If you could live in a fictional world, which would it be?

[RanD00M]

After watching Scott Pilgrim vs. The World I would say that world. Think about it, the world itself is for the most part not all that different but there are some video game conventions in the world. You would most likely live a normal life but if anything happens it is top notch with GFX, power ups and money at the end if you succeed.

 

[pearcinator]

Mass Effect. Specifically either on the Citadel or Illium.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I don't know about that. The whole point of 40k is that everything is terrible. Even the best worlds have equal chances of being invaded by Orks or Chaos and at any given point in your life there's a 50% chance a local preacher is gonna' say you didn't praise the Emperor fast enough and take a chainsword to your stomach.
The whole point is that it sucks.

Sure...only it doesn't work like that. Armageddon has been settled for thousands of years, and Ghazghkull's second invasion was "The 3rd War for Armageddon". For centuries, the place has been at peace. There was 300 years between the first and second wars. 40k focuses on the wars, of course, but there's plenty of worlds that just produce the machines and food and everything else for some war somewhere else.

Preachers kill people, sure, but most people are left alone if they play by the rules. You end up with nobody left in your Empire if you kill everyone.

As far as gays in Star Trek, I know of one. Ensign Hawk from First Contact, who gets killed.

Who is also never shown to be gay in the movie, mind.

Also name me ONE downside to being a Space Wolf! I dare you!

Really hard to become one, though, the testing is murder...literally.

But, once you are one, all you ever do forever is fight, prepare to fight, drink and maybe sing. Sure, that might not sound too bad, but you don't ever get a break from that.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I don't know about that. The whole point of 40k is that everything is terrible. Even the best worlds have equal chances of being invaded by Orks or Chaos and at any given point in your life there's a 50% chance a local preacher is gonna' say you didn't praise the Emperor fast enough and take a chainsword to your stomach.
The whole point is that it sucks.

Sure...only it doesn't work like that. Armageddon has been settled for thousands of years, and Ghazghkull's second invasion was "The 3rd War for Armageddon". For centuries, the place has been at peace. There was 300 years between the first and second wars. 40k focuses on the wars, of course, but there's plenty of worlds that just produce the machines and food and everything else for some war somewhere else.

Actually it does work like that. Sure Armageddon was "peaceful" after the 1st War, but lets not forget in the time between the 1st and 2nd War the Inquisition literally killed everyone on the planet and most of the people in all the neighboring worlds and systems to keep the 1st War secret.
Also by peaceful we of course mean a literal boiling ocean, an atmosphere so toxic and radioactive it melts your skin off, jungles filled with insects and planets so large they can eat you alive, Hives so poor and over populated bandits, raiders, gangs and mutants run rampant on the Middle and Lower hive sections, upper Hive life consists of slaves and inbred nobles, and the average life expectancy of a Guardsman is around 12 hours.
Basically Fallout if you were constantly taking radiation damage. And that's life at its absolute best! It only goes down hill when World Eaters and Orks show up to eat your family.

Even the best worlds have over population and poverty problems so large we would consider them 3rd world countries. I think its a fundamental misunderstanding of the 40k 'verse to assume that just because you're not actively getting eviscerated by an Ork you're somehow living a good life.
Remember its called GrimDark for a reason. Its not GrimActuallyNotTooBadWhenYouThinkAboutIt

 

[senordesol]

Probably Pokemon. I get to explore the world with a half-dozen buddies to get me out of scrapes.

I imagine I would have attempted to be a trainer when I was a child, but would have spoiled for more cooperative/less violent uses for Pokemon later in life.

 

[senordesol]

Big ol' Star Trek snip

I will certainly agree that the Federation is one of the most incompetent governments in fiction next to the Galactic Empire, but a lot of your problems seem to stem from one of two places:

1. Frontier living
2. Technological advances.

The Federation gives a fair degree of autonomy to its citizens. Colonials tend to live 'roughly' because that's what they chose. Also, I get the impression that the colonies aren't directly answerable to the Federation (given their propensity to settle in wild space or in the territory of other species). As such, Colonial leaders are less State-appointed governors and more 'Citizens abroad', which is why Captains have authority.

