Lofwyr and S-K were fine how they were, so short of pandering to europeans I don't see any reason for the dragon to take any serious hits.

Well, see, SR is apparently massively-European in market, so I would expect pandering to them.

My money is on Cross Applied Technology. It has a good backstory, but I don't think it can stand up to the trouble ahead AND deal with Damien Knight sucker-punching them at every turn.

I expect it too. But that doesn't mean it's good.

Mmm, luscious gams.

~J

It would suck if SK and Lofwyr lost their hold on Europe they are a great background plot device, and a great source for runs!

Again, though, you're overlooking how much bigger and less friendly that one is than everything else.

You're also overlooking the large chunks of Europe that are now uninhabitable.

~J

I do have some problems with the world's largest corporation being privately held by a single shareholder but I've generally assumed that rather than having 100% ownership he's the primary known shareholder in what is pretty much a holding company that holds a variety of stakes in a huge number of subsidiary corporations.

Other than some quibbling details with the structure of the company the overall corporation makes a good deal of sense in terms of having a very distributed asset pool. However I would love to see one or more rival Eurocorps be developed. Of course I'd like more US centered megacorps as well but unless you want to have dramatic increases in the total number of AAAs to reflect that you'd inevitably have to kill some people's favorites.

If you look at where the world's largest companies are now (not that there wouldn't be some changes within the next 50 or so years) roughly 40% are located in the the US and Canada, about 35% are in Europe and about 20% are in Asia (less than 10% in Japan). While India and China would likely see increases in overall the totals would likely remain pretty much similar to this in 2050.

Note if you look at the largest 10-20 companies (the most likely predecessors of SR megacorps) the UCAS and EU should have the vast majority of megacorps.

Based on their asset rating totals, the breakdown of the Big 10 share is as follows:

North America: 318

Europe: 91

Asia (including Yamatetsu): 420

~J

As was clarified in SoE, Europe has a relatively high density of second and third-tier companies and a slightly more fragmented market ecology -which means corps are less monolithic and more specialized which impacts their overall CC Ratings. This hasn't helped these corps make a big splash internationally although a few have (Z-IC, the FBV, Proteus, Transys, HKB and now Erika come to mind). SoE highlights the top 15, but more than 30 are mentioned in the various chapters there's no particular shortage of corporations to play with.

At one point in time I was interested in trying to map asset totals to current companies (variously using 5-10 billion $ of marketvalue or sales for each asset point) of course even assuming that the development of the matrix and biotech/cyberware allows massive changes in certain sectors and magic has no real world analog it became a pretty interesting exercise.

The things that really bug me of course are the assertions that the big 10 control more assets than all other companies combined which represents such an insane collection of wealth as to be almost ludicrous. Of course trying to reflect real world macroeconomics is not the interest of most gamers so I've never bitch too much about it

Japan, had become the world power for more than 40 years, spawning 4 AAA, taking over large parts of the world. No nothing good happened there.

China, has the PPG, Wuxing, a great dragon who is actively trying to reform it. No nothing good.

Africa, is a hell hole now, and hasn't changed. big deal.

Demnark is not even half the size of LA, and LA wile it doesn't have "toxic" waste is largely over ran by gantars... boy. It also is part of the sandaavien Union, witch seems to be a large enough economic power house to have sway in the world around it.

Mexico, once a third world nation is the home base of one largest AAA's in the world, living condistions have largely improved. It also has had enough power thrust on to it, that it can hold it own vrs, the NAN, CAS and the CFS(By the way, the border with CFS was such a joke, that it is now safer being maned the PCC. The PCC having less people than LA county, after it took LA over.). If it only seized San Diego, it would have had more good fortunes that the whole of CFS, but is also gain large areas of Texas, and a lot of lands to the south. Aztlan, is getting hit hard now. But it has not always been that way.

So, yes, other part of the world have it bad, but for most part everywhere has improved if even for a short time. And those that haven't improved, tend to simply changed in how they are messed up. CFS has just got pure and simply fucked up. It started out getting kicked in the crotch and then things got ugly.

Population-wise. Currently, Denmark has a population of a little more than 5 million. The LA metropolitan area has just shy of 17 million people.

