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40oz

Everything is too fast

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advancements in technology and the speed of the internet has made everything too fast. Everything that was once a long tiresome task has been nullified by what now is swift and efficient. Downloads are now able to be downloaded -- redownloaded multiple times with no hesitation. Everyday downloads now absorb a negligible amount of disk space and time. Things like waiting for downloads or installations or processing data is instantaneous. Now all the resources available are waiting on human interface. Long gone are the days where you would build a large Doom map, build the nodes, then leave to have breakfast and come back an hour or two later and it would be done.

Not to imply that I genuinely miss having to wait for things, but with everything growing in speed, our own ability to generate ideas and interact with machines can't keep up. I believe this is the issue with people constantly with their heads tilted toward their phones. The internet was a distraction to begin with, but we were penalized with it being so painstakingly slow. We don't have the time in our lives to have our eyes fixated on it and hands touching it often enough to have a steady flow of output come out of us. The amount of things I can do with computers or the internet, for which I can leave for work, come back many hours later, and reap the results is shrinking. I think this could possibly result in my seperation from using the internet or computers in my leisure in the future, as too much of it is depending on me sitting in front of the screen and interacting with it, with no rewards to gain while I am away. To me, it's like the difference between working for hourly wages and making an investment and collecting the interest.

Does anyone else take issue with this as well? Are there alternatives I'm not looking at?

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Live in the past like me man. Solid and stable with your feet on rock looking at cool people surfing in the ocean and those drowning in it.

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I would if I could. If I had my way we'd never play video games made after 1998, we'd ride bicycles instead of drive cars, and no one would own a cell phone. But living that way sort of alienates you from society.

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Yeah I miss my old non smart phone, which is funny because I make apps. I used to make atari game clones every Saturday and it was so simple and easy and could be done by one or two people. Now I see even two - five man indie games are made by a studio with 500 names in the credits if only two - five men take the credit. They do it all and release their indie game for $15 and get $10 of that when 20 - 30 years ago they would have been making $35 of that.

Technology is so easy now almost anyone can do it. Colleges churn out graduates that get fired after 2 - 4 years replaced by the next crop of young minds that can be harvested.

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40oz said:

we'd never play video games made after 1998

I hate when people say things like this. What massive event, exactly, took place in that particular year that no game afterwards was worth playing?

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Megalyth said:

I hate when people say things like this. What massive event, exactly, took place in that particular year that no game afterwards was worth playing?


Well Daikatana came after that. Same with Half Life 1. I think the straight forward game with a story happened to FPS. Just a guess.

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Megalyth said:

I hate when people say things like this. What massive event, exactly, took place in that particular year that no game afterwards was worth playing?


I hope this thread doesn't get derailed, because I'm still curious to what people think regarding the argument in the OP, but I'll answer your question the best I can because I should have worded that better. I may have mistakenly implied that all games made after 1998 are crap.

To quote John Romero in his recent interview at Develop, "It’s nice to have the good technology, but people that develop [games] know the tech race is over."

As a matter of personal opinion, I believe this race was over right around 1998 when games like quake and unreal were rendering true 3D engines at a fast and playable pace. The advancements in technology that are pushing boundaries for video games are evolving far beyond the scope of creativity required to make a good game. These limitations that are quickly being stretched are not restrictive anymore. Especially when you consider it in relation to the types of games being made, and the games that could be made (or are being made) that make focused use of all resources. They are either far too complex for most people, or are being needlessly inefficient at accomplishing certain tasks. This leads me to believe that there really aren't any good games that couldn't have been made within the the limits that have been pushed by 1998. Again not to imply that all games made after 1998 are bad, but that the expansion of the boundaries of what our computers and consoles will run in the last decade, and the ways games made after 1998 utilize them have very little influence on the enjoyment of the actual playing experience.

Likewise, people have lived safely for millenia without having a cellular phone to be instantly contacted with at all times, or have traveled much longer distances with more luggage and passengers without motor cars, while I, and everyone else uses it for a daily <10 mile work commute or through the drive-thru at a fast food restaurant.

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40oz said:

I would if I could. If I had my way we'd never play video games made after 1998, we'd ride bicycles instead of drive cars, and no one would own a cell phone. But living that way sort of alienates you from society.

Reminds me of the Fist of Fun comedy sketch about the "1982 amish" who adopt the amish lifestyle but with 1982 as an alternative cutoff point, eschewing all inventions put on the market after 1982. Funny stuff.

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40oz, I sort of share your thoughts. I constantly tell people that violence in video games is NOT the true peril of the medium. It's its ability to kill your attention span and leave it in this state for years to come. That's the true danger behind this amount of information being "pumped" so fast to our brains.

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40oz said:

Likewise, people have lived safely for millenia without having a cellular phone to be instantly contacted with at all times, or have traveled much longer distances with more luggage and passengers without motor cars, while I, and everyone else uses it for a daily <10 mile work commute or through the drive-thru at a fast food restaurant.

