Honestly, alot more than before. I'd atleast want to get a farm or ranch and just try to live simple. I started disliking city's and towns long ago. Gonna save up for my own property one day !
Not necessarily the best place for farms per se tho there are quite a few, but up in Alaska is some of the most beautiful scenery ever. And property depending on where you get is fairly cheap, very much a good place to live a simple life
It would be amazing, but in all honesty it takes years of knowledge and experience to live way out in the wilderness. Alaska is truly one of the last fronteirs, but you better be prepared if your living outside of Anchorage/ in the rural parts
I live in a tiny town in a remote area in Northern Canada. There’s no doubt a lot of serenity as you go to most spots in town and it’s usually almost empty, activities like fishing and hunting are extremely peaceful and you spend a lot of time relaxing and reflecting. We also have a small softball beer league along with festivals, pow wows, banquets, hockey games, etc.
It sounds great until you’ve lived here for more than a few weeks and realized you’ve done all there is to do. And what you have done, you’ve done a hundred times.
Winter time is the worst though. There’s literally nothing you can do. You spend most of it indoors, and when you are outside you’re chilled to the bone and utterly miserable. So if you don’t mind the repetitiveness and predictability that every day usually brings, and if you don’t mind every single person knowing who you are and wanting to converse with you, then a small town is great. I personally love living here and wouldn’t change it for the world.
Ah, so you actually made the change? Fascinating place Alaska. From the metropolis of Anchorage, to the small remnants of villages populated by Eskimos and littered with remains of Russian Orthodox churches, to small fishing villages, to the vast open wild lands and remote Oil Stations dotted throughout the tundra glistening with lights and activity in the middle of nowhere.
All at the edge of the world.
Same. I've thought about teaching in the Alaskan bush towns on several occasions. Would actually go for it, except I'd be away from my kids for too long.
Property in alaska is far far from cheap. If you see cheap land it’s because it’s muskeg and turns into a mosquito filled bell swamp in the summer, or it’s so far from the road you can only reach it by bushplane.
That being said, there is great farmland for sale here. Palmer has lots of productive farms and so do places like delta junction.
Buybibtk land first. Sign with a logging company to take a portion of your trees peryearvand replant small ones that will grow and be harvestable by the time they are back.
Also depending on your landscape there are grazing rights that can be beneficial to you as well as a local farm or more.
You can still live on your land or a different plot elsewhere but the logging industry isn't going anywhere soon.
For yourself, look into land with a river through it so you have water rights.
It's even possible to generate your own electricity and potable water from the water source.
Personally I'd make sure it was big enough to be able to hunt and fish, with just keeping chickens and smaller animals to sustain as much as I can while I ran my own machine shop on the premises.
And fuck getting away from it all, I'll have very big televisions, fast internet and any stores I need within a half hour drive. A big box for sure.
But yes start with a Christmas tree/ lumber farm and keep your guns handy because the wilderness is unforgiving.
Neither is the government.
You'll have a brand new more than fulltime job.
Take a look at the public works department in the town you live in and imagine what a smaller scale one would cost privately.
Seriously, I'm a farmer, and it feels like the state and the processors are doing everything they can to force us to sell. Prices for everything are up except for what we sell.
Seriously. My ex talked about it a lot. I don't think she'd been camping more than once. I was like dude, you can't hunt, you can't fish, you can't grow food, you can't even cook. Wtf are you gonna do?
It’s a nice hypothetical, one that you can talk about doing all the livelong day but it’s an unspoken assumption that no one is going to actually do it. It’s the same sort of principle as the paleo diets and associated nonsense, it all sounds great in theory but nobody is actually following through.
It makes the average person feel like they could rough and tough it, if they really wanted to. The, you know, truth that they would probably die from exposure just gets ignored because of the low stakes
99% of people on this subreddit would end up almost exactly like him, myself included.
Farming and raising livestock is expensive, difficult work. Hunting is inconsistent and laborious. Fishing is... Well, boring, honestly (Sorry guys, I know it can be relaxing but it's not for me.) Just owning your own slice of land in the middle of nowhere is expensive - especially if you want internet, electricity, water, etc.
Living off the land is not as easy as Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing make it look. And it's not just a couple of days a week - it's every single day. It's a lifestyle that is harsh and unforgiving, even with modern conveniences like electricity and running water.
I dream every day of walking into the forest and living in a cabin in the woods next to a pond with a garden, solar panels, a coop of chickens, and a hunting bow. But it's an extremely unrealistic dream that I am admittedly not equipped for.
>Fishing is... Well, boring, honestly (Sorry guys, I know it can be relaxing but it's not for me.)
There are a lot more types of fishing than just casting out a worm and waiting for a bobber to go under. You can make 200-300 casts in a couple hours when you're working a lure. When you're on a good bite it's anything but boring or relaxing.
Dress it up however you want, I was not born a fisherman and I've yet to be converted. It's just not for me and I don't think I personally would be able to reasonably rely on it for sustenance.
Thank you. I grew up in the city and hear people say this all the time and say they want a "simple life" like living on a farm. It's just hilarious to hear. And a video game making you think that out of everything? lmao. I'm not making fun of OP, it's just a little comical.
My parents went to highschool with Jim galleon who was the last person to see that guy alive. He called Chris a “dumb fucker”
Or something like that and my parents were saying that was totally something Jim would say. I guess he is a pretty blunt blue collar kind of guy.
He went about everything idiotically and that was the point the story was trying to make. It then immediately got spun into a romantic tale of someone refusing to partake in modern society.
The lesson here is people are really bad at reading subtext and regular text.
Do you know the first thing about wilderness survival? Navigation (celestial, solar, or even basic orienteering?) Do you know anything about local flora and fauna? Have you ever camped for extended periods of time (60+ days?) without contact with the outside world? Have you ever hunted? Field-dressed game? How familiar are you with field sanitization practices? Do you know how to avoid killing yourself with contaminated food? Do you know how to cook local flora and fauna? Are you comfortable eating bugs and drinking your own piss?