Also, I'm currently watching Voyager and I don't remember them saying anything about the Federation monitoring brain waves. I know a deliberate sensor sweep in case of emergency can reveal the state of certain vital functions (i.e.: cortical activity), but I don't think it's ever been used to determine what someone was thinking...else, wouldn't it be impossible to cheat on an Academy exam or deceive the government at all?

With regard to the 'State' running everything. Remember, there *is* no economy except in the frontier. You open a restaurant because you want to share your cooking with the world; not because you need to pay the bills. So obviously the only industries that are now strictly necessary are State-run industries. There's no NEED to go to work or run a business. Spending your days running holodeck sex sims is a perfectly valid life choice.

For Warp core stability: It's the best tool they have for the job. The Federation hasn't mastered Trans-warp, and all other transport technology just won't do (ignoring the Trek reboot). So, yeah, it's dangerous but necessary.

I am with 100% agreement with the kids and family thing, though. Yes, Federation vessels are 'exploration' vessels and not war ships; but they aren't meant to be generational craft and are only at sea -er...'at space'?- for a few years at a time. Given all the scrapes they tend to fall into (at least for certain ships); it would make sense to leave families behind OR evacuate families during an emergent situation (i.e.: we've been called to the Romulan border).

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

I go with the same premise as others already did here in the thread: It depends on what i'm allowed to do.

If i can be/do whatever i want the Mass Effect universe is pretty tempting. I'm not sure if i'd be happy in a Gothic or DnD setting, because the medival age has it's problem with cleanlyness and medicine (which gets compensated with healer tbh), so it maybe less "comfy" than ME. But being a BAMF-Spellslinging mage would fancy me.

And if i just have to be myself i'd stay faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar away from most gameworlds because NPC's tend to get murdered all the bloody time and most universes are incredibly dangerous.
It's probably obvious but i'd stick with MLP. They're friendly, they're helpful but i'd have a problem changing my diet i guess. I love meat, but i guess it's a little bit looked down upon if you start eating your neighbours :/

 

[Zontar]

Also, I'm currently watching Voyager and I don't remember them saying anything about the Federation monitoring brain waves. I know a deliberate sensor sweep in case of emergency can reveal the state of certain vital functions (i.e.: cortical activity), but I don't think it's ever been used to determine what someone was thinking...else, wouldn't it be impossible to cheat on an Academy exam or deceive the government at all?

The episode in question (I forget which, and I'd have to dig through SF Debris' work to find it, an impossible task at the moment since he's still migrating his videos to another site) was one which had the brainwaves of the crew monitored at all times. It isn't that the computer can tell what they're thinking, it's just that it has a sensor dedicated to monitoring your mind in the 24th century equivalent to the brain scan. Which is a terrifying thought in-and-of-itself.

With regard to the 'State' running everything. Remember, there *is* no economy except in the frontier. You open a restaurant because you want to share your cooking with the world; not because you need to pay the bills. So obviously the only industries that are now strictly necessary are State-run industries. There's no NEED to go to work or run a business. Spending your days running holodeck sex sims is a perfectly valid life choice.

The problem with this, just like the problem that there is no money in the Federation, is that despite the replicators there is still scarcity. Every single character has shown to have things which can not be replicated, usually historical works or pieces of art or a plot of land on a planet. It's even worst in frontier worlds but even in the core worlds there are things everyone wants that can't be made by those machines, and without money to trade for them, well just watch the DS9 episode where Jake and Nog spend the whole time doing odd jobs for the crew to get a baseball (or was it a baseball card?) that was signed. The whole plot only exists because Jake has no money to buy it with, and since none of the DS9 crew gets more then a pittance (they do need to be paid due to living in a part of the galaxy which uses money) none of them can afford to just pay someone to do the work. That whole episode is viewed by many as a criticism of the Federation's moneyless society.

Plus, I have to wonder why the crewmen working below decks stay working in the 24th century equivalent of shovelling coal into the boiler or fixing said boiler, especially when the internal sensors of a ship coupled with replicators and a transporter system should make maintenance something that is a fully automated proses.

