Goonhub
01-13-2016, 03:10 AM
What I'm worried about is that there aren't very many drawbacks to getting augmented. There's the nebulous point of 'you'll want to get more and more augmented', but why wouldn't you, when there's no downside to being a cybernetic superman? The philosophical implications of the slow loss of humanity is generally lost on your average powergamer. There's stuff like the arms and neural implant which have clear pros/cons, but people can just avoid those.
I think it leaves actual borgs out in the cold too, considering they don't get the benefit of any of these. Actually, it would be nice if borgs got more customization options too. Even with cybernetization in it's current state, roboticists still have more possible interactions with humans than borgs, unless borgs need fixing or a cell change. When the ultimate augmented human is basically 'a borg but better in every way', it kind of leaves actual borgs out in the cold. I don't think being a borg should be the punishment state most people seem to view it as.
Not connected to the main topic, but since you mentioned it - with regards to making revival harder, I'm against it for a couple reasons:
- It encourages paranoid, antisocial and often powergamey behaviour as people seek to stay alive at all costs, which doesn't make for a very fun game. It's often this exact attitude that sees robotics so empty - few people are willing to just hop onto the surgery table, trust in the roboticist and see what happens next.
- The harder it is to be revived, the less reason there is to stick around if you're killed. Yes, being dead is a failure state, but very few people enjoy waiting around meditating on how terrible they are - they just leave to play something else. A single round with an especially efficient killer can result in a drop of over half the players by the time the next round starts. That's another reason why robotics is often empty - when 90% of the corpses you recover over several rounds are braindead, it becomes a little discouraging.
I think it leaves actual borgs out in the cold too, considering they don't get the benefit of any of these. Actually, it would be nice if borgs got more customization options too. Even with cybernetization in it's current state, roboticists still have more possible interactions with humans than borgs, unless borgs need fixing or a cell change. When the ultimate augmented human is basically 'a borg but better in every way', it kind of leaves actual borgs out in the cold. I don't think being a borg should be the punishment state most people seem to view it as.
Not connected to the main topic, but since you mentioned it - with regards to making revival harder, I'm against it for a couple reasons:
- It encourages paranoid, antisocial and often powergamey behaviour as people seek to stay alive at all costs, which doesn't make for a very fun game. It's often this exact attitude that sees robotics so empty - few people are willing to just hop onto the surgery table, trust in the roboticist and see what happens next.
- The harder it is to be revived, the less reason there is to stick around if you're killed. Yes, being dead is a failure state, but very few people enjoy waiting around meditating on how terrible they are - they just leave to play something else. A single round with an especially efficient killer can result in a drop of over half the players by the time the next round starts. That's another reason why robotics is often empty - when 90% of the corpses you recover over several rounds are braindead, it becomes a little discouraging.