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Maladism probably makes more sense as an artificial yet comfortably impermanent source of struggle in a world where most of that's been removed, rather than the supposed counter-cultural Man-snubbing Niester is calling it. It's still incredibly goofy but it strikes me as something that would only occur to someone who was thoroughly bored of their existence. Quoting for new page: Bacter posted:It strikes me that the concept of internationalization is something I should probably talk about at some point, especially because the game does seem to be presenting us with both its advantages and disadvantages pretty strongly. I might want to do a short recording about it or some such, but as a little seed of an idea, I'd suggest that we think about how Carlie and Mandala would both epitomize a certain kind of "worldwide citizen". Ha! So vague.
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Jul 8, 2016 08:23
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Given the future-science nature of things, if Baxter's head isn't around couldn't someone have engineered a solution for carrying it along hooked up to some crazy life support? Hell, Futurama had been around for a decade and a half before Technobabylon was released. Niester reminds me of a weirder variant on the Yippies, honestly. They certainly had a reputation for not trusting anyone they deemed too "old", after all. Which makes it all the funnier that as they aged the movement dried up in various ways, such as Jerry Rubin becoming a stockbroker in 1980. Your mention of some potential sort of disease mage in D&D is an actual thing, and something of a hilarious exploit in 3rd Edition to boot. See, there's a prestige class (read: variant character option) called the Cancer Mage which very early on gets the ability to simply ignore the negative effects of diseases other than cosmetic details. And in addition to that, there are several diseases in 3E's history with rather bizarre and not entirely ill effects. In particular there exist Festering Hate, Vile Rigidity, and Warp Touch. Festering Hat's effect is straightforward, dealing 1d3 Constitution damage (which would normally be really bad) and granting a +2 cumulative bonus to Strength per day. Similarly, Vile Rigidity grants a +1 cumulative bonus to natural armor per day but also incurs a -2 cumulative penalty to Dexterity per day. (I'm guessing you can see the ease of abuse here.) Finally, Warp Touch is weird; once you get it, you roll once on a table for a random effect and then you're done. Many of the results are bad, but you're a Cancer Mage and therefore don't give a poo poo about such inconsequential disease effects as growing a brain tumor or dying by having your body turn to liquid. And despite all this nonsense, Cancer Mage is still not terribly crazy compared to some of the nonsense that an ambitious spellcaster can pull. Massive bonuses to attack and defense are nifty, but not if your opponent can bypass your ability to use them in the first place.
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Jul 8, 2016 08:34
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There is nerve damage with Leprosy but you also get lesions and some times growths on your body. quote:Early signs include spots on the skin that may be slightly red, darker or lighter than normal skin. The spots may also become numb and have lost hair. Often they appear on the arms, legs or back. Sometimes the only sign may be numbness in a finger or toe. If left untreated, hands can become numb and small muscles are paralyzed, leading to curling of the fingers and thumb. When leprosy attacks nerves in the legs, it interrupts communication of sensation in the feet. The feet can then be damaged by untended wounds and infection. If the facial nerve is affected, a person loses the blinking reflex of the eye, which can eventually lead to dryness, ulceration and blindness. Bacteria entering the mucous lining of the nose can lead to internal damage and scarring which in time causes the nose to collapse. Untreated, leprosy can cause deformity, crippling and blindness. You are right about limbs falling off being a secondary thing due to the nerve damage though.
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Jul 8, 2016 11:23
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Funny thing about how he insists on calling it "Hansen's disease": G. A. Hansen was a physician who discovered the Mycobacterium leprae, the causative agent of leprosy. Apparently, some people prefer to name it after him because there is a stigma attached to the traditional name "leprosy". Considering that these maladists apparently do their thing to be counter-cultural or what have you, it seems unlikely that they would use any euphemisms for any of the conditions they inflict on themselves.
Kopijeger fucked around with this message at 11:57 on Jul 8, 2016 |
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Jul 8, 2016 11:49
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Kopijeger posted:Funny thing about how he insists on calling it "Hansen's disease": G. A. Hansen was a physician who discovered the Mycobacterium leprae, the causastive agent of leprosy. Apparently, some people prefer to name it after him because there is a stigma attached to the traditional name "leprosy". Considering that these maladists apparently do their thing to be counter-cultural or what have you, it seems unlikely that they would use any euphemisms for any of the conditions they inflict on themselves. It is just much cooler to refer to it by the lesser known name you know?
