In an Age of Technology, Nature and Connection are Counterculture
There’s a meme that goes around periodically that goes something like this:
Punk: The world is screwed and I’m angry.
Emo: The world is screwed and I’m sad.
Goth: The world is screwed but there’s beauty.
Ska: The world is screwed but I have a trumpet.
This business was founded on a punk DIY ethos, which is to say, we’ll make our own thing in our own way, celebrate imperfections, and punt anyone that gives us grief about it. The thing is, I got tired of being angry a lot time ago. It doesn’t hurt the people who make the world worse; it only hurts the person being consumed by the anger. In this respect, I think that the Goths have the healthiest outlook. It’s very Buddhist, to acknowledge our impermanence but find the beauty in it, and to appreciate the fleetingness of beautiful things.
I learned a similar lesson while living in Finland. It’s cold and dark for half of the year, but people get through because they know it’s part of a cycle. It’s temporary. They set aside special foods and treats for midwinter, to give themselves something to look forward too during the harshest span of winter. When spring eventually comes around, everyone runs off the the lakes and forests to appreciate it, because they know that it, too, will not last. The country pretty much shuts down for the month of July, so everyone can partake of the two or three weeks of actual summer.
During the pandemic lockdown, cottagecore took hold as a popular aesthetic, and people started turning to cozy fantasy. For the first time in a long time, people had time to pause, connect, and reevaluate what was important to them. The wanted slower, simpler lives. They wanted to garden, make crafts, and bake bread. There was a renewed focus on nature, pets, and forging stronger connections to the few face-to-face people they had around them. While on some level it’s a romanticizating of the past, it’s not nostalgia; few people have ever lived this way, and not in our lifetimes.
Cottagecore, connecting with nature and people, making the things we need and use and consume, becomes a powerful form of counterculture in a rushed, wired, consumerist world. It’s a rejection of things that have been forced upon us, normalized, told we should aspire to even when we recognize it’s toxic. The punk in me loves this.
Along with my rejection of normalized anger has come a growing distaste of violence. I’m sick of hearing about dead kids, whether it’s stupid war or stupid terrorism or stupid lobbyists or stupid lack of mental health care, no matter what people choose to blame, no one’s doing anything about any of it, and we keep racking up a body count. At some point you not only ask yourself what you can do to help, you get introspective and ask if there’s anything that you’re doing that’s making you part of the problem.
Fantasy roleplaying games normalize violence. They glorify it. Hell, violence is the point of it, for most games. I got tired of playing Monty Haul & the Murder Hobos when I was, like, 15 years old. The adolescent power fantasy doesn’t do anything for me. I have other interests, other tastes, and other stories I’m interested in exploring. All of which are possible, even with the systems designed to reward killing things and taking their stuff. I just don’t want to work on those games.
So, TLDR, I’m only doing games that explore cooperation, interaction, and investigation going forward. I’m not saying there will be zero violence. I’m saying that when it does exist, it’s to make a point, and it should be shocking, and it should be a terrible, tragic thing. But I’m also saying that meeting supporting characters and having romantic adventures in the classical sense and solving problems and making discoveries are fun, and escapist, and uplifting, and a balm for the soul. And that’s what I want to put out into the world.
I hope you’re doing well today.