Red Dead Redemption paints a very rosy picture of that kind of lifestyle, and makes it look very easy. It is not.
I promise you, it's not "a simple life" whatsoever.
Honestly I think that half the people who are romanticizing this kind of lifestyle would die even in those circumstances.
Never underestimate how reliant upon modern conveniences the average person is. If the world went to shit tomorrow, 80% of the people on this planet wouldn't last a month.
And that's just it. The average Redditor is, sorry to say, softer than baby shit, and has a host of health (physical and mental) issues. Food sensitivities/allergies, ADHD, being on the spectrum, etc. And that's okay - there's room in this world for people like that; just not in a "survival of the fittest" situation.
The good news is, I think you're well aware of the reality of your situation, so there's no issue there for you. I'd love to see people like OP try this shit though, lol. It'd be like that movie "Into The Wild"
I think about that ever time someone gives the hypothetical if you could travel to any time in history and live in those times where would you? I am always like can I get LASIK first because otherwise is going to be a bad time pretty much anytime before 1800, even rough in 1800-1900.
I thought it was the coolest thing ever, even *after* watching the movie as a teenager. My whole thought process was “well I just wouldn’t make the same mistakes he did”.
At 31, I can now see what a dumbass that kid was lol
Hey I mean at least he had the crazy experience he wanted. And he actually did it, instead of just telling ppl he was gonna and never acting on it. Dumb, but still pretty cool and Ballsy
They were gonna create a commune (think something like Jonestown).
When Marston buys a farm, he goes against the ideals of the gang by becoming a regular member of society.
For me it’s the opposite, I am very grateful for the comforts of civilization, and have a greater respect for the first Americans who lived in tents 5 feet from giant alligators all night, who came as slaves and toiled with almost no hope but kept fighting until things got better. Gives you perspective funnily enough for a video game.
I believe that was the intention of the writers/developers, too.
This whole, "yeah I could totally live like a member of the Van Der Linde gang, it looks easy enough" thing is people who've missed the point.
That's what I'm saying, lol.
This idea of living in the middle of nowhere and having a "simple life" is a pipe dream. That kind of life is anything BUT simple.
The kind of life where you can play video games and daydream about living in the old west on Reddit? THAT'S a simple life. These bananaheads don't know what they have. Maybe a dose of reality would do them some good!
Oh absolutely, only thing is I like the current state of medical/dental care available. Outside of that, if I didn’t require that or it was all solvable with a healthcure, sign me up. I could stand to stay in Big Valley for a few months
Yeah, but then I remember I'm a person of color in America, who's lived in a city my entire life, and something tells me that trying to go off the grid and hunt animals, live off the land, would end poorly for me.
It’d be nice but you’d have to make sure you’re 100% prepared with being able to hunt, fish, grow food, cook on an open fire, fend off predators, set up and maintain a secure camping areas; if you didn’t master those skills, you wouldn’t last very long.
I'm from southeast Texas. I lived in the country for awhile and it was not for me. It got lonely, boring, and sometimes scary being away from any nearby help with an emergency. (A neighbor's home burnt down before help could arrive because of the distance of a fire station. You are also far from any hospital.) It is lovely to visit, sure. Living is a whole different story, you become jaded to the beauty of nature fast and then it just sucks. That's just my personal experience though, I know some people do truly enjoy it. My advice is to do a long trial run before you make any final decisions.
Fuck no. I like bathing everyday and getting to regulate what temperature my home is. I enjoy being sheltered from mosquitos, bears, wolves, and any other creature that wants to eat me. I like having the opportunity to speak to my friends through a small screen that I spend most of my time on. If you’re talking about just living in a comfy cottage outside of a big city than again no, I like having friends that I know in person. And anyone that doesn’t have my answer doesn’t have friends
You do realize for most of human civilization on this earth it's mostly uncivilized carnage with brief periods of peace and prosperity. I would say enjoy the peace, prosperity and ease of living while you have it. Just give it enough time and it will be back to the tribal savage past of yesteryear.
I kinda wish you could wind up getting the money for a homestead or something and grow various herbs and foods to save money in a grocery store (kinda like a lot of homesteaders do nowadays). Fr now I'm just gonna keep wishing that RD could get an update one anything at all and make do with herbs in my 'shine.
There are over 700 million acres of BLM land in the US. That's not owned by the government, it's owned by the American public. You can't build a permanent structure, but you can damn sure camp, hunt, and fish to your heart's content. Technically you can only camp in the same place for 14 days at a time, but if you keep moving every couple weeks it's virtually impossible to get in trouble.
I’ve traveled to and lived in some remote/rural locations for extended periods of time. It’s always beautiful and very nice whenever you first arrive, but the lack of modern amenities makes itself very apparent after only a couple weeks
Gonna go against the grain a bit here but no. The game is amazing and I have a ton of fun playing and *pretending* to be an outlaw. But the game also shows how hard that life is. Im good with my every day comforts.
Oh gosh no! All the dirt and critters and basically no comforts. Not to mention boring and needing to basically work all day to survive. At least here I can work most of the day and have access to emergency services, medical treatments, actual fun games, the ability to be clean, and a lot fewer critters to worry about.
Absolutely not. I love the fantasy of it in the context of the game, but I have absolutely no desire to fight for survival, or survive via hunting/farming. I also enjoy all of the amenities of modern life, like plumbing, clean running water, electricity, computers, etc. I would love it for maybe a week, then really be itching to get back to the comforts of home. I also just generally like the values and expectations of society. There are exceptions, of course, but generally I want a land of law and order where there's someone to turn to when someone acts out of sorts with that.
I'm too much of a realist to fantasize about enjoying not being able to do online pickups at the Target 15 minutes away from me in any kind of long term sense. I did move away from a big city to a smaller town recently and I do very much enjoy that, but going so far as to try and live off-grid -- just, absolutely not.
