The Off Topic Topic

[Josquius]

Flying being quicker than train makes sense.

But when the bus is quicker than the train something is very wrong.

[Grey Fox]

We have better highways than railroads.

[Syt]

Saw a post: GTA Vice City released in 2002 and was set in 1986. That's like releasing a game this year and setting it in 2005. 

[Eddie Teach]

2005 is so bland though.

[Josquius]

RIP Generations.
Killed by the internet age.

[Tamas]

Look what Youtube recommendations brought up for me 

https://youtu.be/H-DF8nzcjlM?t=51

I am TRIGGERED

[Sheilbh]

Thought this was an interesting thought (basically on the back of the latest listening figures for radio in the UK):

Duncan Weldon
@DuncanWeldon
I hadn't thought about this before...
But I am pretty sure I listen to more live radio than I watch live TV nowadays.
And that's been the case since, I don't know, 2016 or so?
Is this typical? If so that's a big shift... back to the 1960s?

Definitely true for me - I stream everything. I think except for football there's nothing I watch that's on the TV schedule, while I will listen to Radio 3, 4, 6 etc for at least a few hours a week. Which seems very weird - at least to me as a child of the 80s and 90s.

Similarly his point that he suspects the big generational difference he has with his kids is the relative lack of boredom. Explaining that there were spaces of time when there was nothing for you to do, which is gone now. There's always streaming, podcasts, social media, radio from anywhere in the world etc.

[Josquius]

Yes. Though kind of surprised its the case for you - for me it holds true due to clock radio in the morning and most importantly radio in the car.

[Barrister]

2005 is so bland though.

I don't think it's exactly bland, but...

When they set Vice City in the 80s, that meant it had a very definite set of music, a definite look to the vehicles, even a certain aesthetic for the clothes.  WHen they set San Andreas in the 90s the same thing.

But if you set a game in 2005?  I feel like the music, vehicles and clothes of that era could easily exist in 2021.

[Josquius]

2005 is so bland though.

I don't think it's exactly bland, but...

When they set Vice City in the 80s, that meant it had a very definite set of music, a definite look to the vehicles, even a certain aesthetic for the clothes.  WHen they set San Andreas in the 90s the same thing.

But if you set a game in 2005?  I feel like the music, vehicles and clothes of that era could easily exist in 2021.

.
I think the only real defining feature of that era, as seen in better call Saul, is its pre smartphone with a super primitive Internet.
If you want a modern setting hut with that complication stripped out of something then that's where to go.

[Sheilbh]

Yes. Though kind of surprised its the case for you - for me it holds true due to clock radio in the morning and most importantly radio in the car.

With radio I pop it on when I'm "pottering" so - cleaning, cooking etc. I don't need to even pay the level of attention I would to a podcast.

[The Larch]

But if you set a game in 2005?  I feel like the music, vehicles and clothes of that era could easily exist in 2021.

It depends. The fact that they might exist doesn't mean that it can't be dated. And some fashionable things of the era are certainly super dated by now. Frosted tips? Tribal tattoos? Cargo shorts? Low cut jeans in women (with the thong sticking out, optionally)?

[Syt]

Most people at the time porbably wouldn't have flat screen TVs or computer screens, either.

[Sheilbh]

I don't think it's exactly bland, but...

When they set Vice City in the 80s, that meant it had a very definite set of music, a definite look to the vehicles, even a certain aesthetic for the clothes.  WHen they set San Andreas in the 90s the same thing.

But if you set a game in 2005?  I feel like the music, vehicles and clothes of that era could easily exist in 2021.

I don't agree on 2005 - but I think about 2008 to now is broadly a relatively coherent aesthetic that doesn't seem to be changing much (yet). I basically think pre-iPhone there were sub-cultures everywhere, every country was a sub-culture and there were more distinctive looks and styles while post-iPhone I think we've stopped evolving aesthetically.

It's why I keep cheering on people pushing for a chintz or a pomo revival because I'm desparate for something to break it open again.

[The Larch]

Most people at the time porbably wouldn't have flat screen TVs or computer screens, either.

And mobile phones would still be in the "the smaller, the better" pre-smartphone phase.