Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[JoshuaFH]

America does kinda suck, uniformly all over. Even spots that are built from the ground-up for tourism, they suck.

[Maximum Spin]

So the 'add an extra word' thread spat out 'SATAN’S LINGERIE STORE IN PASADENA, CALIFORNIA' a while back. Which I just read.

This prompted a few minutes of street-viewing around Pasadena. Specifically, around Cal-Tech. It looks.... so characterless. I couldn't think of, or see, anything a tourist would want to visit.

My question - - - is this a general rule of thumb for the US[...]

Absolutely not, but it is a general rule for some areas. Most of the nice buildings are in the east, probably because that's the oldest part. Even my own home region gets some tourism for that. Richer or more urban areas tend to look worse, though, for various reasons. And of course there's beautiful nature across the country but I assume that's not what you're talking about since it should go without saying that you won't find any in Pasadena.

[Eric Blank]

A lot of American tourism is about the natural wonders of the continent. There's a few engineering marvels worth reading about, and a few historical landmarks about glorious victories against invaders, but towns are lame. The architecture has always been lacking in style and staying power; most main streets of towns out west were built of timber frames and wood paneling and then supplanted by brick buildings with no special facade. American architecture is about cheap and easy construction first and foremost.

[MrRoboto75]

A big majority of all US towns is like the same 20 big brands you're going to encounter everywhere and they're generally gonna look the same everywhere as well.  And they're all going to hug the same 4+ lane stroad bisecting the entire town.  And like a quarter of the landscape is parking lot.

Like driving from Virginia to Indiana I must have encountered a dollar general in every single town and they all look alike.

You might get something out of historical districts of some towns, or the main downtown of major cities, but the rest simply isn't that noteworthy.

I am a bit biased tho, Northern VA is very rich relative to the rest of the country, so most major US cities I've actually visited look rather grimy and run down by comparison.

[hector13]

I mean… the US is just the UK writ large. Most of it is towns dotted about in the middle of nigh-endless tracts of farmland, some major cities here and there, and the population concentrated in urban areas near the coast.

You’ll probably find a historical society in towns if you look hard enough. I lived in a town whose claim to fame was inventing the ice cream sundae.

[King Zultan]

I've noticed that most modern cities and towns are boring and lacking things that differentiate them from one another, no matter what country they're in.

[delphonso]

I've noticed that most modern cities and towns are boring and lacking things that differentiate them from one another, no matter what country they're in.

Aye, as a frequent traveller, some of the mystique wore off after seeing the same McDonald's menu in 15 languages... Cities are all glass and sidewalk. It's the rare one that maintains a historic district in the middle (reconstructed or otherwise).

It does make me appreciate visits to places that worked hard to maintain or restore buildings that aren't efficient. Like MaxSpin mentioned, the East Coast of the US has a lot of beautiful places. You find it in different ways in different places. If I turn down an alley in China and find a street full of vendors, old ladies hocking noodles out their kitchens, it always gives me a grin.

[Travis Bickle]

Does anyone actually play that tabletop game about the space orcs? I've run into a good number of people who can gush at length about the lore, but I've never seen a single person actually play the game.

[scriver]

40K? Or something else?

[Travis Bickle]

Yeah that one. Obviously, some people must be buying and playing the game if they've managed to stay in business this long, but no-one I've met who plays tabletop games has been into it and the way people talk about it I would have been more inclined to guess that it was some sort of book or comic series than a game.

[Great Order]

Used to as a teenager, I haven't in over a decade though.

[Criptfeind]

Plenty of people play it, there's some examples in the thread for it on these very forums. Although I think it's also noticeable that the business model isn't "Get people to play the game" but rather "get people to buy the models", one of the ways to do that is for people buying them to play the game, but I'm sure a lot of people buy and make the models (or fail to make the models) just for the artistic aspect of it, and they contribute just as much to the continuation of the business as someone who purchases models to play the game.

[Loud Whispers]

Yeah that one. Obviously, some people must be buying and playing the game if they've managed to stay in business this long, but no-one I've met who plays tabletop games has been into it and the way people talk about it I would have been more inclined to guess that it was some sort of book or comic series than a game.

Used to do the tabletop skirmish wargame in 5th edition, apocalypse games, but then stopped for a decade. Now back into it with the tabletop RPG and the spaceship version of the game battlefleet gothic

[Egan_BW]

Local gameshop has a wall dedicated to models, which is like 50% warhammer. So at least enough people buy them that the shop finds it worth stocking the stuff. Heard people in the upstairs playing battletech, which is similar, maybe a bit less interesting lore. And probably cheaper to get into, since you're fighting a few lances of mechs rather than a whole lot of little ork guys.

And of course on this very forum I'm in a slowly advancing Rogue Trader RPG. Roleplay is more closely related to the world and lore anyways.

40K also has a ton of novels. Which are overall probably less profitable than all the plastic bits and special paints? I dunno.

[Loud Whispers]

40K also has a ton of novels. Which are overall probably less profitable than all the plastic bits and special paints? I dunno.

In terms of profits, the minis are gargantuanly profitable for GW to a degree that defies belief. However as a proportion sales from books and royalty/licensing is increasing significantly every year. The only GW segment that seems to have done really poorly was their attempt to become a streaming platform, which has been so lacklustre they quietly stopped talking about it in investor reports