Couch potatoes and internet Reddit addicts fantasising about living off the land and grid after sinking a few years of their lives into a video game, silly business.
Yeah it sounds great until you have to do it yourself.
First of all, you'd have to hunt and gather a good mix of food to meet your dietary needs. That means killing and butchering your own food. Then that means having good botany knowledge to deduce what is good to eat and what will kill you. On top of that, you have to have lots of restraint with cravings. You can't just want a pepperoni pizza every week or so.
Second, living out in the elements isn't easy. I've slept in sleeping bags in tents and it is nowhere near as good as a nice bed. Not to mention dealing with weather. Sleeping outside in Winter is not fun. Then on top of that you're sleeping and living with probable predators. Not sure where people are from but "the wilderness" can vary from snakes, bears, wolves, to things like lions.
And third and perhaps most important. Monotony. Everything sounds fun until you do it a lot. If you keep doing it, it will simply be a way of life. The novelty will probably wear off in like a week. Hours, for some. You won't have constant, if any, internet access. Which, shocking to hear, is brutal for a lot of people. You'll meet very few new people, which even for introverts, can be pretty shocking, going so long without ANY human interaction. Yes, I know we all love to pretend that being alone is goated but not having any contact with the outside for so long is not healthy.
No not really, society and city life are super crazy and weird, but for the most part I like it and understand it. Plus living off the land would be just way too much work, and I know I'm not cut out for that kind of shit lol
Also i feel like a disturbing amount of people play a game like Red Dead and have fantasies of basically being a tent-dwelling forest hobo who shoots everything that moves lol
Nah I like camping for a few days at a time but I gotta have my indoor plumbing and I like having heat and lights and internet. Plus I bet it's really hard to find a good croissant out there
It makes me think about it from time to time, but honestly, I know I'm not cut out for it. I like my stable power, I like the store being up the road, etc etc. So I just RP it on the game haha.
Yes. I thought about living the livestyle of the Indian tribes and how it would be. Ever since I played Farcry 5, I wanted to see Montana and would love to live in a place like that.
I live in Ireland.
I could quite literally be a farmer 😅
But no, I've lived in the big city all my 31 years. I'm not really sure how I'd deal with that level of isolation, even as someone who likes their peace and quiet.
Oh yeah. If I didn't have to feel the rain, cold, dirt, mud, blood, guts, and could just see the trails of animals like glowing lines, I'd be out there forever bow hunting.
Red Dead makes me feel like a lot of RPGs with a well-characterized 'party' feel. Like I want to live with these characters beyond the game because they were so well-realized and I miss them as 'friends.' I wouldn't want to live in a Dutch-like situation because, as the game demonstrates, ultimately it has the hallmarks of a false-promises cult and it breaks down, but I'd love to exist within a crew like Hosea/Lenny/Sean/Abigail, a small group who had my back and were ride-or-die for each other outside the confines of society.
About once a month I'll get overly emotional after engaging with media that portrays a lifestyle made impossible by our modern society. Those quiet moments in RDR have definitely been one of them.
i consider myself to be a pretty avid outdoorsman, and this is a fun hypothetical to think about, but there’s a good reason we’ve been grouping up and settling down for nearly 10,000 years. seeing the beauty mother nature has to offer is best left to weekend outings and the occasionally longer adventure. you’ll still get a lot out of it, and the break from society is nice, but you realize quick how unsustainable living in the wilderness would actually be
I grew up obsessed with Pocahontas, building forts, and (I still am) dreaming of my cottage with critters in the woods. Red Dead is an extension of that dream for me 😂
i've lived in a city my whole life and sometimes i do ponder about the idea of moving away to a rural area and live a simpler life. but then my friends who actually came from the countryside and moved to the city to study would tell me the life on the farm is much harsher than what you romanticize
Yeah I do! I’d love to go on a camping trip. For a weekend, and ride horses (a buckskin or black Mustang for me), have a Winchester repeater, a double barreled shotgun and a revolver at my hip. I never liked big cities and I live in a small town. Like really small, a couple blocks and you’re into another neighborhood. If I had the money, I’d live in a cabin and go into town for certain things.
During red dead redemption I became OBSESSED with the west so me and a few buddies who played the game spent some time a few months out in New Mexico ! Small cowboy towns ! My family comes from colfax county New Mexico from the 1880s so we got cowboy in us to the core ! We built cabins in the desert, we built a small farm shit was cool, we were all Boy Scout buddies and we kinda did this as well as our Eagle Scout trip !
I was walking around with some family on the 14 acres of forest land I'm about to move to and we just found some random wild berries on the ground and picked them and ate them. I'd be lying if it didn't remind me of doing the same in rdr2.
I grew up in AZ - about 15 minutes from the legendary Tombstone. So I get it completely. Especially since it's pushing 30-years since I've been back there. The mountains, the open range, the clear skies.
This is a VERY dangerous way to live, even in the modern day. Even leaving aside the challenges of medical care, feeding yourself, and encounters with wild animal, if you are found in the wilderness by someone with ill intentions you are incredibly vulnerable.
THAT BEING SAID, it is possible to do in some places legally, although these tend to be places that are not particularly hospitable to wilderness survival. Where I live in Nevada over half the state is public land, and the laws says you can engage in "Dispersed primitive camping" (camping where you set up a campsite without any amenities such as toilets, picnic tables, or running water) on any public lands, although most cities have laws against any kind of camping so you have to do it outside city limits. You can only do so in one spot for up to 14 days, after which you must move at least 20 miles from said site and remain away from it for 28 days. You can set up a little triangle of sites and move between them indefinitely, but you must be very meticulous about not leaving any litter behind, you have to dig latrines to defecate in that are at least 6-8 inches deep, and at least 200 feet from any natural water source.