Precisely.

The US generally is hard for Europeans to understand (in any way), I've found.

That especially applies to physical scale, and the psychological impact that has.

Keep in mind that for all the land we've taken over for development in the last 50 years, there isn't even a remote shortage, except in specific areas (like Hawaii or Alaska, which are really special cases).

It's one reason why I always laugh when Europeans write about the US, particularly in fiction, and imagine people living in skyscrapers or 100s-of-stories-tall buildings, or even working in buildings much taller than what we've got. There are good reasons nobody will go much taller except as a showpiece.

More-back-On Topic: Yuron is exactly right. Now, Southern Cal is one big city (minus the bases) from LA to the border. If you eliminate the border, the Southern California sprawl will gobble up Tijuana in no time.

Similarly, sprawl isn't quite as enveloping or urbanizing as it would seem everywhere. Southern California is unique in being *very* flat, without the terrain and subsurface features that would stop mass-concrete-jungles, say, on the East Coast.

<Rant ON>
Example: The area from DC to Boston is usually represented as one big megapolis. Uh, no.

Lots of New Jersey, for instance, is suburbia. Increasingly crowded suburbia, but suburbia. Actual urban conditions are unlikely to stretch farther, regardless of corporate influence.

Connecticut and Rhode Island are the same. There are still small urban areas, and I95 is the "spinal cord" of the Northeast, but it's not all built up, and is unlikely to be.

And, uh, whoever turned the Jersey Shore into Arcologies (as seen in NAGNA and repeated since)? Can I have your address? I'd like to snap your neck or die trying.
<Rant Off>

Los Angeles County is 4,084 square miles/10,577km^2, compared to Denmark's 16,639 square miles/43,094km^2. For population, LA County is just shy of twice size of Denmark (10,179,716 vs 5,397,540).

Really, with Google around, I can't understand how things like this get started.

Cynic project himself was apparently referring to the Los Angeles County ("To drive threw LA county [...]"), which is why I used the figures for that.

I don't understand your definition of 'rise' then. I usually define it (in the sense we are discussing) as making their way up over time. Novatech was formed, and immediately became AAA rated. How is that 'rising'?

Ah, I thought you were implying that Novatech was not of a size concurrent with its status. Never mind, then.

~J

Corps to go down? (or a least take a hit)
I believe Novatech won't struggle anymore than it already is. Hopefully due to a Seraphim hit on Art.
Aztechnology might suffer depending on their civil war.
Ares might have some Bug related problems maybe a bug gets on its board or already has.
Cross might go due to Mr D.Knight.
Hang on a tick.
Arther Vogel lil' dwarf dude who aquired lots of money from some where and now technically has the controling interst in Ares. That might be it!
Thats about it for now except go Transys Nuronet and Proteus AG.(Hmmmm if they were to merge?)

So, okay, no one can say that any part of the world has been fucked up as much CFS.As in the differences between the real world and the shadowrun . Good. Now, Kag I will say it one more time, I don't want the CFS to become a world power, I want it to become something other than the laughing stock of the world. I mean the the French put up more of a fight in WW2, than the CFS has put up in shadowrun. (no, I do not dislike France)

If I were to make a second Eurocorp AAA I'd probably have Zeta Imp Chem merge with Proteus and HKB into the world's most ammoral monstrousity.

Even Aztechnology/Universal Omnitech would have difficulty dealing with that level of sheer evilness.

Yes, we can say that places have been more fucked up. Again, look at Mexico. Ground under the heel of a corporation bent on bringing death to the world, increasingly contaminated by toxic waste. Look at Japan, beholden to the megacorporations until very recently, turned into a deeply racist, fascist state. There's a reason the Japanese version of SR had very little to do with canon. Your argument they, Denmark's small doesn't hold water; it has been wiped from the face of the globe.

~J

You mean that having pre bismarck style elector states (with metahuman principalities) isn't cool?

I was trying to indicate sarcasm as I too think the canton states of Germany to be a particularly repulsive concept. Fortunately Euro runs are thankfully rare in my games so I can ignore them the vast majority of the time.