Atlanta. Hey teach us all to be professional torturers in the South,
y'know.
> Does this involve leather at any point?
We have clubs for that sort of thing.
> But if I do know that existance is virtual, and the way out is death, then
> I'd kill myself, and start the game again, knowing that the best way to
> survive is to be utterly ruthless.
An argument can be made that there's considerable weight to that
argument whether it be virtual or /not/. On the other hand, if `killing
yourself' drops your score, you might not have `earned enough points' to
get back in the game.
> Withdrawal symptoms can kill. If it is severe enough, heart attacks follow,
> the body dies....
That's true. We just have to keep you on the narrow edge where you
/think/ you're going to die and wish you would but don't get that
lucky. :)
> You know an awful lot about this, Alex Williams ... or should I call you ...
> Adolf Von Villiams ;)
Its from running all those horror-genre RPGs for all those years. You
just pick this stuff up. Besides, Goering was cooler. :)
> Seriously, though, I take your point, and adjust /my/ point of view to
> compensate. I think, though, that many people wouldn't.
It really comes down to what you're trying to avoid. If you're trying
to avoid inflicting undue pain, then whether or not the world is virtual
you'll avoid the same behaviours.
> Unless you can bring the whole games computer to a crashing halt, and
> drop everyone back into reality.
We don't really know if everyone are real people. What if your best
friend is just a bad special effect? If you crash the game system, he
ceases to exist. You've `killed' him.
> Frightening likeness, I must admit. And havn't religios fanatics had deep
> effects on the memespheres of large numbers of people, either negatively or
> positively?
Absolutely, but keep in mind their effect is completely seperate of
whether or not they really have `a line to the truth.'
--
Alexander Williams {thantos@alf.dec.com / zander@photobooks.com}
Prefect of the 8,000,000th Terran Overlord Government Experimental
Strike Legion, Primary Transport TOG "Bellatores Inquieti"
======================================================================
You ride in 250 tons of molecularly aligned crystalline titanium
wedded to a ceramic ablative matrix. You carry a 200mm Gauss
cannon, two massive 10-gigawatt lasers, two SMLM fire-and-forget
missiles, a Vulcan IV point defense anti-missile system, and a
deadly assortment of other equally lethal weapons.
Your vehicle is the ultimate product of 4,000 years of armored
warfare.
Your life expectancy is less than two minutes.
-- RENEGADE LEGION:
CENTURION