| From: | Erik Jameson <erikj@****.COM> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: FASA's On/Off Course? |
| Date: | Tue, 5 May 1998 13:36:32 -0400 |
>The "Year of ..." stuff doesn't bother me overall, just the degree of
massive
>change. We were taught (is 'Taught a good word for this?) that if a Megacorp
>should change, then it would have many visible, viable shakings of the World
>Economic Tree. That didn't happen readily in the case of Fuchi/Novatech. In
>fact, the BitB book does make things happen over a 2 year period for that,
>BUT, we as the players have been given no interaction with it or
comprehension
>of it until that book came out, which ends up with the "current timeline" in
>the FASA story suite.
Well, I disagree some with you on this. Obviously there are massive
ramifications to the BitB storyline. Without giving too much away, the
world changes from the Big 8 to the Big 10. The balance of economic power
is shifted away from Japan, and is in fact diffused across the Pacific Rim;
Hong Kong gets a mega, as does Russia, Quebec, and the UCAS.
But it does seem a little too neat and tidy. I think that if say, GM were
to suddenly keel over and go bankrupt, not sell another car or anything,
there would be a whole mess of ramifications to be felt for years to come.
So maybe BitB is a bit too "clean" in that respect.
I have strong suspicions that the entire BitB plotline has two purposes.
One, to reflect different political sensibilities (less fear of Japanese
economic domination in 1998 than in 1988). And two, combined with SR3 it
really turns Shadowrun into Mike Mulvihill's baby (which, BTW, I understand
his wife Sharon is expecting any day now I think) and creates a whole new
fresh start for the game. I suspect that with SR3, all the old plotlines
are essentially wrapped up for the most part, allowing Mike and the FASA
team to start fresh, without any lingering influence from the old SR1 or
SR2 plots. But that's just a theory on my part; I've not actually had
conversations with Mike.
I've been playing the game since Desert Storm started in Jan. 91 (when I
was 18 and a freshman in college, still living in the dorms), so I've seen
it go through many phases in the last 7 years. And I really like the
direction it seems to be heading in right now.
Erik J.
"Oh, the silent helicopters and the men in black fatigues? They're just my
car pool to work."
