Quote:
Originally Posted by raketenjagdpanzer
What we generally think of as "the web" was nowhere near as prevalent in 1997 (for most folks) as it is today. Pervasive computing just didn't exist. A "Smart" phone was one that could hold 10-20 phone numbers and play GO on its 2" amber LCD screen.
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Exactly right and a point which applies to ALL technology, not just computers and communications. In the past 15-20 years, which is as long as some players of T2K can remember, there's been some pretty damn substantial leaps forward with technology. How many people born after 1990 can remember a time before virtually everyone had a pocket sized (or smaller) phone on them at all times? Or had to actually use a
paper book to find somebodies phone number, or for that matter even remember somebody elses phone number (or even their own)!?
Quote:
Originally Posted by raketenjagdpanzer
Also, computers are (then, and today) fragile things. The environments of Twilight:2000 are not conducive to the health and well-being of computers (especially mainframes which require power distribution units and MASSIVE air conditioning at 60-70F to stay operational for long periods of time).
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That's pretty much the point I was trying to make too. Just because EMP doesn't fry a circuit board doesn't mean something else didn't damage or destroy it. A hungry mob with a box of matches can do just as much damage as a small nuke to infrastructure. A band of crazy anti-technology nuts going to town with hammers doesn't do a lot of good to a computer system either.
Quote:
Originally Posted by raketenjagdpanzer
Also, this connectivity will have to be direct-connect: the phone exchange system (most everyone was on dialup in 1997) is in ruins.
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Again, my point exactly. Even if only a few cables are cut, service is GONE. You only have to look at real life for examples - a storm wipes out a bridge taking the cables with it, a lightning strike burns out an electricity substation, a heavy snowfall brings down power lines and their supporting towers (as happened a few years back in Canada I think) and so on, and so on, and so on. Twilight is all those disasters and more on a global scale.
Quote:
Originally Posted by raketenjagdpanzer
I think the chief thing to remember about T2k is that it's a fantasy game.
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Yep, another point often forgotten in the search for "realism". It's just a game. Some of the background doesn't fit with reality, some of it is less than reality, some of it more.
Does a movie or television show have to be perfectly in line with reality to be enjoyable? Of course not, otherwise none of the James Bond movies for example would ever have seen the light of the cinema screen. Twilight is the same concept - near enough to be believable.