Does anyone else get this?
sometimes I will go to a place, and think, geez, this reminds me of something I might see in a game...
I recently went on a hike, to a small mountain range... two nights, camping in tents...
It was cool, I had to cook and maintain health, and stuff like that.
as I walked through some of the lovely area's I was struck by the thought that some of these places looked really cool. I used to watch shows like Xena warrior princess, or hurcules, because I liked the scenery, I would really like to see that sort of thing.
It seems to me sometimes, that all of the nice places in the world are being destroyed by "Human Development (moving forward)" or whatever.
It is really nice, and refreshing to see something nice in nature...
I dont know about anyone else out there, but I get a real feeling of magik, when I play baldurs gate...
Does anyone else really like the music from BG1?

PS... I feel like a freak, but I dont really care!

I definitely agree with you regarding "human development", sustainable development is the key to preserve the environment for the future generations. Unfortunating, the value of environmental goods are very difficult to quantify, and many people are very short-sighted. Greed and selfishness of our species have already caused many other species to extinct or die slowly and painfully..... *sign*

I guess the least we can do is to do our part.....

P.S. I know what some of you are thinking, but I do not play as a druid!! And actually I like the main theme song of BGII or the romance song of Viconia. But the music of Icewind Dale is also superb.

I'm very much a 'greenie' at heart Sylent. I love creation and it's splendour.
It's a tragedy that all the sustainable societies that seemed to respect the land were wiped out or conquered by the growth societies that plundered it. I recently took a boat across Pitwater to a National Park in Sydney's far north and sat on the beach looking up at the trees shading the beach and thought... we had paradise. We had it all the time.

How many of us dream of lying on a traffic island in the middle of a highway to 'get away from it all'?

I didn't expect much response on this, but anyway...
I am no greeny, but I do find it a bit of a helpless situation, the environmental F***ing up that is happening.
I actually got the music from candlekeep (bg1) off napster (whole different issue), because it was good to remind me of the fun I had playing it
I am not devoted to my computer or anything, but I really enjoy playing Fantasy RPG, as well as post-nuclear RPG... It is a good escape from normality
V-Tec huh... I am learning to drive in a morris Mini! what fun it is.

Traffic Islands suck

hmm... yeah i kinda agree on what is happening right now to the world... although these "growths" in the economy is good... i just keep wonderin... the cities would just keep expanding, and the farmers would be forced to cut trees to farm food in the ever growin population... now if that happens... so on and so forth... what would happen to the world... it would totally be consumed by cities and farms... no more forest... i know its sad that the statement "survival of the fittest" is what i say ... but its all so true.. being a cityfolk, i hardly ever get out to the province and enjoy any nature trips... and its all so polluted in the city... since where i live in "Manila" is considered to be one of the most dirtiest city in the world...with all the smog, pollution and everything... yech!!

sheesh.... the one place i can truly imagine splendor with nature is finding a grove... with a ...a... errr... pond (but something bigger.. sorry i forgot the word)... and also there is a waterfall... that is strong enough for a nice shower but weak enough that you dont get crushed... the water crystal clear and crystal clean.. around 10-15 ft deep... with smooth stones... the birds and other forest noises surround you... and you dont have to worry about anything ... and just swim lazily ... and oh yeah... you can drink the waterfall since its so clean... and a few feet away, the trees will give way to a fantastic view of everything (mountains..etc)... now thats what i want to have when i grow up... if i ever find one such as im thinking right now... sheesh...

i have another one.. but i might bore you ... so never mind ...

Sounds really nice!
I was actually in a place (where I said I went camping) and after a really hot day walking for ages, and just generally being hot, there was a river, where we stayed.
Anyway, I went for a quick swim in it, and drank the water, and it was really great.
I think that water would have to be warmish.
It would be nice to grow up, and live in a place like this, but sadly what you say is true, "survival of the fittest", people may oppose this growth, but they are mostly too small in number to topple the "Giants" of human growth.
I have a friend who lived in manilla, but he migrated/moved (whatever it is) to aus, and is doing really well!