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Jul 8, 2016 11:53
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NGDBSS posted:Given the future-science nature of things, if Baxter's head isn't around couldn't someone have engineered a solution for carrying it along hooked up to some crazy life support? Hell, Futurama had been around for a decade and a half before Technobabylon was released. Yippies? Is that like hippies? I need to investigate. And I actually DID have the cancer mage in mind when I was talking about that. Back when I first met Mzbundifund, in our days at the University of College, I'd read through his D&D tomes, sort of freeform making fun of them while he played System Shock 1 or something, and no book was as fun to mock as the book of Vile Darkness!
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Jul 8, 2016 15:51
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Bacter posted:Yippies? Is that like hippies? I need to investigate.
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Jul 8, 2016 18:50
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There are people out there who intentionally try to have children with the same birth defects as them, that is way dumber (and potentially incredibly immoral depending on your perspective) then having temporary diseases for kicks - not to mention some of the completely insane poo poo people have done in the name of body modding such as bifurcating just about everything, or cosmetic amputations. In comparison to that, Maladism seems positively sane.
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Jul 9, 2016 00:36
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RabidWeasel posted:There are people out there who intentionally try to have children with the same birth defects as them, that is way dumber (and potentially incredibly immoral depending on your perspective) then having temporary diseases for kicks - not to mention some of the completely insane poo poo people have done in the name of body modding such as bifurcating just about everything, or cosmetic amputations. In comparison to that, Maladism seems positively sane. Don't forget the people who claim to have Body Integrity Identity Disorder aka the opposite universe version of phantom limbs. That's not exactly the same thing since they didn't exactly choose to have the feeling that their arm/leg wasn't supposed to be fully formed or functional but it also goes to show that humans are amazingly weird.
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Jul 9, 2016 02:46
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And now you see why you don't want adventure game protagonists working as detectives. "I found some great evidence about the theft of your necklace and papers but I rearranged your living room, broke three windows, flooded your garden and implicated your spouse in an arson case. Also I poisoned your dog. Well... Bye!"
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Jul 9, 2016 08:51
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Yeah, I don't know who I'm kidding. When I lived in Chicago, there was a neighborhood near where my friends had an apartment with a lot of people into "neo-tribalism" and extreme body mods. I mean, at least Niester can get a haircut, wait a week for all the nanobots to flush out of him, and pass for normal. I also want to point out that finding a fungus that could both grow on a meteorite AND on earth would be the greatest biological scientific event of the... ever, basically. I mean it might not be the most IMPORTANT, but it would be one of the most exciting. That's a WAY WAY bigger deal than this game is making out to be, which is like "huh"!
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Jul 9, 2016 09:20
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That is actually a good point: with the advanced technology they have, in-universe body modders might be able to do even more extreme changes than what is currently possible and then reverse them completely. The meteorite fungus is probably just the game author imagining something that sounds science-fictiony without thinking through what consequences such a discovery would have in real life. For example, the existence of those genetically engineered suicide bombers should make authorities extremely wary of physically disabled Americans of a certain age range and monitor them closely before letting them into the city, but the one we encountered somehow got onto a metro train without being discovered. There might be a term for this, something like "new technology enables you to do cool stuff, but does not transform society in the way you'd expect". There is another location built around this coming up later in the game, but let's avoid spoilers for now. Kopijeger fucked around with this message at 10:59 on Jul 9, 2016 |
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Jul 9, 2016 10:56
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"Maladism" is the stupidest thing I've heard of lately but the sad part is as has been pointed out it's not unbelievable that idiots would actually do this a hundred years in the future. Still someone giving themselves HIV for fun is pretty offensive. I'd like to hope the technology fails sometimes and the person doing it gets stuck with the disease forever.
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Jul 10, 2016 02:59
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DropsySufferer posted:"Maladism" is the stupidest thing I've heard of lately but the sad part is as has been pointed out it's not unbelievable that idiots would actually do this a hundred years in the future. Still someone giving themselves HIV for fun is pretty offensive. I'd like to hope the technology fails sometimes and the person doing it gets stuck with the disease forever. They don't actually catch the disease, they get the symptoms of it from the wetware, aka it's not even genuinely life-threatening in the event that the wetware doesn't flush itself out after a week. Plus there are people running around who can reverse someone's gender completely, why would HIV be less treatable and a 'forever' disease?