For Warp core stability: It's the best tool they have for the job. The Federation hasn't mastered Trans-warp, and all other transport technology just won't do (ignoring the Trek reboot). So, yeah, it's dangerous but necessary.

That doesn't explain why you have a physicist doing the work of an engineer, who had an actual engineer made turn their explosive engine into a slightly less explosive engine after all of five minutes tweaking the design. I find it hard to believe that someone who studied physics would want to build such a machine, and seems more like a case of someone being ordered to so something they didn't want. Which seems to happen a lot in a setting where people supposedly can do whatever they want with their lives. I know if I wanted to explore deep space I'd not join Starfleet, I'd make my own damn ship and do it myself. A runabout can run with as few as a single person, and even if your at the bottom of a crew of five on one of those things you're doing a lot more for exploration and discovery at the bottom of that food-chain then even being in the middle of a Starfleet ship's chain of command.

 

[Drakmorg]

I'd go with Animal Crossing.

Neighbors are pleasant, food is plentiful, construction technology is apparently so massively advanced and efficient than anything can be done overnight with no evidence it ever even occurred aside from the finished product, and loans all have no interest or require any sort of mandatory payment. Oh, and you can carry furniture in your pocket. Can you imagine how much less of a hassle moving to or from an upstairs apartment would be there? Otherwise it's pretty much exactly the same as what we've got going on now.

I'm just being realistic here. If I picked the setting from any of my other favorite video games, I'd be dead in a second because those places are all full of goddamn monsters and I sure as shit ain't no hero meself, nor would I even want to be.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Actually it does work like that. Sure Armageddon was "peaceful" after the 1st War, but lets not forget in the time between the 1st and 2nd War the Inquisition literally killed everyone on the planet and most of the people in all the neighboring worlds and systems to keep the 1st War secret.

Shipped them off to labour camps, IIRC, but then replaced them with new settlers.

Also by peaceful we of course mean a literal boiling ocean, an atmosphere so toxic and radioactive it melts your skin off, jungles filled with insects and planets so large they can eat you alive,

Sure, so nobody much lives there.

Hives so poor and over populated bandits, raiders, gangs and mutants run rampant on the Middle and Lower hive sections, upper Hive life consists of slaves and inbred nobles, and the average life expectancy of a Guardsman is around 12 hours.

Citation needed there. Now, sure, there was a massive wealth disparity, but things weren't nearly that bad. There is no reason to claim a life expectancy of 12 hours for a guardsman, and they aren't locals anyway.

Annihilation Squad says that life was hard, sure, but things were mostly alright until the orks came.

Even the best worlds have over population and poverty problems so large we would consider them 3rd world countries.

Excepting, of course, those worlds described as being paradises, of which there are many. Prandium comes to mind...sure, after 10,000 years it gets eaten by 'nids, but that's not a bad run.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

SNIP

Okay, lets do this thoroughly.

1. On the matter of the labor camps, yes the skilled labor workers were sterilized and shipped off the labor camps to die. Unskilled labor and soldiers were straight up killed. The off-world soldiers shipped in to help fight the 1st War were killed, every planet they had visited en-route to Armageddon was destroyed, and their homeworlds were destroyed too.
Basically everyone who had ever heard of any planet that had ever even heard of any regiment was killed. To like a Kevin Bacon 7th degree.

2. True, granted.

3. In The Emperor's Gift the Grey Knights refer to Armageddon as basically hell, even before the Orks came. In In The Depths Of Hades the Marines Malevolent simply bombard a prison camp, claiming there wasn't much to the human's life anyway. Granted the Marines Malevolent are dicks, but they know enough of Armageddon to not care.

In Helsreach Grimaldus has to put down factory and dock worker riots because the people are starving while the nobles and Sisters of Battle eat well.
Also as far as 12 hours I did get that hour wrong: its 15 hours. They even have a novel, 15 Hours, about how the average life of a Guardsmen the day after he completes basic training is 15 hours long. Some, Valhalla and Cadians, sit proudly on 17 hours.

Spoiler

The main character makes it 15 hours and 2 minutes before he bleeds out from a shoota wound in his guts.

