Irion, that was true for Fourth Edition as well.

How it works:

1) The Matrix is everywhere.
2) Any sufficiently complex computer network, including internal cyberware connections, interacts with it.

Why?

Because that's the sort of thing that happens in science fiction. Science, you know, fiction.

If this was a brand new game, without about 30 years of history behind it, I'd buy it. But not since we already have 30 years of history.

oh right, of course.

the new matrix, designed to be ultra secure and completely corp-controlled, under the highest level of lockdown ever, is also designed to anonymously provide computing power to whoever wants it without bothering to ask what it's for or restricting it from certain people.

and also, somehow, sending information back and forth between thousands of different devices speeds it all up. because, having tightened up security everywhere, not only has that somehow made everything faster instead of slower, it has actually made it so fast that the signals travel backwards through time.

also, the megacorporations are totally okay with their own security forces being completely dependant on exposing themselves to losing every advantage they have, as is every military, security, paramilitary, criminal, and security-conscious organization in the whole world, because this new matrix is just so awesome that it chops out the portion of the brain that makes rational decisions like "hey, we should just provide more computing power *internally* if this device needs it to function, because being self-contained is an important part of the function of this device"

it's so obvious...

[/sarcasm]

it doesn't make sense for the technology, which has never been so far beyond our comprehension as to be made of pure handwavium, to suddenly become so.
it doesn't make sense for the setting, which is full of paranoia and people frantically trying to secure everything, to allow massive vulnerabilities to be essential if they want their stuff to work to full potential.
it doesn't make sense for the setting, which has repeatedly suffered from massive matrix disasters, to happily rush blindly towards a matrix that freely lets everyone use computing power from anywhere with no information recorded and no questions asked about what it's being used for.

if this was some new RPG, with a new setting, sure, they could do whatever the hell they want. they can make the matrix magical. but it isn't a new setting. this is shadowrun. they get the advantage of a recognized setting that people like, and they get the drawbacks too: if you do something stupid with the setting that is completely obvious to the people who love it, there will not be a good response. if there is an actual legitimate reason why sending "a single bit of data to be distributed across every single device within a kilometer before being sent 6 inches away from where the bit was first sent from could somehow be faster than just sending it those 6 inches in the first place, i'd be fine. but there is absolutely nothing to explain that.

we have the setting as it existed. it made sense. we could relate to it. none of the technology was something so far beyond our comprehension that we couldn't imagine it before. certainly, it was beyond our technical means of creating it in many cases, but it has never been something where it was "sufficiently advanced technology" as to be indistinguishable from magic.

and if it suddenly became so, i want a damned good explanation. not just some handwaving and lame "well maybe it's this" excuses.

We're already down that rabbit hole. Wireless Matrix didn't fit in with the SR3 to SR4 transition and essentially rewrote the game universe. This is the logical path for a transhumanist technological singularity style setting, so here we are.

Fine, keep ignoring what is written about it in the rulebook.

You keep saying that, but is fundamentally not true. SOTA 2064, System Crash, and previous shit about NeoNet and otaku have all been around since at least 2nd (though I'm not great on pre-SR3 stuff.) And the setting is not transhumanist tech singularity - play Eclipse Phase for that. This is Shadowrun - and the setting is cyberpunk. Always has been, always will be.

You mean that time the matrix exploded and killed a bunch of people and left other people with magical wireless brains and now everything is wireless and the matrix is everywhere and everyone uses it for everything?

Otaku needed datajacks, they just didn't need cyberdecks. Technomancers have wireless brains.

EDIT: Ninja'd.

Your point being? The same shit otaku's used - complex forms, sprites, the Resonance - that shit all existed with otakus, except now they didn't even need a datajack. Not really a major shift.

I mean the part where the rulebook describes how the Matrix is physically laid out.

You're being intention obtuse and completely ignoring it or you're really just not getting it and believing that all the supernatural BS, which doesn't matter, somehow completely ignores topology.

Okay, sure. I mentioned Authentication Protocols in passing. That may be a good place to start. Let's hand wave, for a moment, instant Cryptographic compromise and assume that for some reason our modern understanding of brute force decryption occurs in O(1) time or O(Log(N)) time, or something other than a REALLY, REALLY long time. Lets assume that for some reason, there exists undefined threats which can royally screw you up without very, very strong authentication.

In the real world, very strong authentication has a number of features I'm not going to outline for you, but at a minimum we're going to need some strong mathematical component. Let's pretend that because brute force decryption is so powerful, that the underlying math for strong authentication is MASSIVE.

Simply by that little possible explanation, we can invent a reason why an object can act one way while locally processing, and another way with teh p0wahZ(!) of teh netz. Suddenly, the threat of non-authenticated access to a device is so severe (Incidentialy, in the real world, authentication is a HUGE deal) that unauthenticated access simply can't be allowed. Even with direct connections. So you have two choices:

1) Connect to the Matrix and allow the computations necessary for your authentication protocol to be distributed, and reap the benefits of responsive gear or...

2) Rely on your local processing to snail its way through the math. Your choice.

Is that a decent start?



Cool, dude. I'm not ninja, I just play one on TV. Sorry we couldn't connect. Good luck on your next Comptia certification.

-Wired_SR_AEGIS

At least we're in agreement that Shadowrun died back with SR4, and what we have now is the Asylum Films version, Shadowbiz. It looks kinda familiar to Shadowrun, and based on similar ideas, but it stars Eddie Furlong and Geri Halliwell instead of The Rock and Olivia Wilde. Sure, the special effects are a little off, and the writing isn't so good, but hey. It was streaming free on Netflix and we had some time to kill.

Or you can assume instead that I also have some knowledge of information science. In SR, P=NP, and this is proven, verified fact. So yes, encryption is useless, because everyone can just plug in the algorithm and blammy.

And this just might be why nobody seems to like you or respect your ideas.

Just a thought.

No, you're trying to treat it as the sum of its parts rather than the emergent phenomenon that it is. You're also complaining that the rules don't follow your insufficient explanation of the system, and ignoring that wireless brain people are completely impossible anyway. Ergo, if you allow for Technomancers as appropriate for the setting, you have to conclude that the matrix isn't just the computers, but something else concurrent with the computer network.

No, I can't, because I believed in magical hacking people since at least third edition. What you seem to not be grasping is not that its impossible in real life, its impossible in Shadowrun.

No they didn't. Otaku are fundamentally different from Technomancers.

So there's a start. If our modern versions of encryption (Elliptic Curve, Prime Factorization, etc, etc) are useless then the underlying math to develop even marginally useful encryption is...

...impressive. Probably impressive enough that you can start questioning how long it would take a local processor to slog through it, instead of distributed processors. Which makes free-action-sealing gas masks more believable, provided you're willing to accept that technobabble about risks from unauthenticated access.

-Wired_SR_AEGIS

Fundamentally, you say? They didn't use the Resonance, thread Complex Forms, and call sprites?

No matter how much super magical BS you slather on top. The laws of math can't be ignored. Which means, that while there may be super magical BS to slather on and avoid the problem P=NP being true means that no non-magical means can prevent the breaking of cryptography.

No it is not. It is, like Epicedion pointed out, the logical next step.
I like it from a gamist point of view, while I have to say, that I do not like it from a narrative point of view. (Which I have already pointed out).

You're right, I would question it. Were it not for the fact that they've had the technology in Shadowrun to run it through local processors for basically the last fifty years.