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Jul 10, 2016 04:52
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Bit of an error in his psychology in this one. The wetware is supposed to settle in Broca's and Wernicke's areas, which are probably the two most well known forms of aphasia, but are very different and in different parts of the brain. If he had simulated both Wernicke's and Broca's aphasia, he probably wouldn't be able to communicate at all. If he had simulated Broca's aphasia only, he would be coherent but speaking slowly in broken grammar like this He appears to have given himself the wrong one, as he clearly has Wernicke's aphasia which is largely the opposite, non coherent with perfect structure like this guy Also I guess this means that physical brain injuries are easy fixed in the future as those conditions are no longer around?
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Jul 10, 2016 07:39
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Ignatius M. Meen posted:They don't actually catch the disease, they get the symptoms of it from the wetware, aka it's not even genuinely life-threatening in the event that the wetware doesn't flush itself out after a week. Plus there are people running around who can reverse someone's gender completely, why would HIV be less treatable and a 'forever' disease? I'm saying anyone who does that is a loving idiot and should be stuck with it.
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Jul 11, 2016 01:32
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Kopijeger posted:That is actually a good point: with the advanced technology they have, in-universe body modders might be able to do even more extreme changes than what is currently possible and then reverse them completely. The meteorite fungus is probably just the game author imagining something that sounds science-fictiony without thinking through what consequences such a discovery would have in real life. For example, the existence of those genetically engineered suicide bombers should make authorities extremely wary of physically disabled Americans of a certain age range and monitor them closely before letting them into the city, but the one we encountered somehow got onto a metro train without being discovered. It reminds me of a book I remember really enjoying, gosh, probably 10 years ago at this point. So fair warning, if it's kind of superior and preachy, well, I was a young man at that point, and guilty as charged on both counts. Still: Technopoly!. It's the first time I heard the analogy to technology and society being like an ecosystem. Add a new animal to the woods, and you don't have the same ecosystem plus a new animal, you have an entirely different ecosystem. So: the next chapter  My heart bleeds for this chapter, it really does. The first chapter, when we were after the mindjacker, does a fine job of making things feel rushed and frantic, while still being an adventure game. The problem, at least in my mind, is that in that chapter we were the pursuer. As fast as we could solve the puzzles, we were chasing the guy. And if it took us a little longer than you'd suppose a frantic chase would take, well, he was trapped on the roof! Where was he going? This chapter is a little tougher. Without wanting to spoil too much, this time we are the hunted, and, man, it really makes it seem like the pursuers are PRETTY bad at their job. Of course, that's big talk for a guy who doesn't make it through this chapter without a death or two (you'll see when you get there, but precision movement in a point and click adventure game is NOT welcome, devs. Boo.), but apparently these guys aren't big on protection. Or communication. Or peripheral vision. Oh well, it's funny! Edit: You know, something just occurred to me. Regis is trying to be cryptic with the "meet me where we were both first involved with a case", but, like, wouldn't that be PRETTY EASY to reference from the database? SELECT CrimeSceneAddress FROM Cases WHERE AgentAssigned EQUALS Regis AND Lao SORT BY Date Like, you'd need to do something that couldn't be looked up in the official records if you wanted it to be secret, right? Correct? Edit Edit: When they say you only get "the symptoms of HIV", do they really mean you get the symptoms of all the associated maladies you get from having no adaptive immune system? Like, presumably the wetware doesn't ACTUALLY destroy your immune system, and I don't THINK there are any symptoms from having no immune system. As in, if you were in a sanitary bubble but had HIV, or even full-blown AIDS, you wouldn't suffer any ill-effects? I think? So the "HIV" wetware would simulate, like, kaposi's sarcoma and all the cancers you get from having HIV? Bacter fucked around with this message at 19:21 on Jul 17, 2016 |
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Jul 17, 2016 18:57
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- That is some impressive technomagic with nanobots building a functional internal radio that works perfectly through the thick concrete of the building, and in practically no time at all. - James Dearden is British (or at least based in London), so should have tried 999 or 112 instead of 911. - The weather report gives temperatures in both Celsius and Fahrenheit, the latter seeming unlikely in a world where the USA has broken up, and presumably their culture is a lot less influential than it used to be. - This factory has been abandoned for 11 years yet the machinery has both been left in place and still functions? - "Jahiliyyah" is apparently Arabic for ignorance, specifically ignorance of divine guidance. Kopijeger fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Jul 17, 2016 |
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Jul 17, 2016 20:13
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Very interesting - I wonder if there isn't meant to be a double wordplay on ignorance, then. Kind of a "no gods no masters" taste, a purposeful "ignorance" of Central's guidance?
