Strange hobbies, would they be around? Options

[Daddy's Litt...]

SF has her thread on vacations and that made me think about other things people do now.

My husband and one of my brothers are historical re-enactors. Guys who dress up in old uniforms and go off for a weekend. Both of these guys re-enact the first World War and my husband also does the American Revolution.

I'm told other people re-enact the American and british civil Wars, WW2, Spanish-American war, French and Indian War, wars between Americans and Native Americans, dress like Romans and even Vietnam.

I know you can't do these in the sprawls but on the east coast they are big and there is lots of room. They do WW1 on some farm land in western Pennsylvania where they can run around with rifles and machine guns , motars, tear gas and flare guns. People fly bi-planes over them. I'm told in WW2 people do mock up tanks!

So do you think these hobbies would be around in the 2070's? Would other wars get added?

[Moon-Hawk]

No.
Well, I mean yes, but no. Running around in fields firing blanks impotently and flinging bean bag "grenades" at each other while bi-planes fly overhead providing atmosphere in an effort to be realistic? No.
If the goal is to create a maximally realistic recreation, it'll be a VR video game. As war games advance into full-VR they would consume the recreationist niche. They would do everything the recreations would do, only better. The recreationists can currently claim that their hobby feels more real, since they're out there doing stuff rather than sitting in a chair, but with a full VR environment, any tiny loss of fidelity or feelings of "less real" from the VR would be totally overwhelmed by the mountains of more realistic touches which could be added, like....bullets.

edit: Full-VR would probably kill all types of LARPing, not just recreations. You'd still see the occasional Dark Lord of Denny's, but it wouldn't be because he's LARPing, it's because he can't distinguish reality. Wait....nevermind. ;) (just teasin')

[Ravor]

I agree with Moon-Hawk, with the following exception, I could easily see a "Desert War: Civil War Era" or the like special being put on the trid by a corp every now and again.

[Fix-it]

The internet is the dark underside of human society.

Not throw in full VR, and you will have more weirdness than your mind can handle.

/historical re-enactors aren't considered weird. they are important history teachers.

[imperialus]

I expect that getting together in a field and re-creating Gettysburg is probably out of vogue. Virtual re-enactment on the other hand though the matrix is probably hugely popular.

[Kyoto Kid]

...ok, lets go to some other popular hobbies:

RC Model aircraft. Admittedly systems in 2070 would be highly sophisticated. Already in RL they have miniature turbofans and multi channel control systems that can actuate everything from landing gear, and flaps to even turn on & off the landing lights. I can just imagine how much more precise these controls will be in 2070 (and how much smaller & lighter). With the advanced composites as used for drones, scale aircraft could be made to look even more lifelike. Add in AR/VR and you could actually experience flying the aircraft from it's POV. Yeah you could say this would be taken over by flight simulator VR chips, but there still is something about building a scale replica of say an ME109 or a Sukhoi SU-30 and actually flying it.

The same would hold true for model boats/ships & ground vehicles as well.

[Stahlseele]

ye gods i just realized the possible horrors of things like 4-chan on full VR with Hot-Sim . .

[CircuitBoyBlue]

You're not supposed to talk about it, Stahlseele.

But also, it's weird that we're debating whether or not there'd be historical re-enactments in a setting where the South up and seceded.

[DTFarstar]

I live in the South, but most of my gaming group hates living here and we just aren't generally very fond of the average citizen in the cities around us. (Of course we are bitter people who just generally hate everything and enjoy partaking in the many fine vintages of others' shame and humiliation that life has to offer) As such, explaining that the South actually ended up successfully seceding was.... difficult... with lots of laughter and several "Bullshits" or "What the hell?!"s. I think an amusing consequence in Shadowrun is that the people with the weird weapon fetishes(me for instance, I just love weapons for some reason, I own some 10 or 15 swords, a throwing axe, am working on getting some throwing knives, and I am working on getting a really cool shotgun(double barreled 12 gauge-I believe- with a rifled barrel down the center where you can load a rifle shell. You push a switch over and the hammers fire the rifle shell instead of the shotgun shells. My dad got it from someone earlier this year, it was made in the early 1800's and looks like it actually might be somewhat unique- not in style but in who made it and when.) are now just normal prepared citizen's and/or shadowrunners.

