unforum

[Buceph]

[SPEC] [GENERAL] Story Building: Deconstructing PPC

[Salkunh]

I personally dont think there would be anyone within the city who cannot solve puzzles.

The academy website says that the locks on dorms in the academy change for you to solve, the tour guide says theres a restaurant where the entire menu is in riddles...to me this sounds like the kind of society where puzzles are second nature.

I think that Perplexians would be brought up with it from such an early age everyone could be good or at least capable of them. And if not Ceretin could always help

[GuyP]

I know this isn't necessarily the perfect thread for this, but it's the closest one and i'm loathe to start a new topic over a small observation.

Has anyone noticed that on the back of one of the cards, showing St Frederick's Station, there's a sign saying "Anthro Replication"? Seems interesting to me. Embarassingly I can't lock down a precise definition for the prefix anthro-, but I always thought it meant "man" as in "anthropology" being the study of humanity.

A less sinister definition is that it's a medical term for "joint" (like cardio- for the circulatory system) so it might be a place to nip down to and get yourself kitted out with some nice new knees, knucles and hips. Still a little odd to highlight it on a map, but maybe that's just me.

[Marrec]

I have a very cynical and sinister take on PPC. If everyone were so mentally capable as to solve various puzzles, then what is the backbone of the PPC economy? Do the regular laborers come from this pool of mentally capable people? I'm of the opinion that PPC is a city built on castes that are determined by the persons mental capacity. I don't have much evidence of this... or, any at all actually, but it seems to make sense.

If someone can't solve puzzles as well as someone else, they're given a menial task and paid very little for it, forcing them to live somehwere on the outskirts of the utopia like Perplex City.

The whole of the PPC economy interests me... their PLC is... what... twice the value of the Yen? Is this because of a saturation of the market...? I'm no economist, but I know enough to know that either the PLC is extremely devalued or their system is built on a much more sophisticated and otherwise more zero filled basis then ours. But I digress

Wait, I don't digress... I'm done. Actually I'm not done. Has anyone wondered, since we do have a shared history with the people of Perplex City, when the paths of our History diverted? Where exactly PPC is in relation to our world? They -seem- to speak english, but it's entierly possible they speak... I dunno, Japanese. To address the idea of our shared history, note that one of the flavors of Whipsmart Ice Cream is Rummy Descartes. So we can think that their history is at least similar with ours up until this point... or perhaps what they mean by 'Shared history' is that we have similar historical figures and events at times, but otherwise are completely different...

Okay, now I'm done.

[erekose]

[PuzzledPineapple]

For the record, anthro- comes from the greek word anthropos meaning man. I don't remember it had any other meanings, but that doesn't mean that the prefix doesn't. Interestingly, they shouldn't have this since if we do have a shared history it doesn't appear to include the Greeks. Which kind of implies that the names on the map are all translated again. But anyway. Could just be a centre for IVF or something similar, maybe they just clone themselves to reproduce.

[kraed]

Going back to the whole history thing..

Well Violet had an english accent, and pretty much all their (known) contacts are in England, so I'm guessing Perplex City has some shared ancestry with England, and history would tie in with that too. If they split from us from anywhere, it'd probably be from around here.

[Buceph]

On the economy point: PPC seems to be recovering from a dip in their economy. This could be related to their loss of the cube. If you look back through the Sentinel it says that sales in small items have been increasing, but large durable goods are still suffering. This is indicitive of an economy recovering from a slump. People will wait until more prosperous times to buy the large expensive goods. This is because the replacement of older goods can often be postponed until better times. But the increase in sales of small goods shows a society trying to lighten up, and enjoy themselves.


But on the other aspect, I do feel there is an underside to PPC. Different social and working castes. Maybe it's my love of dystopian fiction but there seems to be nothing supporting the mental highs of the PPC society. There's also a possibility though that they are a high tech-nation trading technological developments with other, less mental nations.


But again, I will ask, how do you think a society like this would operate? Warts and all.

[chrome_halo]

Puzzles

[Marrec]

[Salkunh]

[Marrec]

[Salkunh]

meh close enough...knew i'd seen something about silver on there

[DogsHead]

[Mima]

Religions