Rambling, 41 Years, Bitch, Bitch ... Whatever

Today is the obligatory September 6th anniversary post.  41 years ago today, I played D&D for the first time; hell, I heard of D&D for the first time.  The link takes us back all the way to the first post on this blog.

This morning, I reworked the "Modern History" page on my wiki.  I promise, it isn't very interesting.  Just a rehash of important moments between 1500 and 1650.

The page exists because I need to create a touchstone for player who don't know history very well, who might get a little out of a quick overview of the immediate background.  "Modern history," of course, ends in 1650, when my world starts for new parties.  My oldest party has made it all the way to 1653 - which of course, looks pretty much the same.  History moved slower then.

Not that there's a huge change in the world between now and 2017.  It feels, this last twenty years, like culture has sort of ... stalled.

Think about it.  Take a major cultural film, like The Matrix.  That movie is 21 years old.  It sits almost halfway between my entire time playing D&D.  Yet, with a few tiny upgrades to the computer imaging, if that film had never come out, they could release it today with virtually the same dialogue and philosophy that it was released with in 1999.  Sure, the fan boys would bitch about the graphics, but you know, we're just talking about tweaking a bit.

It's absurd that 21 years has not produced a serious change in what we believe or how we communicate.  If I go back 21 years before The Matrix, and pick a comparable blockbuster sci-fi fantasy film like, say, 1978's Superman, the difference is ENORMOUS.  It isn't just that the special effects and the logic are hideously hilarious, it's also the whole "this is how people talk in a newsroom" depiction.  The dialogue, from the scenes on Krypton to the love scenes between Supe and Lo, are egregiously camp.  Who the hell talked like that in 1999?  And who would have put that dialogue in a movie that wasn't deliberately a farce?

If I listen to what's new, what do I hear?  Hip hop.  If I listen to music from 1999, what do I hear?  Hip hop.  And if I listen to music from 1978?  I get this:



Come on now, really?  Look at the massive trends in music between the above and 1999: New Wave, Rap, Grunge ... these are huge cultural shifts.  What comparable shifts have we had since 1999?  Beyonce then, Beyonce now.  It is like a desert out there.

I blame the internet.  Everyone can produce every kind of music they want and find listeners.  As a result, the entire music scene has turned ... grey.  I still meet that type of fan that is amazingly into some obscure band that has deservedly remained obscure.

But what do I know?  I still play a game that became popular when Donna Summer still had top 10 hits.

In 1979, D&D was becoming huge.  We discussed and debated the game, but no one used the words "I hate" with relation to the game then.  I didn't first hear that until I started playing Empire of the Petal Throne with an older group, who felt the need to slam D&D at every opportunity.  I played other systems, too -- and always, there was that necessary conversation about why this system was better than that system.  But I didn't hear D&D players say they hated any system until  2nd Edition.  Oh, sure, we hated half the Fiend Folio; and we hated the Oriental Adventures splatbook; gawd, what a horror that was.  But we didn't hate "D&D."

In 1999, that's all anyone talked about.  I love my 3.5 version, I hate yours.  21 years later and it is the same old thing.  Two new editions and nothing has changed.  "I tried 5e, and liked it for awhile, but now I hate it."  Amid this atmosphere, there's really no room for cultural shifts.  Not that I'm going to counsel putting aside your hate and how good it would be if we could all just get along.  Yet I wouldn't have guessed how toxic D&D was going to become, and how so many people would embrace that toxicity, way back in 1979.

Then again, I was very young.  The signs were everywhere.  I didn't take them seriously.

I still don't.  I lie to myself and say that 5e is "just a fad."  Probably isn't.  I'm still sure than there's going to be a 6e and at least one after that.  Sales of 5e are brisk, though, so as long as they are things are stabilizing a bit.  At the same time, I'm not at all worried that the old game is going to evaporate and die.  Nothing is going to change.  We're just all going to go on, living in this silly, stale, unchanging grinding argument forever.

At least, until Larry Niven's wire gets invented.  Still waiting, Larry.

I don't want to use it.  I just like the idea of so many other people using it that the world becomes a big, quiet, empty place full of people who would get bored of that kind of thing.