Fandom random.
May. 9th, 2011 10:31 pmThe more I think about Meet The Director, the more fascinated I am by two lines of dialogue in the first page: "[T]he role society has shackled you with as an Australian, of course. And let's not forget the current administration, which..."
Valve is more than shy when it comes to worldbuilding, in no small part because the game itself doesn't need more than a paragraph's worth of an excuse plot to get going. What they've given is supplemental at best, and unnecessary for enjoying the game itself, unless you're one of those kinds of fans. Which I am, and cheerfully so. I know full well the game's canon includes President Lincoln as a flamethrower-wielding mercenary, and I don't care. Like I said, I'm that kind of fan.
The Director's probably talking about the US presidential administration but doesn't finish his sentence, which leaves me to come up with my own ideas for what he'd say. So I'm starting to come up with theories regarding TF2's 'current day' geopolitical climate, most of which involve Australia as isolationist politically and open economically, leading to other countries vying for alliances that won't come, giving Australians the general reputation of acute xenophobia - which isn't true, but it's generally regarded as fact since so few leave the country. And I'm trying to move out from there: if I take Australia as a politically neutral economic powerhouse whose alliance would tip the balance of power like nobody's business, that leads me to try to figure out the exact positioning of other countries in regards to the Cold War. World War I and World War II are a given, and there's some hints with a few in-game items that the Vietnam War is a reality as well, but the fact that there's so little worldbuilding - and the little Valve gives is so extreme - gives me a lot of freedom to theorize.
Like, say, the US and the USSR getting into a race of some sort to engineer a version of the myxoma virus with a 100% fatality rate that Russia ultimately won - their science is geared heavily towards the 'squishy' end of the spectrum and always goes down to the minutiae. They've got their satellites like everyone else, but no one can match them when it comes to genetic engineering. ARPANET came out a couple of years earlier than it did here, and to take a page from Snow Crash, the US has everyone beat for computer programming and engineering; taking a page from TV Tropes, the control points are network hubs that RED and BLU use to control information flow and gather data on their opponent, and the information's moving faster every day. Places that used to be industrial are shifting their focus, leaving their local economies and populations in a lurch while things transition - and this doesn't always happen as neatly and cleanly like it did in Pittsburgh, and Boston's still trying to get its feet underneath it, making the military an enticing career choice. Of course, if someone runs two miles in eight minutes and fifty-six seconds without even trying, someone's going to notice, and pass that information on up the chain of command.
Meanwhile in Scotland, the Highland Demomen have been a recognized clan since the eighth century AD, and trace their roots back to a large cadre of Roman slaves who rebelled in a suitably bloody and violent fashion and settled into their new homeland without too much fuss. There's still a fair number of practicing magicians out there - Rasputin was one of the more infamous modern ones - and their insular policies put Australians to shame.
In summary, I need a job. And in the meantime, I need to find out where the rest of this kind of fan is hanging out.
Valve is more than shy when it comes to worldbuilding, in no small part because the game itself doesn't need more than a paragraph's worth of an excuse plot to get going. What they've given is supplemental at best, and unnecessary for enjoying the game itself, unless you're one of those kinds of fans. Which I am, and cheerfully so. I know full well the game's canon includes President Lincoln as a flamethrower-wielding mercenary, and I don't care. Like I said, I'm that kind of fan.
The Director's probably talking about the US presidential administration but doesn't finish his sentence, which leaves me to come up with my own ideas for what he'd say. So I'm starting to come up with theories regarding TF2's 'current day' geopolitical climate, most of which involve Australia as isolationist politically and open economically, leading to other countries vying for alliances that won't come, giving Australians the general reputation of acute xenophobia - which isn't true, but it's generally regarded as fact since so few leave the country. And I'm trying to move out from there: if I take Australia as a politically neutral economic powerhouse whose alliance would tip the balance of power like nobody's business, that leads me to try to figure out the exact positioning of other countries in regards to the Cold War. World War I and World War II are a given, and there's some hints with a few in-game items that the Vietnam War is a reality as well, but the fact that there's so little worldbuilding - and the little Valve gives is so extreme - gives me a lot of freedom to theorize.
Like, say, the US and the USSR getting into a race of some sort to engineer a version of the myxoma virus with a 100% fatality rate that Russia ultimately won - their science is geared heavily towards the 'squishy' end of the spectrum and always goes down to the minutiae. They've got their satellites like everyone else, but no one can match them when it comes to genetic engineering. ARPANET came out a couple of years earlier than it did here, and to take a page from Snow Crash, the US has everyone beat for computer programming and engineering; taking a page from TV Tropes, the control points are network hubs that RED and BLU use to control information flow and gather data on their opponent, and the information's moving faster every day. Places that used to be industrial are shifting their focus, leaving their local economies and populations in a lurch while things transition - and this doesn't always happen as neatly and cleanly like it did in Pittsburgh, and Boston's still trying to get its feet underneath it, making the military an enticing career choice. Of course, if someone runs two miles in eight minutes and fifty-six seconds without even trying, someone's going to notice, and pass that information on up the chain of command.
Meanwhile in Scotland, the Highland Demomen have been a recognized clan since the eighth century AD, and trace their roots back to a large cadre of Roman slaves who rebelled in a suitably bloody and violent fashion and settled into their new homeland without too much fuss. There's still a fair number of practicing magicians out there - Rasputin was one of the more infamous modern ones - and their insular policies put Australians to shame.
In summary, I need a job. And in the meantime, I need to find out where the rest of this kind of fan is hanging out.
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