskettes, and a party T-shirt?
Some  say,  the  PC needs continuous upgrades to
always   have   the   best  technology.  Pentium
processors,  tons  of  RAM,  faster  VGA  cards,
faster, better, more expensive. But why? Why the
PC  scene  can not stop for example on the level
of  the  DX4-100 computers, like the Amiga scene
stopped  at  the  A1200? Yes, I know, Amiga guys
also  upgrade  their machines sometimes. But not
from  compo  prizes!  How  can  they do it? They
buy  parts  for  the same price as the PC users.
Mistery, or what?

But  anyway, it is sad to see, that if you don't
promise enough bucks for prizes, PC'ers will not
attend  your party. Why just can't they act like
the 64'ers: not really interested in the prizes,
they  come  to the party to see friends, get new
stuff, and see the compos, but the biggest prize
for  them is to see their name in the first line
of  the final results. I got several phone calls
before FLaG, asking:

 - What will be the prizes on the party?

Why,  guys!  I  can only quote myself. "Scene is
about  friendship".  I  hope,  it  will not be a
simple phrase only.