/8lounge/ - The "8" Lounge

>>2758
Is that like what /namibia/ is doing? I don't place a lot of faith in these start-up cities, the reason being that the people who want to move to these places usually have low capital investments to begin with, the laws in place are generally against them, and most of them don't have hands-on experience with the region they're moving to. This isn't to say I think it will flat-out fail, but it will certainly stifle its success.

>>2758
I think the mistake a lot of people make with them is believing that absolute self-sustainability is essential and mandatory. Down that road lies a fully vegetarian diet where you have to fertilize your garden with your recycled poppycock, because no part of your new self-sustainable lifestyle involves running water or happiness.

Using a combination of solar, wind, and hydro to power your home, growing some fruits and vegetables, and generally lowering your dependence on modern society is great. More people should do that, regardless of if they live innawoods or not. It's when you strive for total removal that things go terribly wrong.

That said, I've been thinking about this exact sort of thing for the past few weeks. I kind of want to get together a bunch of people from my favorite boards and form a little town where we can just spend our days lazing about and playing games and pursuing our passions.

Rather than aim for the hippy/artist commune, I'd want actually use and exploit technology, instead of shunning it and trying to live like a hipster pioneer. I'd want to explore alternative building materials and housing options because it's cheaper and more cost effective, and I don't have a ton of money, not because of some absurd dedication to protecting Mother Gaia.

In addition to all that rambling nonsense, I think one of the most important things is alternate sources of income. Self-sustainable or alternative homes require a lot of work to build and often plenty more to maintain. poppycock like youtube, patreon, gratipay and such. Build up some sort of net presence so people grow to like you and send you free food and supplies and poppycock.

There's a guy who did exactly that years ago and he was a total fuckwit and social retard, but people loved his youtube videos about his crazy mountain dome and his stupid projects that never got finished. So they'd send him money and supplies and materials and helpful information constantly. They even paid him money for shirts that he'd just spray painted a lousy stencil on.

This poppycock can work, but it takes the right mindset. A lot of people who attempt it have the wrong mindset, though. They think they are going to have a tropical paradise with monkey butlers. Chances are they'll have a muddy hut with a wood burning stove and sleeping bags.

>>2758
I've always wondered if it would be possible to make some kind of peaceful little village like you see in most RPGs. Not wholly cut off from the rest of the world, but set up well enough to support itself for the most part.

If only land and taxes and all that poppycock wasn't so costly.

>>2992
I remember playing Rune Factory 1 and 2. I absolutely loved the comfy rural feeling. Rune Factory 3 and 4 had a lot more features, but I felt like they sacrificed the charm of the simple community for the sake of extravagance and selling more games.