I remember being star-struck by designers when I first got back into RPGs in the early aughts; I was afraid to ask Jonathan Tweet for an autograph (my wife did it for me).

And then I got into the indie games, and that slowly evaporated. The more I got to hang out with people who were making games, the more I realized they were, you know, people.

I also like that making purchases now feels less like slavish devotion and more like, “Hey [person], I really liked your AW-hack/whatever.” And then we go have lunch or something.