kostoffj on 14/8/2001 at 19:08
Quote:
Originally posted by Agent Red:
[QB]The Tong ending seems to be misunderstood. First, all the global communication nets go through Aquanis. Everything. With the router destroyed, everything from cell phones to long-distance phone lines will be severed. This does NOT mean a global economic collapse! Factories will still churn out products and corn will still grow if you stick it in the dirt. The only issue is that the global supply chains will be severed. Many people feel the world would fall into post apocolyptic, but I feel it will be more of a localized future, with supply routes being bent back into their home nations and nationalization reimerging. Even if there is civil disorder, I doubt people will riot and risk life and limb because they couldn't send an e-mail to Grandma. Supply lines may only take weeks to be rebuilt to nearby industries. [QB]
Without supply chains, nothing happens, nothing at all. Modern society simply cannot function without communications, industry is too highly integrated into the global economy to do function without it. How can factories continue to churn out products if they receive no supplies? Where will they send their products to if they cannot communicate? From whom will they order repair parts when their machines break down? How will food get from farms to cities without a functioning supply route (most modern cities can go about 3 days until on hand food stocks are exhausted)? Where will hospitals get their pharmaceuticals from? And so forth.
The problem with modern society, even today (and certainly will be much more the case by the time of DX), is that the global economy is so integrated that it's simply impossible to fall back on local or regional solutions in the short and medium term. Any given factory or lab requires sophisticated machinery to operate which requires parts from many widely dispersed parts of the world. Also, most are driven by raw and processed materials only available from abroad. Think of the US: most steel production in the US has moved offshore; Americans rely predominantly on foreign steel and the great old steel mills of the past, like at Bethlehem PA, are all in ruins. You can't simply start them back up again, they're in too much disrepair. And even if you could, who would know how to operate and maintain machines out of use for decades? With the global lines of supply and communications cut, industry is paralyzed, and soon falls apart. Modern industry is too sensitive to disruption. To use a military metaphor: a 19th century infantry battalion cut off from supply lines forages, less effective but still able to fight. A 21st century tank battalion cut off from supply
stops dead in its tracks.
With supply routes down and the organs of modern society stopped, social chaos would certainly set in. What do you think people will do when the supply of food in the big metropolis runs out? Sit and wait patiently for more? Remember, for many advanced societies, returning to local agriculture just isn't an option. Populations are far too large to feed with the available arable land. Faced with the certainty of die-back (to sustainable levels), lots of people aren't going to want to go quietly.
Really, this was the big fear of Y2K - that if communications infrastructure was to a large extent disabled, chaos would break out.
WhiteRabbit on 15/8/2001 at 15:16
What if DX2 wasn't an extension of the game as far as what happens next, but a kind of prequel to the original where you play as Paul Denton. Actually, that would be better as an expansion pack rather than a whole new game.
rozcrash on 16/8/2001 at 02:03
heres what i have to say, the illuminatti is the best ending because the world would be controlled by a dictator or dictators but it would keep the illusion of a democracy and JC could fulfill his killer cyborg instinct by becoming the assissin for the illuminatti
rozcrash on 17/8/2001 at 22:50
again sorry about the punctuation i was tired.
X on 19/8/2001 at 19:54
WhiteRabbit: Development of this is already underway, see the Hosted Sites section at Planet DeusEx.
If the global communications network was destroyed trade on a capitalist scale would first suffer then cease to exist. The integration of communications into trade has meant an over reliance on globalisation, even in our time. If the network was destroyed, then Tracer Tong's plan of government on a scale comprehensible to the individual could be realised. However, I personally, fail to see the reasoning behind the destruction of what will inevitably be built again.
PowerCrazy on 22/8/2001 at 17:24
Well after some calculations about the devastation the "New Dark Age" ending would create I decided the most Morally Correct ending was helios. Read the post about Area 51 secrets, in DX general discussion.
BlackCapedManX on 23/8/2001 at 04:54
Agree with PowerCrazy on "dark age" ending, big explosion many dead people, more chaos than city-state communities. But I have had many a heated disccusion with one of my history teacher and beleive that none of the ending would be truely moral in the state that the game left them in. The ultimate form of government would be Marxist-communism. In which people take only what they need and have wealth based on their abilities.
However, never has there been a world power sting enough to make a full inforcement of such a government that it would not be overthrown by other governments. This caused communism to become corrupt. In either the "Invisible Hand" or the "God From a Machine" endings, a communist world goverment would be feasible, in which it would not matter if you were to walk into drug store and pick up some candy and just leave. The same person who owned the drug store would be able to walk into your TV shop and just walk away with a TV. Services such as doctoring or electronic repair could be free, but only if enforced by power string enough that it would not be overthrown. Only the illuminati or Helios could achive so much power.
So to conclude I beleive that the helios ending would be the best because have a single source of direct power would make conversion to world communism quicker, simplier, and easier than by the manipulative functions of the illuminati.
By the way, the term "God From a Machine" would seem most accurate because it is the english translation of the latin phrase Deus Ex Machina. And if you think about it both JC and Helios were machines, JC more metaphorical in that he was part of the system, and Helios more literally. And combined they had Godlike abilities. And to further the correctness of the ending the quote form Voltare "If there were no god then we would have to invent one," fits right in with the title.
7X
X on 23/8/2001 at 18:40
A fellow "socialist", one assumes.
A Marxist society is achievable by two of the three endings agreed. However the most sucessful infiltration of socialist idealogy would be the more subtle and less obvious route of the Illuminati. If society was still to percieve that it controlled its own destiny then it would be less likely to rebel than it would when it would have a figurehead like the Helios Denton entity.
me on 28/8/2001 at 18:16
i chose the iluminati ending but i dont know why
nethawk on 2/9/2001 at 09:13
I didn't trust Tong (though to me he was the coolest character to interact with) or Everett - and Helios even less, so I just wasted Area 51 by blowing it up. The reason I believe not fusing w/ Helios was a good idea is that even IF Denton's rule in the world with Helios backing him up workied out, what about when he finally got old and croaked? Does Helios die with him or does it look for another host? And can that host be trusted?
And if the Iluminati regain power, then the seeds of corruption for future (perhaps even immediate) corruption have simply been replanted.
Tong's ending on the other hand, forces the world's rich bastards and the lowly folk (who never had much anyhow) to work together hand in hand to rebuild what was lost - and possibly solidify their alliances. Also, since a sense of nature definitely seemed to be missing from Deus Ex, forcibly placing people back in contact with Gaia seemed like a viable alternative. But of course, it was fun to go through Tong's ending simply because everything blows up!!! Way more dramatic and apocalyptic.