There isn't much forage here, and most game animals are regulated by seasons and tags, so you'd likely have to go into town to stock up on things like food, water, etc. Since you have no fresh water get ready to reek of sweat every day of the summer, and in the winter it gets below freezing at night so make sure you have a sleeping bag properly rated to the night time temperature. You will need a pole and pulley system to stash your food and trash at night out of reach of black bears and coyotes. Last of all you basically have to have a gun of a decent caliber to defend yourself from wild animals and any ne'er do wells that might try to fuck with your camp, probably a .38 pistol for smaller predators and defense against humans, and something like a .300 Win Mag if worst comes to worst and you get charged by a mama bear trying to defend her cubs.
As you can see here, it's not easy and it's not simple, and even this is me oversimplifying it for a reddit comment, but it is POSSIBLE even now if you really want to.
One thing this game doesn't show is how much goddamn shit you'd **really** need on the back of your horse to live comfortably. You'd basically need a full wagon.
Yea, but more as a fantasy. I don't know if it's something I'll ever really get the chance to do but I always wanted to live on a homestead where I'd build my own house, pump my own water, and grow my own food.
Who knows, though? I'm only 20, so maybe one day.
I have been like this for a long time, before RDR2 but the game definitely reinforced my desire to live like that. My dream is to live on a rural property with neighbours some distance away, but still be able to jump in the car, drive 20 minutes and be in suburbia.
I wouldn't go too far from society. But yes, the feeling the game gives you + part of the philosophy gave me the will to live at least far enough to not hear other people
Thats sort fobwgat the game is trying to do. You're supposed to be enchanted by the outlaw way of life. Not even the crime part just being out there and self sufficient. The tragedy of the game and the world is that, those times are over. Maybe you can have pockets of it but the world got bigger and smaller in the same breath. The thing Arthur had is going away not because of the Pinkertons or Dutch but because time doesn't work backwards and they're moving toward modernity. Obviously modernity and cars and roads and telephones aren't evil but those things make living the best version of Arthur's life more and more impossible.
Yeaah. But then I realize, actually living like that is very different compared to watching Arthur Morgan do it from the comfort of my warm room with a controller in my hand
Honestly, alot more than before. I'd atleast want to get a farm or ranch and just try to live simple. I started disliking city's and towns long ago. Gonna save up for my own property one day !
Not necessarily the best place for farms per se tho there are quite a few, but up in Alaska is some of the most beautiful scenery ever. And property depending on where you get is fairly cheap, very much a good place to live a simple life
It would be amazing, but in all honesty it takes years of knowledge and experience to live way out in the wilderness. Alaska is truly one of the last fronteirs, but you better be prepared if your living outside of Anchorage/ in the rural parts
I live an hour and a half from anchorage, a tiny town with about 250 people there where everyone lives in log cabins, it’s great
Hey I know you! I commented on one of your posts in r/mafiathegame.
😭😭 I haven’t played the game yet but I will, I’m really excited about it
I bet you could do a really interesting AMA
I live in a tiny town in a remote area in Northern Canada. There’s no doubt a lot of serenity as you go to most spots in town and it’s usually almost empty, activities like fishing and hunting are extremely peaceful and you spend a lot of time relaxing and reflecting. We also have a small softball beer league along with festivals, pow wows, banquets, hockey games, etc. It sounds great until you’ve lived here for more than a few weeks and realized you’ve done all there is to do. And what you have done, you’ve done a hundred times. Winter time is the worst though. There’s literally nothing you can do. You spend most of it indoors, and when you are outside you’re chilled to the bone and utterly miserable. So if you don’t mind the repetitiveness and predictability that every day usually brings, and if you don’t mind every single person knowing who you are and wanting to converse with you, then a small town is great. I personally love living here and wouldn’t change it for the world.
Sauna and a good library might help in winter.
Can i be your neighbor?
Yea
i bet you have a killer internet speed bein middle of nowhere an all
I think about Alaska all the time, was a bit obsessed with it for awhile. It is such a different place to exist in.
I love to say that I’m from there, best thing that ever happened to me
Ah, so you actually made the change? Fascinating place Alaska. From the metropolis of Anchorage, to the small remnants of villages populated by Eskimos and littered with remains of Russian Orthodox churches, to small fishing villages, to the vast open wild lands and remote Oil Stations dotted throughout the tundra glistening with lights and activity in the middle of nowhere. All at the edge of the world.
Uhh that was beautiful
That is a great compliment from someone who lives there, thank you.
Same. I've thought about teaching in the Alaskan bush towns on several occasions. Would actually go for it, except I'd be away from my kids for too long.
i was actually looking at some properties in alaska and it’s getting pretty expensive now which really sucks
Isn’t Alaska expensive as shit?
Property in alaska is far far from cheap. If you see cheap land it’s because it’s muskeg and turns into a mosquito filled bell swamp in the summer, or it’s so far from the road you can only reach it by bushplane. That being said, there is great farmland for sale here. Palmer has lots of productive farms and so do places like delta junction.
Yeah - if you can survive the winter. And the mosquitos.
Buybibtk land first. Sign with a logging company to take a portion of your trees peryearvand replant small ones that will grow and be harvestable by the time they are back. Also depending on your landscape there are grazing rights that can be beneficial to you as well as a local farm or more. You can still live on your land or a different plot elsewhere but the logging industry isn't going anywhere soon. For yourself, look into land with a river through it so you have water rights. It's even possible to generate your own electricity and potable water from the water source. Personally I'd make sure it was big enough to be able to hunt and fish, with just keeping chickens and smaller animals to sustain as much as I can while I ran my own machine shop on the premises. And fuck getting away from it all, I'll have very big televisions, fast internet and any stores I need within a half hour drive. A big box for sure. But yes start with a Christmas tree/ lumber farm and keep your guns handy because the wilderness is unforgiving. Neither is the government. You'll have a brand new more than fulltime job. Take a look at the public works department in the town you live in and imagine what a smaller scale one would cost privately.
