There was a tremendous article about a golf course on South Uist in last week's New Yorker. (Not online, unfortunately, but there's a related audio slideshow.) It included this little parenthetical thought: "Part of golf's addictiveness, for those who are hooked, arises from the thrill of effecting action at a distance - a form of satisfaction also known to anti-aircraft gunners."
It reminded me of the fun we had a few years back at York Model Railway. It's an excellent lay-out, big, but it's made even better because there are buttons you can press which makes lights light up in windows of houses, or make windmills turn, really simple things like that. We go to lots of museumy places, with interactive exhibits, and most of them are much too complicated and involved. It's worth remembering how hard it is to beat something as simple, yet splendid, as 'the thrill of effecting action at a distance'.