The Ravens Nest

Why I’ve Largely Given Up Most Modern Things.

Maybe I’m becoming meaner and more set in my ways as I get older. At the age of 45, there are things in which, I just don’t see any real utility. It seems we’ve stalled somewhere and we can’t seem to truly advance in a way that is useful and empowering.

There’s the old utterance used from the dawn of time and summed up in a couple of memes here. I’ll not be apologizing for posting either one of them.

Yes, this is even a thing in TableTop Gaming but more recently, this has surfaced and I want to show it to you now.

We do all remember the OGL Debacle, correct? That was the incident where Wizards of The Coast decided to hamstring the entire third-party industry that made supplemental works for it’s own game. It was a move that didn’t work and it only got attention because it was leaked. Now, Microsoft has decided that the third-party accessories for it’s X-Box will no longer be supported. You are now going to be locked into an ecosystem. Congratulations.

Now I see the PC Gaming crowd jumping into the mix, in an attempt to lure others away from the console gaming market.

Before I get on with this, remember that, at least with Console Gaming, you still have the option of physical ownership, for now, at least. Personally, I was an avid video gamer. At present, I do own a PS4, PSP, Nintendo Game Boy Advance SP and a “New” Nintendo 3DS. I have plenty of games for all of them and I’m happy to keep playing them. I do own a PC as well but I don’t game on it. I also own a veritable library of Tabletop RPGs that I can pull and play at any time, even solo. Physical ownership of games, movies, music, books, even media in general is vital these days. The price of the convenience is a little much to have to pay at times.

While we’re on the subject of physical ownership, let’s take a look back at third-party controllers and gear for systems in general. A system that only supports gear owned and manufactured by the company that produces it can now set the price to anything it wants. While Microsoft makes the claim that it’s for “performance, security, and safety,” they fail to properly illustrate the performance, security and safety concerns.

Let’s talk about licensing. Microsoft can license third-party products, certainly. However, what are the licensing fees and how much will that raise prices on those third-party items? How long before this translates to the very PC you own?

I’m not here to do an entire investigative piece on Microsoft’s newest shenanigans, rather, I’m just here to point some things out that may be beneficial to you while also complaining a little bit. It’s no doubt that there are people and scammers out there just ready, willing and able to make something for you to plug into your gaming console that’s so unbelievably cheap that you’re willing to buy it and connect it and give some jagoff somewhere an exploit to grab your details and go shopping on your dime but I have a better solution for these companies: quit trying to scale back physical ownership.

I understand that it’s far better for those P&L reports but, at the same time, it’s not so great for us and we are the final arbiter of the things we want to buy.

Let’s face a fact. Some things are just better old-school.

This morning alone, I shaved my entire head and face with an old school safety razor that holds a single, double-edged razorblade in the head of the handle. I used a brush and shaving soap and my head and face will make a baby bottom feel like sandpaper right now.

I also just made myself another mug of tea using loose leaf tea in a mesh ball and it’s currently steeping. If you want to know which tea it is, here is the link. Tell them Raven sent ya. Currently Drinking: Chocolate Chai Supreme. A little honey really brings out that chocolate flavor in a big way. Highly recommended.

I love my digital library for reading on the go, I won’t lie but it will never beat my own physical library. I do own more digital copies of books than physical but I also have physical books that I don’t have in digital.

To me, there’s nothing like getting together with friends and cracking a book and playing a tabletop RPG or building a deck and heading to the table for Magic: The Gathering. Those will never be solely electronic for me.

Again, stuff like D&D Beyond just doesn’t interest me because closed ecosystems are easily controlled, rigid, stiff, non-modifiable and will always end up with you and I stuck in sunk-cost fallacy thinking.

I think many will agree with me there.

There are some elements of modernity that I think are great. My cigarettes will never be analogue ever again. I think an electric tea kettle does take more guesswork out of making my tea and tends to do it a little better. Example: For my black teas, I need the water to be at 212 degrees but for Green teas, 195 degrees. Try it out sometime, it really works out. When push comes to shove, however, I still have a manual tea kettle for the stove just in case the electric one breaks down and I know how long to let the boiled water sit to be just right for green teas.

I’m not a fan of the “Which Way” argument either that shows one way leading toward certain destruction and the other to a utopia. It’s usually some extreme thought trying to convince you and I in some “one true way-ism” that only contains elements of truth while obscuring truths of their own. Normally, these truths in and of themselves have their own problems and, glaring ones at that.

There are things I love that are newer and things I love that are older and just work better, in my own opinion. Personally, I’d never embrace going cashless and, it’s my opinion, we should reincorporate precious metals as they’re the only real, actual money but I can completely understand where having that debit card can be not only necessary but also convenient at the same time. I also think cryptocurrencies are a great thing as, they give everyone that third option of being able to pay for things without a bank saying “No, you can’t make that purchase as it directly contradicts our own values.”

I think both Modernity and Anachronism should solve problems and take us all forward into the future. I don’t think that one size fits all here. While a truly free-market economy can solve many of these issues for us, I think it’s time that we continued with the advancement of creating our own and not necessarily “Rejecting Modernity” or “Embracing Tradition.” I think our real way forward is for each of us to decide, cleanly, rationally and maturely, how to customize our own way forward and to freely-share ideas.

While I’m certainly not a fan of some things like six blades inside of a razor head cartridge for shaving, I wouldn’t pretend to want something like that ousted from a store shelf because of my own experience that “one blade is all you need.” While I believe that to be true from experience (on top of it being more cost-effective) not every situation will be exactly the same as my own.

With my own tabletop gaming, for me, the idea is simple. I have a book and you at my table. I can run that game and if the power goes out, I’ll fire up an LED lantern and we’ll continue. If I’m playing a video game when the power goes out, not so much. If I’m playing that game via messenger when the power goes out, I can always revert to one of my solo games if I so desire. Having those options open to me is important. It doesn’t mean that I have to exercise every single one of them at all times but always having a Plan B is going to be the one thing that will mitigate the disappointment of not being able to perform the activity at all. By the way, ever had your electric shaver run out of a charge, mid-shave? I have. Not fun.

I have a subscription to Spotify, sure but I also have CDs ripped to a memory card in my phone and I still listen to them when Spotify doesn’t have that CD. A prime example is Mötley Crüe’s album Decade of Decadence which has a lot of my favorites. Spotify doesn’t have that but I have a physical copy that I put on my phone.

I have a few cassettes and yep, I will sometimes just put them into my Walkman and listen to them like that. In this household, that’s still a thing.

It’s not all just nostalgia, it’s a reminder that sometimes, we take conveniences for granted and, when we do, it will come back to haunt us. We become dependent on them and, when we’re without them, well, some of us are going to be stuck in a “what do we do now?!” kind of mentality. Meanwhile, those of us used to falling back on the anachronism out of pure lifestyle will shrug and go about our lives. The aftermath of a hurricane taught me that much.

If anything, my conclusion is this. Reject Extremes. Embrace D.I.Y. Culture.