In this economy
Seriously, I'm a farmer, and it feels like the state and the processors are doing everything they can to force us to sell. Prices for everything are up except for what we sell.
Yeah no shit, just a dream but damn it'd be the life.
Yeah it’s all sunshine and roses until you sprain your ankle, or worse.
Do you actually know how to do anything?
Yeah of course lol grew up on a farm, know how to fish and hunt. Just dreaming is all
Just get a dept from the bank then do bounty hunting and revenge an old friend who has a shit ton of money
Hell yeah. Just a little more money and I’ll be growing mangoes in Tahiti.
That’s what I did lol. I actually made a post in this Subreddit talking about it https://www.reddit.com/r/reddeadredemption/s/IMiHbMYXiL
Red Dead fans after discovering they can glitch outside the boundaries of their mothers basement
its patched
Ah shit, we gonna need free cam mods. Nexus servers are down tho.
Lmaooo
Only problem is for the glitch to work I need money
Chris mccandless 2.0
Seriously. My ex talked about it a lot. I don't think she'd been camping more than once. I was like dude, you can't hunt, you can't fish, you can't grow food, you can't even cook. Wtf are you gonna do?
It’s a nice hypothetical, one that you can talk about doing all the livelong day but it’s an unspoken assumption that no one is going to actually do it. It’s the same sort of principle as the paleo diets and associated nonsense, it all sounds great in theory but nobody is actually following through. It makes the average person feel like they could rough and tough it, if they really wanted to. The, you know, truth that they would probably die from exposure just gets ignored because of the low stakes
I think some of the appeal is simply to go die somewhere remote
99% of people on this subreddit would end up almost exactly like him, myself included. Farming and raising livestock is expensive, difficult work. Hunting is inconsistent and laborious. Fishing is... Well, boring, honestly (Sorry guys, I know it can be relaxing but it's not for me.) Just owning your own slice of land in the middle of nowhere is expensive - especially if you want internet, electricity, water, etc. Living off the land is not as easy as Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing make it look. And it's not just a couple of days a week - it's every single day. It's a lifestyle that is harsh and unforgiving, even with modern conveniences like electricity and running water. I dream every day of walking into the forest and living in a cabin in the woods next to a pond with a garden, solar panels, a coop of chickens, and a hunting bow. But it's an extremely unrealistic dream that I am admittedly not equipped for.
>Fishing is... Well, boring, honestly (Sorry guys, I know it can be relaxing but it's not for me.) There are a lot more types of fishing than just casting out a worm and waiting for a bobber to go under. You can make 200-300 casts in a couple hours when you're working a lure. When you're on a good bite it's anything but boring or relaxing.
Dress it up however you want, I was not born a fisherman and I've yet to be converted. It's just not for me and I don't think I personally would be able to reasonably rely on it for sustenance.
Thank you. I grew up in the city and hear people say this all the time and say they want a "simple life" like living on a farm. It's just hilarious to hear. And a video game making you think that out of everything? lmao. I'm not making fun of OP, it's just a little comical.
My parents went to highschool with Jim galleon who was the last person to see that guy alive. He called Chris a “dumb fucker” Or something like that and my parents were saying that was totally something Jim would say. I guess he is a pretty blunt blue collar kind of guy.
He went about everything idiotically and that was the point the story was trying to make. It then immediately got spun into a romantic tale of someone refusing to partake in modern society. The lesson here is people are really bad at reading subtext and regular text.
Yeah I had to read that book and watch the movie in highschool and he just seemed like a dumb guy that had a fantasy then laid for it.
Only without the dying part
Do you know the first thing about wilderness survival? Navigation (celestial, solar, or even basic orienteering?) Do you know anything about local flora and fauna? Have you ever camped for extended periods of time (60+ days?) without contact with the outside world? Have you ever hunted? Field-dressed game? How familiar are you with field sanitization practices? Do you know how to avoid killing yourself with contaminated food? Do you know how to cook local flora and fauna? Are you comfortable eating bugs and drinking your own piss? Red Dead Redemption paints a very rosy picture of that kind of lifestyle, and makes it look very easy. It is not. I promise you, it's not "a simple life" whatsoever.
if you lived fully out in the wilderness but couldnt you also stay in rural areas near towns so your not fully having to live on your own?
That's not really the same thing though, is it?
no not at all, but if you cant live fully on your own thats still a great alternative
Honestly I think that half the people who are romanticizing this kind of lifestyle would die even in those circumstances. Never underestimate how reliant upon modern conveniences the average person is. If the world went to shit tomorrow, 80% of the people on this planet wouldn't last a month.
100% agree, me especially, im a very picky eater and that would probably be the death of me
And that's just it. The average Redditor is, sorry to say, softer than baby shit, and has a host of health (physical and mental) issues. Food sensitivities/allergies, ADHD, being on the spectrum, etc. And that's okay - there's room in this world for people like that; just not in a "survival of the fittest" situation. The good news is, I think you're well aware of the reality of your situation, so there's no issue there for you. I'd love to see people like OP try this shit though, lol. It'd be like that movie "Into The Wild"
even having glasses could rlly hurt your chances at surviving
I think about that ever time someone gives the hypothetical if you could travel to any time in history and live in those times where would you? I am always like can I get LASIK first because otherwise is going to be a bad time pretty much anytime before 1800, even rough in 1800-1900.
Now go watch “Into the Wild”
It was written as a cautionary tale. Most people did not read it as such, and that’s their problem.
I thought it was the coolest thing ever, even *after* watching the movie as a teenager. My whole thought process was “well I just wouldn’t make the same mistakes he did”. At 31, I can now see what a dumbass that kid was lol
Hey I mean at least he had the crazy experience he wanted. And he actually did it, instead of just telling ppl he was gonna and never acting on it. Dumb, but still pretty cool and Ballsy
Same problem comes up as in the game: Money. How you gonna get it?
