So, Let's Talk About Hospitality

Brandon Fenters
May 23, 2021
5 min read

Hospitality is definitely an interesting concept, and in today's day and age it's definitely a bit difficult to define. Fitting with the theme of this blog I'll be focusing on taking a look at some of the digital areas that I spend a lot of my time in, and how they could relate to hospitality.

It's just a neat subject, agreed?

Steam, The Alpha Marketplace

Let's take a look at steam. If you've ever taken the time to sit down and do any research about online gaming, you'll know that there are four major platforms that you can play on. Playstation, X-Box, Nintendo, and PC. While the first three are consoles, and usually come with a higher cost, and thus a higher barrier of entry, the latter of this list has a much different barrier of entry. Most of the time the barrier is either cost, system specs, or lack of information. While I can't speak much on the first two of these, since you can just get a cheaper PC and run higher end games with lower graphics settings, I have a bit to say about a lack of information. Steam has had a near monopoly on the online gaming marketplace for a while and sure, many contenders have stepped forward to contest Valve's gaming network, but none have lasted very long.

Enough background, let's get on to the theme of this whole post, Hospitality. I see a few things funky with this image, it's clearly designed to entice purchases, which makes sense, it is an online marketplace for videogames, but Steam is notorious for it's seasonally sales, where big ticket games are sold at up to 80% off. As you can see, I use this a lot, I mean, I have around 60 items on my Wishlist, (59 now, since I grabbed a game earlier today!) So while this page may not be hospitable, it is familiar for gamers. Most non-gamers would be a bit hesitant of using this. I see this hesitation from my own girlfriend, who uses Origin as her main gaming platform.

On my Hospitality meter, I give it a 7/10

Discord, Wait... That's a lot of Unread Messages

Discord is a gamers best friend. With the whole Covid 19 global pandemic thing going on (you may have heard of it) Discord's use spiked massively. I even had a class that met on Discord when the pandemic began. That was definitely a strange Statistics class. Anyway, this is a voice and text chat that people can use to talk to friends that they make while gaming or online in any way shape or form. Think of Discord like Skype but better. It has less of a focus on video calling, and more of a focus on text channels and voice channels. You can also make your own Discord server for you and your friends to hang out with. I've used Discord to make friends across the world. It's pretty wild.

So, you have to be asking yourself, how does this lead back to our theme for the day, Hospitality, Well let me tell you. Discord is an extremely easy to use UI (User Interface) and is fairly easy to use. You can join a server using an invitation link, which is extremely helpful. It is a bit clunky to add friends, since you need to use a display name and a collection of numbers that identify the user. It's also pretty cool that Discord focuses on broadening it's audience past gamers and into the general public. It's extremely user friendly and pretty nice as far as microphone settings go! Very easy to talk to friends.

I would give Discord an 8/10

Spotify, A.K.A. Taylor Swift's Nemesis

Spotify is truly a wonderful invention, if you can call it that. I ma extremely biased about this application since I have had a subscription for about 5 years at this point. It's just so solid to be able to bump your favorite tunes for 5-15 bucks a month. Spotify is a platform where new artists can publish music, and download your favorite artists work. I have found out about a plethora of new albums thanks to this New Release section here.

Hospitality is pretty easy to find when you look at an application that has been around as long as Spotify has. For instance, everything about this app is designed for ease. There is even a driving mode for people who are driving and want to change their music around. It is also nice since they have added a listen with friends feature, and now have the ability to share playlists with friends. It is also somewhat partnered with Discord and Facebook. Both will display either what you're listening to or that you're listening to music. This is up to the user whether it is actually shared, to what degree, and whether you even want it shared.

I would give Spotify an 8/10

Youtube, the Poor Man's (I.E. Me) Cable

Youtube is an amalgamation of some of the internet's greatest hits. Here on his screenshot alone, you can see that I consume a wide variety of different content, and that my girlfriend has been watching TLC content on our smart TV. That all being said, it is pretty interesting where Youtube as a platform has gone. I have witnessed a lot of changes. But if this were just about Youtube I would need a much longer post. Let's look at the Hospitality that is active within this webpage.

Youtube generally doesn't have the best UI. It is a bit complicated, and seems to get a bit harder to navigate each update. The app is pretty rough, but the webpage seems to have improved since last time I looked. As far as content consumption, not much has changed, except it plays two ads opposed to the one that it used too. I was a bit aggravated by it when it started. Youtube is okay as a content consumption front, but what about creation? It's kinda screwey. There are a lot of rules surrounding content creation. Most creators can't curse within the first 30 seconds, or they are demonitized (can't make add money off of the video). And Youtube can shadow ban users by removing likes and followers. It's a bit strange overall.

Overall I'd give Youtube a 6/10 on my internet hospitality scale.

Roll 20 the Future of Tabletop RPGs

Roll 20 is definitely an interesting concept. Tabletop games like DnD were always done in person, and with technology always expanding, someone found a way to convert a timeless classic into the digital age. I personally spend about 9 hours a week playing tabletop games with my friends. I'm a bit biased here as well!

So Roll 20 is a bit tough, it had a data breach a while ago, so not good stuff all around. I also have to relog in every time I close the webpage. Roll 20 also throttles peoples connection depending on whether or not they pay for premium. This is a bit tiresome after dealing with it for a couple of years. It's also a bit tough to rate and gauge the Hospitality of this website. There is nearly no tutorial that I have found, I don't know how someone would actually run a campaign. I'm just in general confused by a lot of it's controls, and this is after years of using it.

I would rate Roll 20 a 5/10 for Hospitality.

Well, that's a look at my life for lack of a better phrase. I use all of these sites and applications pretty regularly. Remember to stay hospitable!