Space Sweepers, a very cool movie. I think aspects are modeled after Eve online. A truly international cast of characters. I am very impressed.
One thing that came from the movie, with so many languages in space, everyone wore a universal translator which allows people to mingle from all nationalities. I really would like to see Eve integrate in game translation. It really needs to happen to stamp out nationalism and racism in the game.
I thought it was cool in the movie when it depicted everyone being able to interact with each other without the national and language barrier.
I think Eve should integrate in game translation, but incorporate an algorithm that intentionally alters the translation in a way to encourage hostility and conflict -kind of like the HK-50 “protocol” droids from KotOR.
i.e. “Good fight” would become, “you are lacking in the qualities traditionally associated with masculinity within your culture.”
It does look pretty damn cool (having just watched the trailer …)
Some thoughts:
I loved the scene with the guy in a gas mask getting a retina scan. Utterly preposterous of course, but cool at the same time;
I loved the doughnut space elevator. Possibly realistic, to a degree, and super cool;
The cockpit shots (which are definitely cool) do, of course, play to the Japanese SF notion of a future dystopia where some things are staggeringly advanced technologically, and others are almost rudimentarily retro. For example, manually operated rudder pedals (0.17), massive, over engineered manual flight controls (0.18, 1.31-1.32, 1.53), overly complicated cockpit instrument panels (0.28-0.30 + 1.36). Surely at this stage of human technological evolution most ship controls would be fully/partly controlled and/or assisted by AI?
Lastly, the acceleration gates (1.09) are very cool and, IMHO, look a bit more realistic than some of the ones in EVE, (sorry hardworking CCP designers and developers).
Having said all this, I definitely will be checking this out. Thanks for sharing @Darthmolor!
My Dad has always said that Esperanto is one of the great missed opportunities in the history of the human species. Were all children taught this language from birth, rather than separate and different national languages, hatred becomes much harder to create and peace becomes easier to maintain.
Having said this, given the trajectory of our species, I suspect the movie is realistic insofar as rather than going for the very easy solution (just teach everyone the same language from birth) they go for the overly complicated one (invest a staggering amount of money, time and energy in developing a complex bit of technology to automatically translate all languages into your own).
As far as language and culture go, EVE is, in many ways, probably quite a realistic representation of the future - humans split into four district and separate cultures with different languages, philosophies, culture and norms. (think about English, a combination of Japanese and Chinese [let’s call it Japachi], a combination of French/Spanish [let’s call it Frenish] and Russian and you may have the future of the human race in your head …)
As far as how we might work a universal translator into the game, I think this is a brave suggestion, especially since now that the game has localised versions for various languages, as you point out, real world nationalising is creeping into the online game.
Whether it will happen is a difficult one. Translation via Google does exist (although it’s far from perfect) and so, on some levels, it might be possible to plug this into this forum somehow so that rather than having localised sections, everyone can read everything in their language of choice.
Having said this, while this might be possible at some point in the future here(don’t hold your breath though …) I honestly can’t see it happening in the game any time soon given the dynamic nature of what people are physically doing, minute by minute.
Easy to think so from a European perspective, but in reality Esperanto has some major faults because it is so obviously a language based on European ones utilising conventions common in European languages but rarer elsewhere.
I had viewed Esperanto more positively before I learned more about non Indo-European languages and how varied grammars were.
Keeping sentences simple helps. My first sentence of this post gets scrambled easily.
If you look at a whole bunch of Japanese SF movies (which I love by the way, just for the record) whether it’s Pacific Rim and other Mecha movies, Space Battleship Yamato, or even Akira there is a slight tradition in many narratives of having over engineered mechanisms and technology.
Whilst it’d be entirely fair to point out that this is not an exclusively Japanese trend in science fiction narratives it does seen to be one that is particularly strong in Japanese output.
I think that’s an entirely fair point @Avaelica_Kuershin and one that’s hard to argue against.
The only difficult is that, possibly sadly, in the absence of an internationally recognised language, English is becoming the one that is this almost by default. And even though, as an English speaker, this is something that works in my favour, I’m not sure that it’s the best choice for the world generally.
True. Having said this, in time I’m sure things will get more and more sophisticated and one day we will really all have a Babel Fish, metaphorically anyway, in our ear/s.
Here’s something you might also enjoy . Underrated , but digestible if you take it for what it is a fun action sci-fi movie done in the 80’s-90’s style:
Oh are you just talking about Mecha? Because I can by that (Pacific Rim isnt Japanese though).
I thought you meant Hard industry imagery within the context of say Faster than Light travel or such. A sword on a starship kinda thing.
Cos Id just want to point to original Star Wars, Alien, Dune, Battle Beyond the Stars, in fact the vast bulk of the sci fi that caused the popularity of Mecha to change and refine into the late 1970s early 80s. Battleship Yamato though I feel does fit in as its not influenced directly by any of that line of (60s novels and) 70s movies, its certainly a trend setter, and one of myown personal favourites.
The most “practical” combat spaceships would take the form of a sphere (like the Death Star) or a cone (if frontal-facing), in order to maximize the ability to change directions quickly via thrusting, and maximize the amount of firepower that can be brought down on the enemy.
I mean look at the monstrosity above. All you really have to do is attack it from below, and it can’t do a single damn thing to you.
I prefer to stomp on the racist nation as a way to get rid of racist nationalists. No more nation no more problem, tada!
And, in Eve I can try (and often fail!) to do just that.
How? All of those points bits are looking up, not down.
And sure, it has fighter cover, but I’m assuming if you’re attacking something like that, you’re not doing it with two guys in a home-made cardboard rocket bumping into its keel, but have an appropriate military force of your own. It’s a very silly ship.
