Third Spanish States
09-02-2009, 02:24
Software has always been the lifeblood of the Third Spanish States economy, built initially from a need to create an entire E-government, if it could be called one, and eventually maturing enough to become a proeminent sector, boosted by the demand for automating every dull and repetitive function, and by the logical demand for a source of entertainment. It can be said that people who believe in more than the average also have tastes which diverge from mainstream, and as the Confederacy was joined only by people who believed in anarchism, it was logical it wouldn't mirror the arguably mindless cultural elements of other western cultures. Likewise, the sheer availability of outdoors entertainment would demand for electronic entertainment to offer a level of complexity unpractical for most games, and as even the infamous deathmatch arena, where people who were either totally insane and nihilistic or who sought to commit suicide without being laughed as emos went to compete, made most first-person shooters dull experiences, while hype, like brands and fads had nearly no impact locally, the standards of gaming were much above the average. Such that the only console ever developed in the Confederacy, the Calamity, was nearly an overkill in controls, packing keyboard, mouse, movement sensing, which allowed people to literally wave their hands like LARPers, and the standard issue joystick and gamepad in its bundled editions. Likewise, it was more of a PC specialized for gaming, for every PC game ran natively on it.
There were more examples. Like the fact post-nuclear CRPGs were roleplaying games instead of dumbed down shooters with auto-aim always on and poorly-made dialogs, or that "in-game godmodes" like resurrection chambers were universally frowned upon, as were the "self-playing games" which were becoming the "next-gen" fad of the coming 2040s in other nations. Entirely passive experiences in new consoles which had only one button which was nothing more than an over-glorified "play" for over-glorified CGI movie players which were marketed as videogames, as "accessibility" went far enough to allow most mainstream games to be playable by "special people" with no difficulty at all. It could be argued that games were being made to make people idiotic and docile to be easily manipulated by existing governments, although few brave developers continued to make real games instead of barely interactive seventh-rate 3d movies full of bloom and devoid of any depth, and not all countries were jumping into such depressing decadence of gaming, which could be seen as parallel to the decadence of movies, literature and music in the last years, and perhaps was indeed only a minor symptom of a cultural decline of the world. What else would explain "songs" where a retard keeps repeating the same syllabe over and over while a pre-set tune from a keyboard is playing becoming major hits? Or movies which are nothing besides special effects thrown together with scantily-clad chicks into a plot which was probably conceived in five minutes by a five-years old?
These facts moved the Confederacy and its legion of hardcore gamers and softhouses catering to them to one last attempt to save contemporary forms of entertainment from becoming the most decadent of all mankind history... and to perhaps give a chance for gaming to become an art rather than an excuse for capitalist corporations to milk dull sequels for the cattle that most of their target-audience are. Events were more than just exhibits of products: they represented an entire mindset behind all. Everything in the Confederacy was arguably more intellectually challenging, or in gaming terms, less "dumbed down": schools and universities were as unforgiving as the age of consent was early to ensure people would be ready for life faster than in most nations, many sports lacked coaches and demanded from its players to use their minds both for physical coordination and for deciding tactics, people who spent their afternoons researching nuclear power had to keep enough mind to join the EDDNet afterwards, and there was more of a social stigma against dumb people and "posers" devoid of personality than it ever existed against those who openly professed admiration for Hitler or Stalin.
Thus the Videogames Developers Faire was formed, as an opportunity to demonstrate how the local culture influenced videogame development. As an opportunity for angry people who have long abandoned gaming as a hobby because sequels of complex games they loved being turned into mindless hype-loaded games even a one-year old could probably finish to discover great works still existed. And perhaps as a chance to bash how capitalism ruins cultural progress through examples rather than words, according to their point of view, just like their very diplomatic motto says. However it would be hypocritical to not mention imageboards were loaded with every idiotic comment that people under the guise of anonymity wouldn't feel scared to post.
That all of this existed behind the obvious of what was nothing but a major event for developers of games and consoles to present their products. There were stands, people walking through them in a large plot which was usually part of an "open" market covered by a transparent dome and air-conditioned which was originally built for... the Confederacy preferred to not disclose their stance on international copyright laws and thus the purpose of such place during most of the year wouldn't be disclosed. As wouldn't the strong hacker, both black and white hat culture that tended to flock to such place in normal days, and perhaps among people looking for games and business, there could be one of them walking around, perhaps to become acquainted with the next DRM such individual would put as a challenge to be overcome.
