Re:Demoscene, the secret behind Finnish game industry
by arexxbifs on Monday January 20, 2020 @07:57AM
(#22098461)
> you say that nobody was had the means for creative activity in Sweden before the arrival of the computer
That's reading a bit much into my post, I think. My main point was that popular culture and youth entertainment wasn't as readily available as in, for example, the US, and that it was controlled by the government to a much higher extent. This might've been a factor in spurring creativity rather than inviting to pure passive consumption.
Of course there were outlets for creativity before home computers. A computer, however, provided means to try your hand in pretty much everything: writing, music, graphics, animation, programming - and the ability to tie it all together and redistribute it cheaply in perfect digital copies.
Also, please define your time frame, 1991-1993 was not exactly a period of economic growth.
The only part I think is relevant is the long tradition, even among school children, of forming associations. These provides the organisational mechanisms to form social groups large and persistent enough to support a scene for something as niche as computers.
Because to have a demo scene you need both a supply of computers in the hands of people with no particular purpose for them, and that these people decide to do things together with them.