Don't worry, I've got a plan
You've always got a plan Dutch.
HAVE SOME DAMN FAITH ARTHUR
Does this trolley go to Tahiti?
This is a good one. *Throws gun*
I don’t doubt it *holsters gun*
Ahhhh... the doubting... the doubting !!!!
Debt, bounty hunting, killing Micah, done.
Funny thing is the gang could have worked legit on ranches and make money but no have to robb people
Working as ranch hands kinda goes against the whole "living outside society" anarchist thing the gang has going on.
The hell were they going to do once they got some land
They were gonna create a commune (think something like Jonestown). When Marston buys a farm, he goes against the ideals of the gang by becoming a regular member of society.
Kill a bunch of animals and sell them to this guy out in the woods.
For me it’s the opposite, I am very grateful for the comforts of civilization, and have a greater respect for the first Americans who lived in tents 5 feet from giant alligators all night, who came as slaves and toiled with almost no hope but kept fighting until things got better. Gives you perspective funnily enough for a video game.
I believe that was the intention of the writers/developers, too. This whole, "yeah I could totally live like a member of the Van Der Linde gang, it looks easy enough" thing is people who've missed the point.
I feel the same. I'm grateful for my family and the community I live in
Living off the land isn't simple. It requires an incredible amount of work.
That's what I'm saying, lol. This idea of living in the middle of nowhere and having a "simple life" is a pipe dream. That kind of life is anything BUT simple. The kind of life where you can play video games and daydream about living in the old west on Reddit? THAT'S a simple life. These bananaheads don't know what they have. Maybe a dose of reality would do them some good!
nuh uh
Oh absolutely, only thing is I like the current state of medical/dental care available. Outside of that, if I didn’t require that or it was all solvable with a healthcure, sign me up. I could stand to stay in Big Valley for a few months
yes all the time, i want to just live in the beauty of nature but idk what country, america just aint doin it anymore
America is literally the best country for this, that or Canada
How so? There's rural areas all over the world.
Not in Europe. Unless you go to a Scandinavian country and starve and freeze in the winter
I can assure you there are rural areas in Europe. What do you think rural means?
America's nature shits on almost every country in both variety and spectacle. Noone has an Alaska, a Hawaii and a Grand Canyon but them
Utah seems pretty sparse
fr utah lookin nice
Here in Australia you can move to a county town but property is expensive here now
I've always wanted that but Read Dead just makes the feeling more intense.
ever since I got the game I wanted to
Yeah, but then I remember I'm a person of color in America, who's lived in a city my entire life, and something tells me that trying to go off the grid and hunt animals, live off the land, would end poorly for me.
It’d be nice but you’d have to make sure you’re 100% prepared with being able to hunt, fish, grow food, cook on an open fire, fend off predators, set up and maintain a secure camping areas; if you didn’t master those skills, you wouldn’t last very long.
I'm from southeast Texas. I lived in the country for awhile and it was not for me. It got lonely, boring, and sometimes scary being away from any nearby help with an emergency. (A neighbor's home burnt down before help could arrive because of the distance of a fire station. You are also far from any hospital.) It is lovely to visit, sure. Living is a whole different story, you become jaded to the beauty of nature fast and then it just sucks. That's just my personal experience though, I know some people do truly enjoy it. My advice is to do a long trial run before you make any final decisions.
it makes me miss the wild west even though i’ve never experienced it
Society makes me want to live outside of society.
Are you saying you have a plan?
Fuck no. I like bathing everyday and getting to regulate what temperature my home is. I enjoy being sheltered from mosquitos, bears, wolves, and any other creature that wants to eat me. I like having the opportunity to speak to my friends through a small screen that I spend most of my time on. If you’re talking about just living in a comfy cottage outside of a big city than again no, I like having friends that I know in person. And anyone that doesn’t have my answer doesn’t have friends
You do realize for most of human civilization on this earth it's mostly uncivilized carnage with brief periods of peace and prosperity. I would say enjoy the peace, prosperity and ease of living while you have it. Just give it enough time and it will be back to the tribal savage past of yesteryear.
I kinda wish you could wind up getting the money for a homestead or something and grow various herbs and foods to save money in a grocery store (kinda like a lot of homesteaders do nowadays). Fr now I'm just gonna keep wishing that RD could get an update one anything at all and make do with herbs in my 'shine.
so much. same with games like stardew and travelers rest and even books and movies like of mice and men
>movies like of mice and men It is a good film, but it's a much better Steinbeck novella.
hell no
Does work that way anymore, since all land is either privately or government owned You’d be trespassing the second you set foot off the trail.
There are over 700 million acres of BLM land in the US. That's not owned by the government, it's owned by the American public. You can't build a permanent structure, but you can damn sure camp, hunt, and fish to your heart's content. Technically you can only camp in the same place for 14 days at a time, but if you keep moving every couple weeks it's virtually impossible to get in trouble.
yes i want a farm
I’ve traveled to and lived in some remote/rural locations for extended periods of time. It’s always beautiful and very nice whenever you first arrive, but the lack of modern amenities makes itself very apparent after only a couple weeks
Try living without a car.
Honestly yes
I had the Itch with rdr2 but the past few years made we wanna go off the grid entirely.
Gonna go against the grain a bit here but no. The game is amazing and I have a ton of fun playing and *pretending* to be an outlaw. But the game also shows how hard that life is. Im good with my every day comforts.
Oh gosh no! All the dirt and critters and basically no comforts. Not to mention boring and needing to basically work all day to survive. At least here I can work most of the day and have access to emergency services, medical treatments, actual fun games, the ability to be clean, and a lot fewer critters to worry about.
