#009: Pro Laser Platform

[The Wooster]

#009: Pro Laser Platform

It's a very consistent platform when you think about it.

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[Erttheking]

While I feel no guilt about shooting humans in gaming, it does get a little weird when they're soldiers from another country. Not that that's incapable of being done well, but a lot of games like that are about America waving it's giant willy around while also acting like they're the underdog. Frankly it just feels better to fight aliens that are actually technologically superior without any IRL hatreds and paranoia making their way in.

 

[CaitSeith]

Just let's go middle ground and play a game where you kill humans with lasers, okay?

 

[Demagogue]

Yeah I tend to agree with erttheking, it is really tricky to pull off a good 'shooting humans' game that isn't just fetishing American military. The one thing I've never really got about the aliens with technological superior aspect though is that really we would lose... we would lose SO HARD in that scenario, and yet these games have us beating out the aliens with one man armies / squads.

 

[iniudan]

Rad Panda got it, everything is better with laser.

 

[vallorn]

*Knocks on door*
Excuse me sir. Do you have a moment for our lord and savior Lasers?

 

[Teoes]

What you did there, I see it and I like it.

 

[rgrekejin]

Yeah I tend to agree with erttheking, it is really tricky to pull off a good 'shooting humans' game that isn't just fetishing American military. The one thing I've never really got about the aliens with technological superior aspect though is that really we would lose... we would lose SO HARD in that scenario, and yet these games have us beating out the aliens with one man armies / squads.

Not necessarily. I'm reminded of the Harry Turtledove short story "The Road Not Taken" in which aliens with otherwise early Victorian-era tech develop FTL travel by exploiting a simple loophole about the nature of gravity that is easy to use but is very difficult for humans to observe or discover due to our unique cognitive biases. They attempt to invade a more-or-less modern day Earth, and it goes very badly for them, as they attempt to defeat automatic weapons and missles with matchlock guns. The humans easily reverse-engineer their technology and spread throughout the galaxy like wildfire.

I guess my point is that technological superiority in one aspect isn't necessarily indicative of technological superiority in all aspects, and sometimes it can be really fun when it isn't.

 

[Imp_Emissary]

:/ On the one hand we have a pretty good argument on how their's not much different between mass killings of humans by humans, and mass killings of aliens by humans when both are sentient.

However, on the other hand is a laser cannon. <.<

This is a tough moral choice! <.>

*Knocks on door*
Excuse me sir. Do you have a moment for our lord and savior Lasers?

Is the commandment "Thou Shalt Not Laser", or "Thou Shall Laser"?

 

[vallorn]

:/ On the one hand we have a pretty good argument on how their's not much different between mass killings of humans by humans, and mass killings of aliens by humans when both are sentient.

However, on the other hand is a laser cannon. <.<

This is a tough moral choice! <.>

*Knocks on door*
Excuse me sir. Do you have a moment for our lord and savior Lasers?

Is the commandment "Thou Shalt Not Laser", or "Thou Shall Laser"?

Thou shalt Laser of course. Also deliver us not into neon plasma streaks, nor railguns, nor future bullets. But deliver us to photons. Forever and ever. c.

 

[ColaWarVeteran]

:/ On the one hand we have a pretty good argument on how their's not much different between mass killings of humans by humans, and mass killings of aliens by humans when both are sentient.

However, on the other hand is a laser cannon. <.<

This is a tough moral choice! <.>

*Knocks on door*
Excuse me sir. Do you have a moment for our lord and savior Lasers?

Is the commandment "Thou Shalt Not Laser", or "Thou Shall Laser"?

"For God so loved the world that he gave Laser, so that whosoever believes in Laser shall not perish but have everlasting Pew Pew."

 

[P-89 Scorpion]

While I feel no guilt about shooting humans in gaming, it does get a little weird when they're soldiers from another country. Not that that's incapable of being done well, but a lot of games like that are about America waving it's giant willy around while also acting like they're the underdog. Frankly it just feels better to fight aliens that are actually technologically superior without any IRL hatreds and paranoia making their way in.

Considering the biggest modern FPS is Call of Duty were in the most successful MW sub titled one you mostly play British soldiers killing Americans and Russians yeah your comment is weird.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Pfft, everyone knows that killing 'aliens' in video games is a thinly veiled reference to 'illegal aliens' and the US' strict anti-immigration policy. The whole dirty truth has been staring us all in the face the whole time. Why do you think 'lasers' rhymes with 'tasers' huh? When will you poor fools wake up?!?

*twitches*

 

[Barbas]

What a positive little feller. I think he's great.

 

[Erttheking]

While I feel no guilt about shooting humans in gaming, it does get a little weird when they're soldiers from another country. Not that that's incapable of being done well, but a lot of games like that are about America waving it's giant willy around while also acting like they're the underdog. Frankly it just feels better to fight aliens that are actually technologically superior without any IRL hatreds and paranoia making their way in.

Considering the biggest modern FPS is Call of Duty were in the most successful MW sub titled one you mostly play British soldiers killing Americans and Russians yeah your comment is weird.

I said a lot, not all. There's still that trend in there somewhere, and I even said it could be done right.

 

[ArcaneGamer]

What a positive little feller. I think he's great.

I agree, and hold on a minute. "Games about humans shooting humans are gross." ...I need a second to process that.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

So far this strip is farting in every direction possible.

New games are stupid because enemies are never eliminated and there's always more war, even though old games relied on equally insistent nemeses like Bowser and Robotnik. Military shooters are gross, and so are alien shooters, but 'cool' overrides the awfulness of the latter. And so on I'm sure.

 

[Norithics]

*looks at the FB comments*
Criminy christmas, somebody needs to teach these people how to take in a piece of fiction. Not everything a character says is a personal author mouthpiece. Sometimes characters are just characters and have their own motivations!

I blame TVtropes. Everybody's too 'smart' for their own good.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Not everything a character says is a personal author mouthpiece.

No but everything these guys' characters say is, at least most of the time.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Yeah at times like these, I'm glad we haven't encounter any aliens yet or rather this is why aliens are avoiding us...