Now it's an obscure hobby, entertained — in Brooklyn, at least — in a space steeped in a nostalgia bred from benign neglect.
The shift is slowly transforming the obscure hobby of language construction into a viable, albeit rare, career and engaging followers of fantasies like "Lord of the Rings," "Game of Thrones" and "Avatar" on a more fanatical level.
Even the evil overlord in the 1997 classic "Dungeon Keeper" must make sure to pay wages to his vampires, dragons and trolls, lest the workers rebel.As video games have grown from an obscure hobby to a $67 billion industry, management theorists have begun to return the favour.
But if anyone can take blogging from an almost obscure hobby for self-important would-be pundits to a revenue-generating phenomenon, it's Google.
Today the Internet has turned a once obscure hobby into an obsession shared by 10.8 million Americans, who log on to sites like Yahoo.com and ESPN.com and sit glued as fantasy standings get updated in real time.
Through the 1980s, the Village held on as a gorgeous ruin, hospitable, once again, for writers, artists and all the stuff they loved: bookstores, theaters, art galleries, record shops, secondhand purveyors of all stripes, gay clubs, pool halls, outposts for marginal political groups, nutty merchants catering to obscure, unprofitable hobbies and a million grubby cafes and dive bars.
ACROSS America an obscure new hobby is emerging: racing golf-carts.
Ning, for example, let people build social networks around any obscure topic, from popular television shows to niche hobbies.