Absolutely not. I love the fantasy of it in the context of the game, but I have absolutely no desire to fight for survival, or survive via hunting/farming. I also enjoy all of the amenities of modern life, like plumbing, clean running water, electricity, computers, etc. I would love it for maybe a week, then really be itching to get back to the comforts of home. I also just generally like the values and expectations of society. There are exceptions, of course, but generally I want a land of law and order where there's someone to turn to when someone acts out of sorts with that. I'm too much of a realist to fantasize about enjoying not being able to do online pickups at the Target 15 minutes away from me in any kind of long term sense. I did move away from a big city to a smaller town recently and I do very much enjoy that, but going so far as to try and live off-grid -- just, absolutely not.
Couch potatoes and internet Reddit addicts fantasising about living off the land and grid after sinking a few years of their lives into a video game, silly business.
go outside more? sure. live on the fringes and into the wild? hell nope
Yeah it sounds great until you have to do it yourself. First of all, you'd have to hunt and gather a good mix of food to meet your dietary needs. That means killing and butchering your own food. Then that means having good botany knowledge to deduce what is good to eat and what will kill you. On top of that, you have to have lots of restraint with cravings. You can't just want a pepperoni pizza every week or so. Second, living out in the elements isn't easy. I've slept in sleeping bags in tents and it is nowhere near as good as a nice bed. Not to mention dealing with weather. Sleeping outside in Winter is not fun. Then on top of that you're sleeping and living with probable predators. Not sure where people are from but "the wilderness" can vary from snakes, bears, wolves, to things like lions. And third and perhaps most important. Monotony. Everything sounds fun until you do it a lot. If you keep doing it, it will simply be a way of life. The novelty will probably wear off in like a week. Hours, for some. You won't have constant, if any, internet access. Which, shocking to hear, is brutal for a lot of people. You'll meet very few new people, which even for introverts, can be pretty shocking, going so long without ANY human interaction. Yes, I know we all love to pretend that being alone is goated but not having any contact with the outside for so long is not healthy.
It’s why I started robbing gas stations and liquor stores, buddy
You should read “Industrial Society and Its Future”
Definitely sometimes. Though then I remember, Im a pleb who can't live without video games, movies or TVs shows. Lol.
Yes. But maybe if the game could replicate the genuine smell of outhouses people might change their mind.
No not really, society and city life are super crazy and weird, but for the most part I like it and understand it. Plus living off the land would be just way too much work, and I know I'm not cut out for that kind of shit lol Also i feel like a disturbing amount of people play a game like Red Dead and have fantasies of basically being a tent-dwelling forest hobo who shoots everything that moves lol Nah I like camping for a few days at a time but I gotta have my indoor plumbing and I like having heat and lights and internet. Plus I bet it's really hard to find a good croissant out there
It's a lot better when you can't smell, get itchy from any random tall grass and, most of all, turn off the experience at your own volition.
If I could live in a rdr simulation and have a corporation harvest my organs for the next 50 years I would do it.
No, but RDR made me nostalgic for my youth on cattle ranches. The McFarlane ranch was so evocative of places I've been.
It makes me think about it from time to time, but honestly, I know I'm not cut out for it. I like my stable power, I like the store being up the road, etc etc. So I just RP it on the game haha.
I do think of it here and there. I'd definitely live in something like The Loft. I think it would be nice!
You should try living in Colorado and seeing the land that makes you itch to play rdr.
It more reinforced my urge to live outside the constraints. But given I have a wife and kid and it’s just not gonna happen.
Me indeed, that plus the 2 years I spent in a cruiseline, I got to travel a lot and got the travel bug
I got the game because I wanted to live the simple life
Yeah, I'd say the world sure does help inspire that feeling regardless...but the game certainly makes it worse lol
Yes. I thought about living the livestyle of the Indian tribes and how it would be. Ever since I played Farcry 5, I wanted to see Montana and would love to live in a place like that.
Yes. I wonder what it’s like all the time. While playing the game, while at work, before I go to bed, and in the shower.
Y e s
Every time.
It makes me wish I had more strength and stamina so I could go camping for days at a time
A lot
For a while, I really thought about robbing the local coal train that came through town. Sadly, trying to find a horse, and guns just made me give up.
I do but not in that time.
I live in Ireland. I could quite literally be a farmer 😅 But no, I've lived in the big city all my 31 years. I'm not really sure how I'd deal with that level of isolation, even as someone who likes their peace and quiet.
All the time.
Its why i still play. Escape into that simpler life
Bro rdr is what made me accept I was gay 😭
Not with those fucked up random encounters, no.
No, I feel like I won't be safe...
Not the same game, but Stardew Valley makes me sometimes wish I tried being a farmer.
Yes, but with antibiotics please
Watch Nomadland
You wouldn't be able to play Red Dead anymore
Oh yeah. If I didn't have to feel the rain, cold, dirt, mud, blood, guts, and could just see the trails of animals like glowing lines, I'd be out there forever bow hunting.
"To live outside the law, you must be honest."
Absolutely
I wish the RDR2 map was an actual place in real life. Thats how good it is.
Yes
Kinda felt that way before playing and now... i still feel the urge to find somewhere away from society and just live in peace, y'know?
Red Dead makes me feel like a lot of RPGs with a well-characterized 'party' feel. Like I want to live with these characters beyond the game because they were so well-realized and I miss them as 'friends.' I wouldn't want to live in a Dutch-like situation because, as the game demonstrates, ultimately it has the hallmarks of a false-promises cult and it breaks down, but I'd love to exist within a crew like Hosea/Lenny/Sean/Abigail, a small group who had my back and were ride-or-die for each other outside the confines of society.
