The Differences between playing with Cards and Books

In public gaming, one thing that seems to unite most people is the idea that we can all help each other, to the point that we are all having fun even if we are in the middle of a battle.
Above are two separate groups playing two separate games, with the main difference between the two being that one is played with an expensive and extensive deck of cards and the other with an expensive but not yet quite extensive book and pencil.
For each different group of gamer's i have seen throughout my time playing at the store i frequent to participate in the game that is being played in the top picture, I have always seen as the ones with the cards as the loud infrequent participant in a game where most people just play to participate in tournaments in order to get money.
But using my sociological imagination, and a bit of research, I took a step back to watch them as they played, only to truly see the group's of people playing as almost as exactly being similar to our group. Someone cast a spell that got blocked, another sliced some nameless minion in two, but the only difference again was the medium in which we played. As we let our miniature represent us on the map and our pencils right down how much damage we've taken and the last time I'd used the magical javelin to rain down lighting. They were just using cards to represent the magic and spells, laughing and sniping at each other whenever one's plan to invade the enemy castle failed because he... set off a trap?
I may not know much about Magic: The Gathering as a player or a gamer, other than that I know people spend about as much money as a house payment on most of the cards, but I've caught most of peoples games to realize that it is just as fun and enjoyable to the people playing as Dungeons and Dragons can be. Exploding wizards and beheaded dragons non-withstanding.
We're all people, nerds, a few jocks, a cop or a biker, who just want to get together and test our skill and will against others or a prepared plot by blasting it to oblivion and a magic wand or a suddenly materializing giant tower. We all want to do crazy shenanigans because we can, and we want to see everyone around us laugh at the outcome of the poor nameless mook that that rockslide just fell on top of.
I may not get into Magic: The Gathering as much as Dungeons and Dragons in the future, but at least i won't see them in a different light whenever they start breaking out in shouts whenever their counterspell war continues on. I'll just seem this as about as annoying as us and tell them to quiet down all the same, just without as much scorn.