That is actually not true.

You get different advantages living in an arcology, and most likely different disadvantages. The whole point of arcologies is to maximize the advantages and minimize the disadvantages.

six of one, half a dozen of the other. everything's closer in a city; that's even more true in an arcology. cities are crowded; arcologies are more crowded. the things people like about living in cities, they'll generally like even more about living in arcologies. the things they dislike will likewise be magnified. there are, of course, advantages and disadvantages unique to arcologies, but for the most part, i'd project arcology life as being appealing or unappealing for the same reasons as city life.

Without establishing what people living in a big city hate, this can't be adressed .

One advantage in arcos was already mentioned, short commutes. Your work, shops, recreational areas like parks or pubs, and friends are only a short walk and an elevator ride away. Pretty cool, when in a 'normal' big city the commute alone can cost you several hours a day (and, just a tidbit of information, 'modern' big cities have up to two thirds of their area dedicated to transportation alone).

Elaborate?

Dear god that's wrong. In my small town there were competing game stores and enough clients to keep both afloat. In my big city I've met 2 gamers total who weren't introduced to gaming by me, or one of the people I introduced to it.

Isn't the Renraku Arc the one where Deus went wild?

As for the Hestaby bit, it never happened in a game, but look at my sig (and apparently I think she's neat).

I concur.

It sounds like someone enjoyed Paranoia as much as I did. Bring on the transdimensional collapsitron! Happiness is mandatory!

If you were referring to me, I meant that in my experience, the convenience of city living is rather... enslaving.

When I lived in the country, I had less stuff. I had less access to stuff. I learned to meet my own needs. It amazes me how many people my age around here can't change a tire, let alone fix basic mechanical problems. People who can go to 24 hour convenience stores tend not to think ahead. Where I grew up, you went shopping once a week. You had to plan. When your plan didn't work, you had to live with it. When I was bored, I made something up, because we didn't have any TV to speak of. I was driving and hunting by age 12. You had to learn to get along with the idiot counter girl at the pharmacy, because it was the only pharmacy, there were only two counter girls, and you can't just go somewhere else.

Maybe I'm being obtuse again. When gathered in large numbers, people tend to specialize more. If there's ten doctors in town, then one can be a pediatrician and one can be a cardiologist. But if it's a town with one doctor, he's gotta cover all the bases. He may not be as good a pediatrician as his city counterpart, but he's also the cardiologist, and likely serving as a counsellor and teacher as well. When there are fewer people, everyone needs to be a little more versatile. By being versatile, we develop more self-reliance. When you have convenient access to all kinds of products or services, you begin to rely on them. "Dammit, I'm a certified Chevy mechanic! I can't fix your Honda."

A related observation, I'll even put it into SR terms: Perhaps urban folks tend to value skills more; he's a good computer guy, she's an excellent business manager. But rural folks seem to place more value on attributes; he's strong, she's smart....
That might be unfair generalizing. Just throwing it out there.

It amazes me how many people my age can't use a compiler, too, let alone dig through a crashlog to solve system or application instability. Granted, cars are still in wider and more critical use than computers, but it's all a part of the same "what do I spend my time and attention on" problem.

Which comes back to your thing about specialization, but you chose a spectacularly bad example for it. Cars have become dramatically more complex—some people in my former RL gaming group worked in automotive repair, so I got a wakeup call about the complexity involved there. With the complexity has come divergence between the different makers. Apart from basic problems (which, admittedly, is what most of them are), it's probably going to be very difficult to know everything needed to proficiently service a wide range of vehicles.

~J

great, now even Ford and Toyota are interpreting CSS standards differently. the entire intratube is designed to make life for webdesigners a pluperfect hell.

Funny, I'd say exactly the same thing about the wilderness.

Different strokes for different folks....