Sorry to take just this snippet, but it's a big subject, one which I've given much thought lately. I'm not a Luddite by any means, but I wonder more and more just how happy and healthy we can be as individuals and as a society with such a strong dependence on much of our modern technology.

It's sobering to imagine losing electrical power permanently, or for a long period of time. History has shown time and again what can happen when a society becomes dependent upon modern conveniences, the fall of Rome being perhaps the most relatable example of what would happen in the U.S. should we lose our air conditioning, our store-bought foods, and our specialized livelihoods. I use the U.S. as my example because that's where I live and because, should something like that come to pass, it would be the single most catastrophic failure of an empire in human history. Since so few people have any "real" skills anymore, within a few months, people would be dying by the hundreds of thousands every day. It's not much of a stretch to speculate that upwards of two-thirds or more of the population would be dead within a year.

Yet, because we've never known anything else, and we never question anything, we ignore any and all warning signs that our current set-up is unsustainable in the long-term, and we continue to career, commute, consume at a highly detrimental rate. This thought actually caused me enough concern that I've begun learning as much as I can about gardening and live-stock. I actually regret not seizing more of the opportunities I had while growing up to learn these things, since they were readily available.

Naturally, there are no guarantees in any avenue of life, but I intend to aim for the one that gives me the highest hope of living a peaceful life.

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I don't have a cell phone and I don't really feel like I'm especially alienated by it - no more than I want to be, at least.

I do think it's a shame, though, the way certain advances in technology can effectively eliminate the need to undertake certain pastimes that are/were actually fun. An obvious example here is home taping - more or less unnecessary these days, what with how easy it to construct digital playlists, but still, making tapes is fun in a way that putting together a playlist isn't.

I can't say I miss the days of slow downloads though, and even now they're far from instant. Still, insofar as patience is a virtue, and insofar as slow speeds cultivate patience, I suppose we may well stand to lose something through all these increased efficiencies.

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Instead of thinking the technology... What about of thinking psychological way?

Y'see, I don't see problem in faster technology, but the people trying to accustom this new way. Think faster, do faster... They got lotta jobs to do, and the personal life, the family... And this depends on the mindsets of people. Some can adjust themselves, some may be even unaffected, and some folks have burnouts or completely drop out of the circulation.

People who try to adjust the faster norms, there is a possibility to do mistakes in jobs, and depending on what kind job, some might have far-reaching consequences than initially thought. People don't stop for moment to think farther than they really should.

Personally, I think it is not about the invented technology, rather the user who has it.

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Fast technology itself is a great thing, because it allows efficiency (much more "goodness" can be done in the same amount of time).

(speaking to 40oz) You complained that you (or people) can't think / output ideas as fast as the technology works, and that you miss having to wait (only sometimes, I assume). Then you propose an idea to spend time with real-life activities that require the waiting, as you desire. I cannot do else than to agree. As you usually do, you've already invented the right way to go right when asking the question. :)

To be honest - I personally have quite a lot of free time, and tend to "waste" most of it. I'm aware of my own inefficiency, ashamed of it, but also somewhat reconciled with it. Simply put, I'm "used to" be wasting time :(. I don't think I'll ever complain about the thing you do, because I'm capable of giving myself a break/relax anytime, and it's the same like "artificial waiting" for me. This *might* be an advantage of laziness. At least at some other times, I can focus to (try to) work effectively when it comes. True, I'm often unsuccessful with that. But well, I'm satisfied with this way how spending my free time goes, I'm only unsatisfied by my inefficiency when I try to do something. I say that this is another way to go. I hope you get it (I'm sure it doesn't sound right on the whole). But no, don't follow my example if it's not in your nature, please.

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It could perhaps be a product of my personality. I tend to handle tasks very linearly -- my parents and my siblings are the same way. I have a tendency to get obsessed with things I enjoy doing and put full concentration on them. That said usually when I'm doing it I tend to spend a lot of time on it because... Well nothing is stopping me. And when certain obligations come for which I have to leave it alone, I dread the idea that the progress on what I was doing is stagnating until I get back to work on it. I feel like a part of me needs to be told to wait for something so I can stop a do something else with the confidence that my time isn't being wasted. The only things that I do have to wait for I think are posting on this very forum, and waiting on progress in a community project, but those are all human interactions, I'm just putting my pressure on other people.

I make myself sound like more of a wreck than I really am. Its just something of a nuisance that hasn't gone away for the last few years.

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40oz said:

It could perhaps be a product of my personality... I make myself sound like more of a wreck than I really am

Not at all. I'm the same way, and there is nothing backwards or primitive about preferring to finish one task before starting another.

It has been shown that "multi-tasking" is nowhere near as efficient as focusing on a single task. Multi-tasking is a modern contrivance, a buzz-word that suggests advanced and forward thinking in the harrowing modern work place. "Drive yourself as crazy as possible" is what I hear when the term comes up.

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Let's all start just communicating with Morse Code. It might even be more interes-.---..-..----....-.-.-.---..----..-.-.-.----.-..-.-.-.-.-.--.-----.-----.-..-----.-.-.--.------.-..-.-.-.-.-----.----.-

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40oz said:

advancements in technology and the speed of the internet has made everything too fast.

