Generally people don't unless they really need to, a significant chunk of assembler is a maintainbility horror in most commercial contexts. But it's still useful for really weird architectures or getting the most out of your PC - the compiler is not going to auto-vectorise use of the GF2P8AFFINEINVQB instruction for you.

This simply is not correct - the scene is huge. If you think that, you're hanging out with the wrong crowd.

So many myths about what computing is and isn't -- I've not experienced anything remotely similar in any other field of human endeavor.

The demoscene has always been awesome and influential, and it may be thriving right now, but it's still a niche hobby. It doesn't change the fact that use of assembly for practical purposes is dwindling, and has been for a long time.

Actually it very much changes that "fact", because most of the people coding demos work in the gaming industry and write commercial software titles.

It's much bigger in Europe. Demoparties in the USA tend to die off quickly. Other than @party, I'm not sure any others have lasted even 5 years.

The demoscene, or the software development "scene" as a whole?

> I've not experienced anything remotely similar in any other field of human endeavor.

Similar to what?

Demo and cracking scene.

Similar to mentality in any other profession.