4. Paradise worlds really do depend on who you are, as I initially said. Sure, for Lord Inquisitors, Nobles, Men of Mark, and a whole punch of privileged 1 in a hundred billion people life can be great. In Hammer of Daemons an Inquisitor suggests a previously possessed Grey Knight retire to a paradise world, citing all the sex slaves there.
The statement and implication being that paradise worlds are paradise for people who aren't slaves on them.
Hell, even in the Ultramarines novels they openly refer to people as slaves of Ultramar. Calth, Macragge, you name it. They keep slaves.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

But I find it very strange you would bring this up as an example of a dystopia when you choose the Stargate world of all places as the universe you would most like to live in. You even say in your own post how humans are the most powerful civilisation and are destined to rule over the universe as guardians of peace and order.
That's a hell of a lot more sapien centric than having naming schemes that are human normative.

It's not humans who are the most powerful civilization in Stargate, it's Earth. In the setting, the Milky Way has about only a half dozen intelligent alien species who are not just a few thousand people on a single world (the primary antagonists of the series exterminated a lot of species, as well as pretty much any industrial level human world they came across). A good 95% of the galaxy's population is human (with the number being even higher in the Pegasus galaxy) but most live between ancient agrarian and medieval level of technology. Of the 5% lest, 4 of it is one of two species that are just genetically modified humans (to the point where it's debatable weather their differences constitutes a different species or breed) with the last 1% being everything else. Earth was entrusted with protecting the humans of the universe by the species which had previously done so in the form of giving us all their knowledge (including replicators which effectively did all that a replicator logically could, like building a ship or city in front of your eyes) since we had proven ourselves worthy of taking on such responsibility. We as a world where given the responsibility to protect the humans of the galaxy, and as that was virtually all of the galaxy anyway, and most of the aliens who where not human where officially allies of Earth on top of that, it effectively made us the protectors of the galaxy at large.

Compare that to the Federation's "we're all about everyone being free and equal" while being Terra-centric to the core and it's hard to really claim they're one and the same, especially since they'll gladly leave their own citizens out to dry if it's convenient (the Federation/Cardassian DMZ).

Yeah no, I watched that episode (despite the presence of The Wesley) and even though he didn't want to move the colonists, he was going to because there's no way the Cardassian's would tolerate them for long. At the end of the episode they renounced their status as citizens of the Federation and are officially in Cardassian territory mean when the Cardassians, surprising no one, start getting out the jackboots the Federation can't intervene without causing a second war with Cardassia. Those people made their beds on that one, they've no right to ***** about the Carassians Dutch ovening them.

 

[Zontar]

Yeah no, I watched that episode (despite the presence of The Wesley) and even though he didn't want to move the colonists, he was going to because there's no way the Cardassian's would tolerate them for long. At the end of the episode they renounced their status as citizens of the Federation and are officially in Cardassian territory mean when the Cardassians, surprising no one, start getting out the jackboots the Federation can't intervene without causing a second war with Cardassia. Those people made their beds on that one, they've no right to ***** about the Carassians Dutch ovening them.

And what about the humans on the Federation's side of the DMZ who where constantly being raided by not-Cardassians, and who could not have Starfleet come to their defence due to the fact that doing so would violate the peace treaty that the Cardassians where already ignoring to the point where a state of war between the Federation and Union was already effectively what they where in even if the Federation wasn't fighting back?

I wasn't taking those hippies on the Cardassian side of the boarder into account when I made my statement, I was talking about the ones on the Federation side who where effectively pirate play ground.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Yeah no, I watched that episode (despite the presence of The Wesley) and even though he didn't want to move the colonists, he was going to because there's no way the Cardassian's would tolerate them for long. At the end of the episode they renounced their status as citizens of the Federation and are officially in Cardassian territory mean when the Cardassians, surprising no one, start getting out the jackboots the Federation can't intervene without causing a second war with Cardassia. Those people made their beds on that one, they've no right to ***** about the Carassians Dutch ovening them.