The main problem with this is that people appreciate things so much less than they used to. We have this instant gratification going on left and right that seems to be having an effect on the younger generation specifically. I know this is an exponentially less important aspect of things, but it's having a major effect on gaming in a somewhat negative fashion: People view them as disposable. By that I mean, back in the day, when we got one good game, we cherished the fuck out of it. When I was a kid I had probably about 20 games by age 10 between me and my brother, and besides the 2 or 3 duds in there, we played the shit outta those things.

Many gamers who are on the 'modern cusp' just go from release to release and rarely revists the older titles. I'm a pretty social person, I get out and meet new people a lot, and I see this all the time. That kinda saddens me, but of course, not all gamers are like that.

durian said:

I don't have a cell phone and I don't really feel like I'm especially alienated by it - no more than I want to be, at least.

People lke you seem to be pretty rare these days. I have a cell phone, but unless it's my fiancee or a job calling back, I pretty much never answer..

durian said:

[..]certain advances in technology can effectively eliminate the need to undertake certain pastimes that are/were actually fun.

I was thinking about this the other night - I used to get entertainment ot of browsing the web looking at all the random Doom sites created by indivudals, you know the ones - Animated gif files all over, links to random wads all over the place. I'm really glad the have 'centers' for Doom realted stuff, like DW/idgames, the source port forums and all that, but there was a sort of mysterious feeling rummaging through those old pages.

CorSair said:

Personally, I think it is not about the invented technology, rather the user who has it.

All of my this.

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I can relate. I kept my PC from 2004 as my main PC up until this year when I finally broke down and bought a "new" computer, which is already outdated by far by today's standards. But I couldn't conceive of much of a reason to have the latest. I have NEVER owned a cell phone. I hate phones; and when people call me, 99% of the time it's a call I don't want. I don't have a flatscreen TV, either. My TV was a gift from my parents wayyy back in '98, and it still works fine, so use it I do.

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I hate cell phones and the internet for their surprise attacks. Like let's say you're just relaxing at home and enjoying yourself, when suddenly you receive a call or an e-mail from your mom/friend/boss/someone from the university, and it turns out that you need to go buy something, meet somebody or do some work. What the hell is that. Modern technologies are just tools for other people to bother you with their crap more easily. What happened to "my home is my castle"?

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durian said:

patience is a virtue

Or so we tell ourselves. I sincerely believe that everyone hates waiting for things, but internally chanting aphorisms like this is the most mature way of combating impatience. I remember wishing the internet was faster in the 90's, as I sat in front of my beige CRT waiting for a web page to display. I'd tell myself to be patient, and that exercising patience builds character. I'd sometimes do something else while it was loading, because that seemed more superficially productive than just sitting there. But what I really wanted was for the page to load nigh-instantaneously, which is exactly what happens when I do the same thing in 2014.

Personally, the unsettling thing about the world around me is a whole other kind of speed to what you guys are ruminating about. Time flies, and at an alarmingly progressive rate. The speed of modern technology is a blessing, and if my perception of time increases proportionately to the speed of technology as I get even older, all will be well.

I totally get people who don't own a cellphone, though. Those things are an intrusive annoyance.

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I suppose I hate the way that the amount of hours you put into using a computer and the internet relates so much to what you get out of it. Things like finding new music or a new website to look at. I don't necessarily hate the fact that everything is fast except for how easily I'm able to be distracted by it. In theory, things taking a medium speed would be even worse. I think I just need for some things to be painstakingly slow, or at least be proportionate to the time I would normally spend away from it.

Ideally I would program an application that reaps the internet for all the information I would want to know from browsing the internet, so I can just come back whenever I feel like and get a brief summary of everything I would have been taking from it when I get back. I thought facebook would be good for something like that but it sucks and is being bombarded with ads.

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durian said:

I don't have a cell phone and I don't really feel like I'm especially alienated by it - no more than I want to be, at least


I don't have a cell phone either. I prefer to not be in the texting circle for the most part. meh.

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I'm a guy who suffers from constant nostalgia but I can honestly say I have no fond memories of the times before my DSL, five minute start ups and video the size of a stamp.

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I've been blessed with a poor enough memory so as to not have any nostalgia for anything at all. Most of the games I loved as a kid I'm either pretty much tired of, or approach in a critical manner. Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised by how nice certain things still are.

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40oz said:

I would if I could. If I had my way we'd never play video games made after 1998, we'd ride bicycles instead of drive cars, and no one would own a cell phone. But living that way sort of alienates you from society.



Huh?

Actually, I DON'T play games made after 1998, I do ride bicycles instead of driving cars (last time I had to drive a car was 8 months ago) and I rarely use my smartphone. So what? At some point you have to say "Fuck it!" and lay out some rules that suit you better.

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I don't text and only very recently did I get a smart phone, but it basically goes unused. I will agree with OP that most of modern technology feels like an unwanted drain on my time which is increasingly scarce and seems to be passing at an accelerating rate.

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