There were three local stands among them, besides an office labeled "administrative office" right in the middle of the large area of the event where probably issues were handled. The three local stands were presenting two games and a console. The first was Fall Spanien, which... could probably be considered a sort of ambitious, larger-scale tactical game somewhat inspired by the gameplay of the early Rainbow Six games, and which primary source of popularity was coming from the fact every sold Calamity went bundled with one, rather than from a viral marketing campaign that could be interpreted as a warning to a zombie infestation or epidemy happening in the Confederacy before the last lines of such ad were read. The second was even more "hardcore". An open-source flight simulator built from a real military-grade one, so niche that its boxes were larger than usual, as they came with flyable model aircrafts, although those exposed there weren't really intended for sale. For anything from a Spitfire to a CL-32 could be requested as the model airplane to come with the game by the purchaser, and thus it wouldn't be sold in stores, besides the very specialized stores that flocks to the younger off-duty pilots of the MilNet. It could be downloaded freely, but the download wouldn't come with all the goodies the boxed distributions had, or with the comprehensible technical support and editing support for game modders.
And at last there was Calamity, the "MMO Console" as it was advertised, for its dedicated ZLL processor intended to distribute and process data in peer-to-peer networks which would then allow for fee-less massively multiplayer games to become economically viable. And its comprehensive set of controls coupled with its compatibility with PC games meant that developing games for it would be much more economical than for most available consoles, and that games like realistic flight simulators would be entirely viable in it.
Both game stands were typical of the Confederacy youth: the cooperative members who were attending to them were spending most of their time playing the games they were supposed to advertise, and getting paid for it with their shares over the cooperative sales. It was no wonder the FSoft had so many people requesting to take such position. On the other hand, the Calamity... although having another slacker in its stand, the same seemed older, and clearly not distracted enough to miss a potential customer to negotiate deals.
On the administrative building, a bored woman sat on a large, comfortable leather chair, of the type a directors board would have. She was looking partly on her laptop and partly ahead, and seemed quite cautious to close it should someone arrive for business. It wouldn't go well for a potential company willing to expose their products, no matter how crowded the place would soon become, to see the a businesswoman browsing 4chantv.org.tee and posting in /b/ through a proxy server during her work time.
And thus, the slobs of the open stands played games while Tatiana posted LULZ, awaiting for the first representatives of international game and console developers to arrive for negotiations, or to contact her through the electronic messenger in her laptop, which would be more convenient as it would allow for her to attend them while still posting in such infamous boards.
It was tempting however to redirect them to another person, but Tatiana was a hard worker. It was just that sometimes there was nothing to do but wait in certain functions, and for her, such way of waiting and breaking one of the rules of the Internet was more amusing than just doing nothing at all.
Soon the time for serious business would begin
There were more examples. Like the fact post-nuclear CRPGs were roleplaying games instead of dumbed down shooters with auto-aim always on and poorly-made dialogs, or that "in-game godmodes" like resurrection chambers were universally frowned upon, as were the "self-playing games" which were becoming the "next-gen" fad of the coming 2040s in other nations. Entirely passive experiences in new consoles which had only one button which was nothing more than an over-glorified "play" for over-glorified CGI movie players which were marketed as videogames, as "accessibility" went far enough to allow most mainstream games to be playable by "special people" with no difficulty at all. It could be argued that games were being made to make people idiotic and docile to be easily manipulated by existing governments, although few brave developers continued to make real games instead of barely interactive seventh-rate 3d movies full of bloom and devoid of any depth, and not all countries were jumping into such depressing decadence of gaming, which could be seen as parallel to the decadence of movies, literature and music in the last years, and perhaps was indeed only a minor symptom of a cultural decline of the world. What else would explain "songs" where a retard keeps repeating the same syllabe over and over while a pre-set tune from a keyboard is playing becoming major hits? Or movies which are nothing besides special effects thrown together with scantily-clad chicks into a plot which was probably conceived in five minutes by a five-years old?