And what about the humans on the Federation's side of the DMZ who where constantly being raided by not-Cardassians, and who could not have Starfleet come to their defence due to the fact that doing so would violate the peace treaty that the Cardassians where already ignoring to the point where a state of war between the Federation and Union was already effectively what they where in even if the Federation wasn't fighting back?

I wasn't taking those hippies on the Cardassian side of the boarder into account when I made my statement, I was talking about the ones on the Federation side who where effectively pirate play ground.

Then the Federation fucked up, plain and simple. Or rather Starfleet Intelligence fucked up by not pulling their fingers out and doing some damn work.

 

[ZeroFarks]

Holy Crap
3 pages in and I'm going to be the first person to say

FIREFLY

 

[Thaluikhain]

SNIP

Okay, lets do this thoroughly.

1. On the matter of the labor camps, yes the skilled labor workers were sterilized and shipped off the labor camps to die. Unskilled labor and soldiers were straight up killed. The off-world soldiers shipped in to help fight the 1st War were killed, every planet they had visited en-route to Armageddon was destroyed, and their homeworlds were destroyed too.
Basically everyone who had ever heard of any planet that had ever even heard of any regiment was killed. To like a Kevin Bacon 7th degree.

Not in the fluff I've read. But yeah, not nice to be on a planet invaded by one of the 9 demon Primarchs, but it was the only one he'd invaded in a thousand years, IIRC.

Also, note that Armageddon is regarded as a particularly nasty warzone.

Also as far as 12 hours I did get that hour wrong: its 15 hours. They even have a novel, 15 Hours, about how the average life of a Guardsmen the day after he completes basic training is 15 hours long. Some, Valhalla and Cadians, sit proudly on 17 hours.

No, they had a novel in which it was claimed that a guardsman fighting on that world had a life expectancy of 15 hours. According to some guardsmen who'd been fighting there for several years. The numbers don't add up at all, and even if they did, they applied to that war only.

It's mentioned in several places, notably the Last Chancers, that after 10 years or so a IG regiment will often be sent as part of the colonists of a new world (and form the PDF, I guess), and that regiments are only given garrison duties on some backwater world and forgotten about.

4. Paradise worlds really do depend on who you are, as I initially said. Sure, for Lord Inquisitors, Nobles, Men of Mark, and a whole punch of privileged 1 in a hundred billion people life can be great. In Hammer of Daemons an Inquisitor suggests a previously possessed Grey Knight retire to a paradise world, citing all the sex slaves there.
The statement and implication being that paradise worlds are paradise for people who aren't slaves on them.
Hell, even in the Ultramarines novels they openly refer to people as slaves of Ultramar. Calth, Macragge, you name it. They keep slaves.

They weren't sex slaves, IIRC, they were volunteers.

And, yes, the people of Macragge are slaves of the UM, in that the UM are their lords and masters (I don't remember the word "slave" being used, but it might well have been). OTOH, there's no mention in the UM books, or the Calpurnia books (she grew up there) of them being treated badly. They seem to be fairly well off.

Likewise, in the SW novels, it's mentioned that the first ship Ragnar was on had a crew mostly made of condemned criminals (which is a terrible idea, btw), but that when he goes on a SW ship, there's a big difference and that the crew are subservient to the marines, they are treated with respect. Likewise in the UM novels, actually. You a need well trained crew that respect you, you don't want to rely on slaves for your big expensive complicated military vessel.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

As long as I could be Mistborn, and a minor Noble I would love to be in Scanrial. The gothic buildings, the lavish parties, the awesome suits and fashion.... and the ability to use metals as my source of power to dip my toe into all the business that is going on.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Yugioh cuz people settle their issues with card games and it's cool that holograms come to life.

This. I've said it on Youtube at least once. Doesn't matter what card game it is, holograms like that would make its popularity skyrocket, and no one seems to have a clue what a good, stable deck is so you could easily hit it big as a professional.

Spoiler

The only downside is occasionally you have this happening to you:

Or that one time when 'Darkness' successfully took control of everyone's minds for an afternoon. But when there's trouble like that you just call DW look to the person with the weirdest, most colourful hairstyle to save you by beating the monster at a card game. Just keep calm and cheer them on.