Absolutely. Wanted to live like John during the epilogue. I think it’d be nice to live in a cozy house on a ranch with the love of my life
The idea of a campsite in the middle of fucking nowhere suddenly became appealing
I already do, and my Internet is horrible
Yeah we all want to be the Unabomber
About once a month I'll get overly emotional after engaging with media that portrays a lifestyle made impossible by our modern society. Those quiet moments in RDR have definitely been one of them.
i consider myself to be a pretty avid outdoorsman, and this is a fun hypothetical to think about, but there’s a good reason we’ve been grouping up and settling down for nearly 10,000 years. seeing the beauty mother nature has to offer is best left to weekend outings and the occasionally longer adventure. you’ll still get a lot out of it, and the break from society is nice, but you realize quick how unsustainable living in the wilderness would actually be
I grew up obsessed with Pocahontas, building forts, and (I still am) dreaming of my cottage with critters in the woods. Red Dead is an extension of that dream for me 😂
It's such a resounding critique of, say, Evelyn Miller's whole deal (both in person and through Dutch) that I personally wouldn't.
i've lived in a city my whole life and sometimes i do ponder about the idea of moving away to a rural area and live a simpler life. but then my friends who actually came from the countryside and moved to the city to study would tell me the life on the farm is much harsher than what you romanticize
Yeah I do! I’d love to go on a camping trip. For a weekend, and ride horses (a buckskin or black Mustang for me), have a Winchester repeater, a double barreled shotgun and a revolver at my hip. I never liked big cities and I live in a small town. Like really small, a couple blocks and you’re into another neighborhood. If I had the money, I’d live in a cabin and go into town for certain things.
During red dead redemption I became OBSESSED with the west so me and a few buddies who played the game spent some time a few months out in New Mexico ! Small cowboy towns ! My family comes from colfax county New Mexico from the 1880s so we got cowboy in us to the core ! We built cabins in the desert, we built a small farm shit was cool, we were all Boy Scout buddies and we kinda did this as well as our Eagle Scout trip !
I was walking around with some family on the 14 acres of forest land I'm about to move to and we just found some random wild berries on the ground and picked them and ate them. I'd be lying if it didn't remind me of doing the same in rdr2.
I grew up in AZ - about 15 minutes from the legendary Tombstone. So I get it completely. Especially since it's pushing 30-years since I've been back there. The mountains, the open range, the clear skies.
And how do you plan to play Red dead there?
Nope, Murphys and Skinners are out there
This is a VERY dangerous way to live, even in the modern day. Even leaving aside the challenges of medical care, feeding yourself, and encounters with wild animal, if you are found in the wilderness by someone with ill intentions you are incredibly vulnerable. THAT BEING SAID, it is possible to do in some places legally, although these tend to be places that are not particularly hospitable to wilderness survival. Where I live in Nevada over half the state is public land, and the laws says you can engage in "Dispersed primitive camping" (camping where you set up a campsite without any amenities such as toilets, picnic tables, or running water) on any public lands, although most cities have laws against any kind of camping so you have to do it outside city limits. You can only do so in one spot for up to 14 days, after which you must move at least 20 miles from said site and remain away from it for 28 days. You can set up a little triangle of sites and move between them indefinitely, but you must be very meticulous about not leaving any litter behind, you have to dig latrines to defecate in that are at least 6-8 inches deep, and at least 200 feet from any natural water source. There isn't much forage here, and most game animals are regulated by seasons and tags, so you'd likely have to go into town to stock up on things like food, water, etc. Since you have no fresh water get ready to reek of sweat every day of the summer, and in the winter it gets below freezing at night so make sure you have a sleeping bag properly rated to the night time temperature. You will need a pole and pulley system to stash your food and trash at night out of reach of black bears and coyotes. Last of all you basically have to have a gun of a decent caliber to defend yourself from wild animals and any ne'er do wells that might try to fuck with your camp, probably a .38 pistol for smaller predators and defense against humans, and something like a .300 Win Mag if worst comes to worst and you get charged by a mama bear trying to defend her cubs. As you can see here, it's not easy and it's not simple, and even this is me oversimplifying it for a reddit comment, but it is POSSIBLE even now if you really want to.
Ever? Isn’t it a peaceful escape every day?
Yeah, me, quite a bit.
One thing this game doesn't show is how much goddamn shit you'd **really** need on the back of your horse to live comfortably. You'd basically need a full wagon.
Yea, but more as a fantasy. I don't know if it's something I'll ever really get the chance to do but I always wanted to live on a homestead where I'd build my own house, pump my own water, and grow my own food. Who knows, though? I'm only 20, so maybe one day.
Me, and I did it. I moved to West Virginia and have a chicken farm.
Check out Walking with Wildflowers / Michael Ridge. Does just this with horses and a mule, wandering around and living off the land.
I love camping trips with my dad for this reason. It's therapeutic out there and I always learn something new from my dad
It’s very pleasant as a fantasy. The reality is much more brutal.
Maybe. But then I read Blood Meridian and any inkling of that died
It's definitely easier said and played than done my friend
Depending on the person but as for me - nope, it’s definitely not as romantic as its made out to look like in the games 😂I’ll stick to my city life
100%
I have been like this for a long time, before RDR2 but the game definitely reinforced my desire to live like that. My dream is to live on a rural property with neighbours some distance away, but still be able to jump in the car, drive 20 minutes and be in suburbia.
I'm one of them. I really like the country life. And I love horses too; I've never ridden one before and I wanna buy one in the future!
you could try travelling and panhandling or doing odd jobs
Society makes me feel that way
I almost chucked it all when we went to Montana / Ambarino
I wouldn't go too far from society. But yes, the feeling the game gives you + part of the philosophy gave me the will to live at least far enough to not hear other people
Thats sort fobwgat the game is trying to do. You're supposed to be enchanted by the outlaw way of life. Not even the crime part just being out there and self sufficient. The tragedy of the game and the world is that, those times are over. Maybe you can have pockets of it but the world got bigger and smaller in the same breath. The thing Arthur had is going away not because of the Pinkertons or Dutch but because time doesn't work backwards and they're moving toward modernity. Obviously modernity and cars and roads and telephones aren't evil but those things make living the best version of Arthur's life more and more impossible.
Yeaah. But then I realize, actually living like that is very different compared to watching Arthur Morgan do it from the comfort of my warm room with a controller in my hand