And by the way, you aren't boring me...

hmm... sorry if it took so long to reply but im really kinda busy... now that im not... i just wanna say ... LUCKY YOU... being a cityboy, im so envious...

a friend you say... Memnoch was a Manila Boy (i think ... oh well i just know he came from my country ) ...

anyway.. thanks for listening... here is another one .... (one i just want to have also but in the dream may it only become my reality)

acres and acres of open grassland... with a beautiful but powerful stallion im riding.. i thunder accross the open field free from worries that im not going to be hit by a branch of a tree (happened once though ) ... i have a stable nearby and all the land i see is mine to ride about with my trusty speed... but after a few miles... i enter a forest and enter the cool path... and soon i come accross a wide stretch of river (or lake) wherein i can drink, fish and once i filled my belly i would go in for a nice snooze... sheesh ... fantasies would be nice...

hmm... since im posting my fantasy place here... anyone who is reading here would like to post one also about thier own reallife fantasy place in this world??

Sitting on a deckchair along a tropical beach - a cool martini and a warm woman, and maybe some whipped cream... ahh.

Well Sylent, have to agree, during my military service during summer I spend some time in the woods of southern Sweden and well, would there be an elven forrest anywhere that should be it, and I´m no real greenie either but I do care about the ecology system and hate poluters, oiltankers and all thoose fossil companies cause there are much better and cheaper but there will be some initial costs..
Well i wont get started ...

If you want to see something beatiful come and visit me in the summer time and take a hike up to the northern parts, magnificent!
Well you don´have to go that far nortg, you can go south too..

About the music, I like it i think it is great to play too.

well as for me
in Lexington Kentucky there is a castle for sale that i would pass on my way from Ft.Campbell to west virginia and i would love if it was mine it's the only castle i ever saw and if it was mine i would envite and fund you all to come to the castle warming party

Cool!
i would be there in a flash

We here in Minnesota have the perfect example of urban sprawl and evidence of "civilization encroaching on the environment". We have the "Boundry Waters Canoe Area" a huge national park that is numerous lakes connected by rivers and streams and full of small secluded islands. It is the perfect place to get away from everyday life. I went there for a week and never saw another person. You can sit on the island under Norther Pines listening to the crackling of the campfire and the frogs and crickets. The most wonderful thing about the BWCA is that you cannot enter it with any motorized vehicles (boats, cars, motorcycles). NOW.....some people want this area accessible to motor boats! It has come to our state congress and the word is that it is going to pass. Why would anyone want to ruin such a splendid environment. It is the fat,lazy, 'I don't care about you only me', neanderthals that want to go there and fish! And it will pass b/c there are more fisherman (and wives/husbands) in the state than there are people who use the BWCA for enjoyment and an escape. It makes me want to isolate myself in a small cabin in the middle of nowhere with nothing but my computer and a coffee maker! The environment is dying! There is no doubt about it. And it will continue to die b/c the people who are ruining it are the ones that are repopulating it and do you think they are going to teach their childeren things like recycling and using renewable resources? Why would they, they don't do these things themselves!
Sorry for the long post Kind of hit a nerve with this topic

Oh yeah, the music is great! except for when it plays doom and gloom music and I think I am heading into a fight and it turns out to be an empty room (ARRRRGGGGHHHHH)

hey just reading the "US News&World Report"feb 5,2001 and the said that global warming is rising more than predicted from what i read it doesn't look good for 2020,it's not the end of the world but it does make you realize that something needs to change

Living in the Northeast of the US, we have many old castles and settlements, though not nearly as many or as old as what you'll find in Europe. It quite easy to stroll through some of these places and visualize what it was like to live there during those time periods. If you have the imagination (and you have to to play some of these games) you can "see" the dragon flying overhead and the wizard standing on the ramparts ready to defend. I look forward to touring the ancient European sites, the feeling must be so much stronger there...

Another great aspect of this region is the vast amounts of wilderness still left, lots of mountains and such. I try hard to get out into the woods for a few days (at least) of camping every year. It's a great way to 'cleanse' the soul, as it were. And, yes, while I'm out there, roughing it, there's a part of me who IS a ranger, doing all the stuff rangers do!

Whenever I get to high ground and see the world spread out before me, I wish desperately that I could have seen it 300 years ago, before we came in with our factories, industry and pollutants.