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Jul 17, 2016 20:28
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Bacter posted:My heart bleeds for this chapter, it really does. The first chapter, when we were after the mindjacker, does a fine job of making things feel rushed and frantic, while still being an adventure game. The problem, at least in my mind, is that in that chapter we were the pursuer. As fast as we could solve the puzzles, we were chasing the guy. And if it took us a little longer than you'd suppose a frantic chase would take, well, he was trapped on the roof! Where was he going? This is something a lot of adventure games fall down on when they reach a point of suspense and where the approach of treating an adventure game like an interactive book becomes most painful - either the gameplay is preserved at the expense of the narrative and the player can keep working at their own pace only to later wonder why the bad guys never did anything while they farted around looking at everything in a shop, or the narrative is preserved at the expense of the gameplay and fail states are introduced to varying degrees of success... and then there's the third option where both are compromised, but that's not a problem with good adventure games generally. It's not impossible per se but it is pretty difficult to make it work nicely unless it's in the forefront of the game designer's mind and point-and-click conventions don't make it any easier to balance the two concerns out. Not to mention that there's a solid argument to be had in that little things like this aren't worth hashing out beyond the minimum if it means taking time away from making a game work and most importantly be fun in the moment the player is playing it. There's serious book material in this type of discussion though because the impulse to take stories and games and mash 'em together is really strong despite their hefty differences that need a lot of care to work around even if the goal is just to make the game fun enough to make a buck and not to perfectly compliment each other. quote:Edit: You know, something just occurred to me. Regis is trying to be cryptic with the "meet me where we were both first involved with a case", but, like, wouldn't that be PRETTY EASY to reference from the database? Well sure but first the person who'd be looking it up in the official records would have to have decoded the whole message. Not to mention that it's possible either Lao or Regis weren't actually a part of the police at that time - he says "involved with a case" not "assigned to a case", which makes me think that they might have first met each other at that time but not necessarily been partners. In fact I'd hazard a guess that this is where his wife was killed or where they tracked Baxter down and he was involved by dint of being related to the victim more than actually being an official detective working on the case. quote:Edit Edit: When they say you only get "the symptoms of HIV", do they really mean you get the symptoms of all the associated maladies you get from having no adaptive immune system? Like, presumably the wetware doesn't ACTUALLY destroy your immune system, and I don't THINK there are any symptoms from having no immune system. As in, if you were in a sanitary bubble but had HIV, or even full-blown AIDS, you wouldn't suffer any ill-effects? I think? So the "HIV" wetware would simulate, like, kaposi's sarcoma and all the cancers you get from having HIV? Yeah that's probably something that sounded good at the time it was written and then never revisited when someone might have realized that it didn't make much sense in a world virtually free of disease. I don't know if Lao would know enough about HIV to ask this question though which brings in another writing wrinkle - what do you do with a fictional world where some/all of your characters know less than your readers do about a topic that comes up for discussion? Hell, even the Maladist we met might not actually know as much as he thinks he does about the diseases he's supposedly getting, there's no shortage of people today who know a lot about one very specific subject and think that makes them qualified to talk about anything in the field (if not everything else).
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Jul 17, 2016 23:52
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If you're going to be flippant about HIV, the very least you can do is call it "high five", Technobabylon.
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Jul 18, 2016 04:31
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Oh now that's just wrong. It would be "high four"!
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Jul 18, 2016 05:19
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Technobabylon (and a few other Wadjet Eye games) are on sale at GoG this weekend for $3.79 [$5 for the deluxe edition]. Might be a good time to pick it up if you're interested. And for all you maladists who've given yourselves compulsive buying disorder, you won't be hurting your wallet so much.
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Jul 22, 2016 22:53
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Bacter posted:Very interesting - I wonder if there isn't meant to be a double wordplay on ignorance, then. Kind of a "no gods no masters" taste, a purposeful "ignorance" of Central's guidance? Oh crap, I was gonna mention this but forgot Jahiliyya is actually a pretty important word in Qutbism, the ideology that directly lead to much of modern day Islamic militant groups like Al Qaeda. An S. Qutb even gets name dropped on the email inbox in the first Regis/Lao bit in the office.
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Jul 22, 2016 23:11
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I started reading this LP and this game has an interesting take on a cyberpunk future. Hopefully I'll catch up soon.
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Sep 27, 2016 01:42
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