Why SR4 had to be..., Wireless internet and data service today Options

[Jrayjoker]

http://www.startribune.com/stories/789/5360400.html

Well there it is. From telephony to data, from TV to cel phones, it will all be wrapped up in one sweet package before 2012 anyway.

What do y'all think?

[Kagetenshi]

I think that's no more an explanation for why SR4 had to be than it would be an explanation for adding satellite phones to Buck Rogers.

~J

[Edward]

All that needed to be done to make the matrix as believable now as it was back in 1985 is make wireless links to your cyber deck cheep an easily attainable and cyber decks way between 100gramms and 1 KG.

I would probably also include a virtual tortoise interface. Allowing you to brows the matrix while on eth go in much the same way you can pipe a video call to your display link

Of cause that is the minimal approach, I think they wanted to change things around.

Edward

[mfb]

well, it wasn't very believably in 1985, either (or even 1989, when it came out!)

when's the last time buck rogers was popular, kagetenshi?

[Taki]

Science Fiction will always be in advance ... But often technology appear quite sooner than expected !
stupid-no say-unbelievable thing can be describe in novels - and become true later.

But I think SR has to stick with credibility - so it will surely rely on a very low tech, compared of real human technology in 207x ...

(But will we have ORCS ????)

[Kagetenshi]

[Moonstone Spider]

Actually wireless stuff really isn't required for believability in SR. All you need is a rational explanation for why nobody goes Wireless, for instance "Thanks to the massive pollution of the airwaves, and the fact that your very life rests on the integrity of the datastream, only a complete idiot of a decker would even consider going wireless."

That doesn't mean an SR4 isn't required, just that an arument or even explanation that relies on current technology cannot possibly be applied to future technology. A Knight in field plate would laugh his ass off at the Musketeer and sneer at how the musketeer wouldn't last a minute without any armor. . . but who would win the fight between them? The Musketeer in less than ten seconds.

[mfb]

your buck rogers-fu is greatly lacking. buck rogers was updated in every incarnation he appeared in. the most notable one is that he became associated with NASA in his 1987 incarnation.

[Kagetenshi]

It's true that he was updated in the late '70s; what were the other major updates before that?

~J

[Arethusa]

[Jrayjoker]

Hmmm. I sense a hijack...

[Arethusa]

Yeah, Kage and mfb are regular message board terrorists.

[Jrayjoker]

Just don't tell Homeland Security or they'll shut us down.

[Arethusa]

Hello Echelon!

:wavey:

[Jrayjoker]

Uh Oh! Here comes the Thor shot.

DUCK AND COVER!

:eek:

[GrinderTheTroll]

[mfb]

back in your seats, or it's the box cutter for all of ya's.

one major difference is that the original comic--Armageddon 2419--specifically included attempts to extrapolate the future based on the current technology of the time. it included such inventions as the atomic bomb, the bazooka, and the hand-held walkie-talkie, decades before any of these were made reality.

later incarnations were more fantastic. death rays, paralysis rays--there's really no need to update those, as nobody paid attention to the "technology" behind them for longer than it took to deus ex machina this week's cliffhanger. it's also worth pointing out that buck rogers was so far-flung futuristic that it's hard to concieve of many technologies which could impact the setting. the only one that really could--actual space travel--did. i'm not all that familiar with the earlier incarnations, but i don't see much mention of friendly aliens; the fact that the TV series had them could reflect the generally lower levels of xenophobia. while not technology-related, that would a change in the series attributable to changes in society.

moreover, buck rogers is a story setting, and shadowrun is a roleplaying setting. except in rare instances like star trek, the believability threshold for a story setting is much lower than the believability threshold for a roleplaying setting, because nobody interacts with a story setting (and it should be noted that star trek became a moderately successful RPG itself).

[Kagetenshi]

Buck Rogers had a role-playing game that lasted the better part of a decade (into, it should be noted, some of the dark days of its originating company TSR).

Either way, I do not concede the necessity to keep parity with modern technology, especially when such technology is not a logical extension of the progression given in-game.

~J

[hahnsoo]

[Garland]

Lunar Monosword! Boo-yah!

[mfb]

point. however, like i said, buck rogers is a deliberately fantastic setting, and very far-future. technology is treated more like magic than technology. SR is a lot closer to reality, both in terms of time and believability. believability is, in fact, half of the basis of SR--that's what cyberpunk is, extrapolation of dehumanizing trends in technology and society. leech away too much of that believability, and it becomes a cartoony mockery of itself.