Seems like this topic has hit a nerve... many of us apparently enjoy fantasy gaming for what it provides in the way of escape, in re being able to visit a world that is as it SHOULD be rather than the mundane one we have to live in day to day.
And it seems one doesn't have to be a "greeny" to appreciate the ecological mess that we are currently facing - too bad we didn't listen to the greenies about thirty or forty years ago.
In any event, there is something you can do about the general decline of things. Start your own community. Get together with some like-minded people and start working towards creating the kind of world you'd like to live in. My wife and I and a few other couples are working towards buying a 100+ acre parcel and developing a sustaining community. It's not easy, but it's worth it.

Absynthe, people here in England tryed to do that, but they didn't tell anyone, they built houses and grew crops, no one knew that they existed for about 10 years. but now they been discovered and they are being force to buy the land or be move on.
I also live in a city, but mine was planned and so the designers have put trees and parks all over the place. Theres even squirrel living in the trees behind my house, named it Percival.
The most magical place I ever found was a over grow Japanesse garden, the trees had surrounded the place and their branches covered up all but a single spot in the center, from which light shone on to a flower bed. The area was slient, not even the wind seem to reach this place, I spent hours siting there listening to the slience.

Living here in Northern Virginia so near Washington, D.C. is a nightmare for me. 90% of our land has been paved over or built upon to accommodate the huge population living here. BGII or any game for that matter is a welcome fantasy vacation that I wish could be possible in real life (well, except for the monsters!). I wish more people in this world would realize that to destroy the environment inevitably will destroy all living things, including humans. I think a lot of people just think "Well, I'm not worried, all that will happen years and years from now long after I am gone so it doesn't effect me or my life so I don't care." A piece of a poem I wrote once comes to mind:

Perhaps things would be different if we knew reincarnation as fact
And we all knew that someday we would be coming back
Maybe then our beautiful planet would be protected
By the human bacteria in which it is infected

Well, that was my serious statement for the day, now back to play!

LadyZekke: That's beautiful! May I quote you?

Zenith, thanks. I'm sorry, I have forgotten, where are you from? What do you mean by May I quote you?

Wow, great to get some feed back!

Absynthe, your idea sounds great, I would love to do that, but it is as you said quite difficult. I like the way aboriginals in Australia, lived off the land for hundreds of years, and were at one with nature. They only killed what they needed to eat, and did not make a huge mark on the country side (like a city).
I think that when I am in the bush, my "Ranger" side comes out... I imagine surviving in the bush, with just a small cottage, with just my long bow, and a small lake to fish from, and swim in...
I think such places exist, and I would love to find them! Reading is a sort of escape for me, I love reading fantasy books, (anyone read "Fire Dancer" by Victor Kelleher?) although it is often frustrating just reading about such places...
I could lie in the sun in a really nice patch of forest for ours, and just enjoy!
ahhh...

Hi Sylent and the rest of you greenies wannabe but not are..

I like the idea about a cottage and wildlife to. I even applied for a job as a wolfnursery in one of USA´s national parks but they weren´t so keen on the idea of having bloody foreigners there... Too bad..

Would have been great though, well hopefully we in Sweden starts to appreciate out predators and learn to live in a more harmonized way with nature, for all of us who have children, wants to have children, do we care about something else then money and occupation? i want to preserve as much as possible, that forrest I mentioned earlier, I wish that my sisters kids will be able to go there someday and see what I saw, feel what i felt. Well now this is going to be too fuzzy so i quit right here and go looking for a handkerchief (do you call it that or is it just my shoolbook?)

hmm... some of us hit a wrong note in this post... apoligies for all who did fume... but i wish to tell you the problem will not go away until acted upon.. the question is how... how can we do that my dear friends...

Wolfgir,
dreams are the ones that make reality ... reality is given when acted upon... i just wanna say that...

LadyZ: I'm not too far from you, actually! Just to the north in RI, but I love to range throughout New England. I loved your poem snippet and would like to use it because you are right about reincarnation...If only all people knew for sure...I don't want to use it for anything but in conversation, to make a good point. I'll give credit where it's due!

Zenith, yes you are pretty close! I've never been to Rhode Island, what is it like living there? Glad that you liked my snippet, I'm flattered! These things I usually keep to myself (Got pages full of them, especially on that particular topic). Please use it in any conversation you like, perhaps we can change a few people's ways of thinking! Hey, couldn't hurt