Ah, finally we see the dawn of a new era of closed-source and profit. The era that my generation grew up in and the era that most of my peers are quite content with.
Does that sound bitter? Good.
Though these game hackers were out for the money, you can still see some similarities with the original hackers and hardware hackers. These similarities are mostly characterized in the idea of deeply trying to understand computers and the things we can make them do. Additionally, game hackers still embodied the hacker ethic's idea of "Access to computers- and anything that might teach you something about the way the world works- should be unlimited and total. Always yield to the hands on imperative!". Computers were still becoming more and more available to the public, and games probably enticed many people to computers. Games also represent beauty and art made from a computer, which is another part of the hacker ethic. However, I think the differences are much more pronounced.
The game hackers moved away from the ideas of free information and decentralization. I think people began to mistrust their peers rather than authority, which is the opposite of decentralization. And the obvious point: they started to proprietarize and focus on profit, exemplified by Ken Williams moving into the business side of game hacking and the marketplace. Ugh, the downfall of such a good thing.
The 'transformation' that occurred was just that, proprietarization and focusing on profit. This happens all the time. People want money, people think money is happiness, some people have too big of dreams that only chasing money will solve. I mean, the biggest thing I was told when choosing to go to grad school was "go before you have a chance to get into industry and make a shit ton of money- you'll never be able to leave." Ugh, I hate this. I know that this shift really helped a lot of people, but I resent it for some reason (probably not even a logical reason).
I think you can benefit from a computer without being able to program it. My mom benefits from it by being able to talk to me, 2000+ miles away, almost instantaneously. My dad benefits from it by being able to promote his business. My brother, Jonathan, benefits from it by being able to buy new parts from his car with a click of a button. My brother, Josh, benefits from it by being able to 'help the government decrypt foreign war messages'. My brother, Aaron, benefits from it being able to learn to understand it. This isn't the part that upsets me. The part that upsets me is people who go through the process of learning how computers work in order to make money, without paying attention to the beauty of it all. I also hate how I sound for saying that. But everything about it all is pretty freaking beautiful, and I think people are very blinded by the opportunity to gain wealth in the form of cold, hard cash. I'm just in a bad mood and everything is annoying me rn.
Note: I promise this will be the most sucky of all my posts. <3 @pbui