Goonhub
09-16-2022, 01:39 AM
I think the biggest reason i see this entire thread as absurd is that it kinda misses the point of the entire setting of the game. You seem very focused on special little words like "consenting to work" and "receiving pay", but regardless of if borgs did those things, it would not meaningfully change their relationship with NT as an entity. Borgs and humans are, to me, on the exact same level: stuck working for NanoTrasen on account of the implication.
Nanotrasen is an exceptionally cruel, unethical megacorporation. In the original canon, before Goon's deep deep lore got more intricate and separated from the original game, NT fumbled the ball and wiped out half the population of Asia or something like that, and kept going. That is the kind of company that you work for in ss13. They literally pull souls back from the afterlife to continue shuffling forwards in work.
You even nearly hit this nail right on the head in your original post: you posit an option of an accept/refuse dialogue where the brain is grindered if you say no. While it would be a bit of a noob trap in practice, the idea fits NT perfectly, and also doesn't actually affect anything at all, because it just brings borgs back to the state that work at NT is already: You work, or you die. They literally sell humans the air that they breathe at the O2 vendors, which not all of their employees (clown and mime) can afford! But nobody ever talks about clown slavery because that's patently fucking ridiculous. NanoTrasen is cruel, that's the intent.
I had a bit here about the conditions of labor under capitalism but it was getting too political so I axed it. I guess my conclusion is: Borgs are fine and not slavery in the same way that humans are fine and not slavery. The inhumane treatment is inherent to all of NT's subjects.
Nanotrasen is an exceptionally cruel, unethical megacorporation. In the original canon, before Goon's deep deep lore got more intricate and separated from the original game, NT fumbled the ball and wiped out half the population of Asia or something like that, and kept going. That is the kind of company that you work for in ss13. They literally pull souls back from the afterlife to continue shuffling forwards in work.
You even nearly hit this nail right on the head in your original post: you posit an option of an accept/refuse dialogue where the brain is grindered if you say no. While it would be a bit of a noob trap in practice, the idea fits NT perfectly, and also doesn't actually affect anything at all, because it just brings borgs back to the state that work at NT is already: You work, or you die. They literally sell humans the air that they breathe at the O2 vendors, which not all of their employees (clown and mime) can afford! But nobody ever talks about clown slavery because that's patently fucking ridiculous. NanoTrasen is cruel, that's the intent.
I had a bit here about the conditions of labor under capitalism but it was getting too political so I axed it. I guess my conclusion is: Borgs are fine and not slavery in the same way that humans are fine and not slavery. The inhumane treatment is inherent to all of NT's subjects.