These facts moved the Confederacy and its legion of hardcore gamers and softhouses catering to them to one last attempt to save contemporary forms of entertainment from becoming the most decadent of all mankind history... and to perhaps give a chance for gaming to become an art rather than an excuse for capitalist corporations to milk dull sequels for the cattle that most of their target-audience are. Events were more than just exhibits of products: they represented an entire mindset behind all. Everything in the Confederacy was arguably more intellectually challenging, or in gaming terms, less "dumbed down": schools and universities were as unforgiving as the age of consent was early to ensure people would be ready for life faster than in most nations, many sports lacked coaches and demanded from its players to use their minds both for physical coordination and for deciding tactics, people who spent their afternoons researching nuclear power had to keep enough mind to join the EDDNet afterwards, and there was more of a social stigma against dumb people and "posers" devoid of personality than it ever existed against those who openly professed admiration for Hitler or Stalin.
Thus the Videogames Developers Faire was formed, as an opportunity to demonstrate how the local culture influenced videogame development. As an opportunity for angry people who have long abandoned gaming as a hobby because sequels of complex games they loved being turned into mindless hype-loaded games even a one-year old could probably finish to discover great works still existed. And perhaps as a chance to bash how capitalism ruins cultural progress through examples rather than words, according to their point of view, just like their very diplomatic motto says. However it would be hypocritical to not mention imageboards were loaded with every idiotic comment that people under the guise of anonymity wouldn't feel scared to post.
That all of this existed behind the obvious of what was nothing but a major event for developers of games and consoles to present their products. There were stands, people walking through them in a large plot which was usually part of an "open" market covered by a transparent dome and air-conditioned which was originally built for... the Confederacy preferred to not disclose their stance on international copyright laws and thus the purpose of such place during most of the year wouldn't be disclosed. As wouldn't the strong hacker, both black and white hat culture that tended to flock to such place in normal days, and perhaps among people looking for games and business, there could be one of them walking around, perhaps to become acquainted with the next DRM such individual would put as a challenge to be overcome.
There were three local stands among them, besides an office labeled "administrative office" right in the middle of the large area of the event where probably issues were handled. The three local stands were presenting two games and a console. The first was Fall Spanien, which... could probably be considered a sort of ambitious, larger-scale tactical game somewhat inspired by the gameplay of the early Rainbow Six games, and which primary source of popularity was coming from the fact every sold Calamity went bundled with one, rather than from a viral marketing campaign that could be interpreted as a warning to a zombie infestation or epidemy happening in the Confederacy before the last lines of such ad were read. The second was even more "hardcore". An open-source flight simulator built from a real military-grade one, so niche that its boxes were larger than usual, as they came with flyable model aircrafts, although those exposed there weren't really intended for sale. For anything from a Spitfire to a CL-32 could be requested as the model airplane to come with the game by the purchaser, and thus it wouldn't be sold in stores, besides the very specialized stores that flocks to the younger off-duty pilots of the MilNet. It could be downloaded freely, but the download wouldn't come with all the goodies the boxed distributions had, or with the comprehensible technical support and editing support for game modders.
And at last there was Calamity, the "MMO Console" as it was advertised, for its dedicated ZLL processor intended to distribute and process data in peer-to-peer networks which would then allow for fee-less massively multiplayer games to become economically viable. And its comprehensive set of controls coupled with its compatibility with PC games meant that developing games for it would be much more economical than for most available consoles, and that games like realistic flight simulators would be entirely viable in it.
Both game stands were typical of the Confederacy youth: the cooperative members who were attending to them were spending most of their time playing the games they were supposed to advertise, and getting paid for it with their shares over the cooperative sales. It was no wonder the FSoft had so many people requesting to take such position. On the other hand, the Calamity... although having another slacker in its stand, the same seemed older, and clearly not distracted enough to miss a potential customer to negotiate deals.
On the administrative building, a bored woman sat on a large, comfortable leather chair, of the type a directors board would have. She was looking partly on her laptop and partly ahead, and seemed quite cautious to close it should someone arrive for business. It wouldn't go well for a potential company willing to expose their products, no matter how crowded the place would soon become, to see the a businesswoman browsing 4chantv.org.tee and posting in /b/ through a proxy server during her work time.
And thus, the slobs of the open stands played games while Tatiana posted LULZ, awaiting for the first representatives of international game and console developers to arrive for negotiations, or to contact her through the electronic messenger in her laptop, which would be more convenient as it would allow for her to attend them while still posting in such infamous boards.
It was tempting however to redirect them to another person, but Tatiana was a hard worker. It was just that sometimes there was nothing to do but wait in certain functions, and for her, such way of waiting and breaking one of the rules of the Internet was more amusing than just doing nothing at all.
Soon the time for serious business would begin