#007: Desheriffed

[koobismo]

#007: Desheriffed

A hunting party gathers in Sim Town, as a deadly threat materialized within its borders.

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[Redlin5_v1legacy]

The Mayor better be another player character who frequently puts his citizens in danger for the hell of it.

 

[FPLOON]

Aw man... It's like these Sim citizens think they live under a dome or something... Then again, I guess the less they know (or remember, I think), the better they won't try to revolt or something drastic like that...

Other than that, it seems there is an outsider living in that town... even before the "sudden" intrusion...

 

[Gorrath]

Citizen Kabuto? Did I mention I love this comic? Because I love this comic.

 

[Dwarfman]

The plot thickens Koobismo ... No seriously this plot is simmering down into something intriguing.

 

[Imp_Emissary]

Aw. Guess that means we won't be seeing Kabuto in this game then? Shame, that'd be cool.

Pretty impressive list of successes by the way. xD
Should be neat to see how he deals with crazed little sisters.

 

[koobismo]

The Mayor better be another player character who frequently puts his citizens in danger for the hell of it.

Oh, he's very much *A* character, have some fun stuff planned for him! I can't reveal too much yet, but I'm hoping to have him plotting and vilaining up the place in no time (while still having a decent reason for all his simdoings).

Aw man... It's like these Sim citizens think they live under a dome or something... Then again, I guess the less they know (or remember, I think), the better they won't try to revolt or something drastic like that... Other than that, it seems there is an outsider living in that town... even before the "sudden" intrusion...

They are the very epitome of a "thoroughly gated off community", a rather well-known post-apo trope, but with some serious consequences for their status (and the story). They're semi-aware of the nature of the world, but not completely so, ignoring certain important changes happening throughout it, while living behind an actual "invisible wall", which the creatures and characters roaming about bounce off... usually.

Citizen Kabuto? Did I mention I love this comic? Because I love this comic.

And it loves you back! Yessir, Kabuto has been chased off, but is still roaming this world. Really hoping I'll get to make a decent little mini-arc with the gigantic beast popping up... Giants wrecked my mind when they came out. Bought a new GPU for that game.

The plot thickens Koobismo ... No seriously this plot is simmering down into something intriguing.

Thanks, man! In episode 9 we'll have a bit of a release of that thickening - an important infodump, so to speak, that I hope will act as a nice lay-down of rules and basics that will carry us on (and allow people to speculate a bit more freely).

Aw. Guess that means we won't be seeing Kabuto in this game then? Shame, that'd be cool. Pretty impressive list of successes by the way. xD Should be neat to see how he deals with crazed little sisters.

Oh, I'd love to bring Kabuto into the fold later on, as mentioned in a comment above - Kabuto's been chased off, but is still roaming the islands!

I really like the Simlish joke. Subtle but very, very effective.

Thank you!

Now while its not killing the strip for me, the whole "police officer killing people" plotline, given some recent events... yeah, you're clearly making a good effort of putting all the hallmark signs that he is innocent, but regardless this will probably leave a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths, including sensible people who know that this setup is an old trope. Just, bleh, reality bites sometimes I guess. Hopefully nothing becomes of it.

That's incredibly interesting (and a bit awkward for me now), in a way that only differing cultural context can bring about - I'll be frank, not at all something I planned to exploit, or even touch about. I should probably preamble this with a statement that I'm indeed Polish and living in Poland, and despite having American friends, a varied audience and using both US-centric social media and reading up US magazines (so, yeah, I am fully aware of the social and political tensions arising in the US right now), these are all topics happening "far across the ocean", happening in a culture similar, yet different from the one I live in every day. In short, they occupy my mind usually in the context of disseminating news from a far-away land.

With that said - some spoilers below.

Spoiler

This subplot actually came about from two tropes I really wanted to use for the Koza character (sidenote: his name means "Goat" in Polish): that of a lawful good character being gamed for political reasons (by the peerless "Mayor", who has established a one-man rule over Sim Town, while keeping up the appearances of a simlish, semi-democratic system), and of the stigma of failure in performing one's upmost duty ("you were supposed to protect them!"), which would bring about a dramatic subplot impacting Koza thoroughly later on in the story.

The situation itself was meant to invoke - on a very basic level - something akin to shooting two NPCs in Fallout, or any other RPG which allows you to do so with little consequence (losing karma and the standing with the community), and would be explored a bit more as we learn more details about the happenings, and the structure of Sim Town. Glitches, Koza's character flaws and the story's primary villain (not the Mayor) would all be implicit (no actual "demonic possession"), with politics (and the Mayor) involved in the way it was framed... Albeit no race politics, class struggle or any other Big Topics of the 20th and 21st Century - these were meant to be understood as gatekeeping efforts of the Mayor to close off potential political challengers, desperately seeking a way and moment to cut out someone who could threaten to challenge his ever-popular rule, to dismantle his one-man chieftainship.

Now, cultural context and zeitgeist being invariably important, I have little to say on US politics outside of rehashing analysis of people much smarter than me, and often in some awkwardness. I'd rather not go onto waters I might not be able to swim in elegantly - so, to sum up, you did catch me unprepared for such a reading here, and surprised at it. I'll do my best to lessen this association, and make sure it does appear in the context intended.

 

[Guffe]

Well this was actually one of the first panels I didn't find THAT interesting, there were a few nice thouches and some worldbuilding. But nothing of suspence like in the last 5 episodes. But don't worry, doesn't mean I'm skipping the series due to the fact that I thought one episode wasn't as good as the 5 earlier ones, and those have been very good!

 

[koobismo]

Yeah I usually don't make those kind of comments, but right now for Americans, this kind of subject matter is absolutely unavoidable, especially with the ongoing protesting and rioting in Baltimore. Its in the media every single day, from the newspaper in the morning to the late evening news to the late night talk shows. I know that a lot of people who aren't Americans are being exposed to this a lot through social media as well. I'm not trying to make this a matter of "waaah, I'm a big fat american slob and you have to cater to my sensibilities!", I'm just pointing out that its some incredibly delicate subject matter right now for certainly a large part of the audience, even non-americans, so I just wanted to make sure you were aware of the association. Its kind of like if somebody released this upcoming film in Nepal [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23VflsU3kZE], nothing wrong with the content matter itself and some time in the future somebody could look at it and not associate it with ongoing events, but right now is just... inopportune.

Ha, yes, I didn't mean that as a "Can't touch me! I'm Polish!" dingie at all, just explaining why the police brutality topic didn't really bounce around my head whilst writing this bit. I will definitely take your view under advisement and will try to set it up... well, respectfully, I think that's the proper word. I'm very much thankful for you sharing the opinion, dude!

Well this was actually one of the first panels I didn't find THAT interesting, there were a few nice thouches and some worldbuilding. But nothing of suspence like in the last 5 episodes. But don't worry, doesn't mean I'm skipping the series due to the fact that I thought one episode wasn't as good as the 5 earlier ones, and those have been very good!

Yeah, it was a bit slower, but there's a big bad reason for it - I absolutely broke the scenarios in half, not being able to fit into the weekly schedule. This episode was supposed to throw us back onto the Normandy and introduce the older Starchild (who was introduced in the next ep, as you've seen), and that's without the long-ass "newspaper flying on the wind while showing us some Sim Town landmark in the back, including Freddy's Pizza and other game references" sequence also envisioned for it. I'm just terrible at time managment. Anyhoo, what's ahead should be more exciting.