Chris

[Fortune]

[nezumi]

I'm sure model RC aircraft are all over the place considering how cheap drones are relatively speaking.

Most 'weird' hobbies are either going to get stronger in the sixth world because it's easier to get in touch with other deviants, and with such deviancy as humans breeding with orks and so on it's not as much of a big deal if say you like to dress all in foam and throw yourself at walls.

The rest are going to go primarily VR, just because it offers anonymity and a more impressive recreation. If you're into throwing mice in the air, you can enjoy it just about as much virtually as in real life with half the cost.

The only 'weird' hobbies I can see going away are those which are now mainstream - for instance, writing fantasy books about orks and elves coming back into the world.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Drone aircraft are going to be fun.

Especially when you use a more or less model of a real aircraft, and then put a real weapon on it. :)

[Fortune]

With the way the Sixth World airspace is regulated, I would assume that there would be restrictions on just where and when RC aircraft enthusiasts could engage in their hobby.

[Synner667]

[Bastard]

Do kids play flag Urban Brawl?

[Sir_Psycho]

Imagine you want to HALO drop into a corp facility without being picked up on radar and nailed with a SAM (or whatever) and you hire a club of RC aviation enthusiasts to provide a distraction.

A hundred scale bi-planes, b-52's, helicopters and messerschmidts converge on the facility, and just over the hill there's a bunch of geeky men with sweat on their brows, thumbs working furiosly to evade the missiles and drones of the facility and swoop and dive at the sec guards. :love:

[Snow_Fox]

There are clubs that let you do air to air combat in rigged planes. bet that would be facing challenges from simsernse but the re-enactors-you think CAS would give that up?

DLN's husband only does british. but from his photos they don't just use rifles but have smg's and motars. I think the WW2 guys do too so that could really add to those hobbies. Think about it, need a place to hide you mg's?

[Mr. Man]

My weird hobby is Shadowrun.

It would definitely not survive. :(

(Although I seem to remember the VWE BattleTech pods almost being mentioned by name in 2nd edition somewhere.)

[Fortune]

[Sir_Psycho]

Re-named "the game of life".

[CircuitBoyBlue]

The subscription fee is :nuyen: 29.95/month.

[Mercer]

I once ran a game that centered on some high school kids who had been infected with HMHVV. They based their entire club on the V:TM line of books, because they thought that vampires from previous ages had passed their information down that way. (The vamps were based a lot on a Vampire Live Action group I had played with for years. So they were basically nerds, with superpowers.)

My friends who did those re-enactments called the Living History. In SR, I could see 4th world enthusiasts who get together in state parks and recreate ancient life with orks, trolls, elves and dwarves (and maybe sasquatches, if they can get any to show up). Or, exisiting organizations like the SCA might get a little revisio-historical (since forbiding metahumans would be a Civil Rights violation), and have orks and elves and such at their events. (Can you imagine how awesome it would be if you could get a dragon to show up to one of those things?)

[bibliophile20]

[Stahlseele]

and if he weren't dead, perhaps even the Big D would show up . . just because and also because it would irk the others of his kind *g*
And wasn't there a Dragon on Hawaii or something like that who actually had a normal job and let the neighbourhood-kids ride on his back for free in the air?

[Snow_Fox]

Since re-enactors are private groups they could ban minorities. But they have to have an interest in joining. Not many African-American for example would want to serious lay out the cash to dress as Confederate soldiers.

But the idea of LotR's re-enacting springing up could be fascinating. Groups probing into past, maybe looking for proof of earlier ages when elves and orks walked the earth. Anyone up for a run on the Atlantean Society? Then again I'm getting ideas-stop such a group of weekend hobbists before they discover the Horrors. These nerds are harmless but they could stumble on to something the powers that be want kept quiet. (not everyone will know the big D closed that door.)