Someone should make an RPG based on this marketing video

[Rob Lang]

[misterecho]

I think a basic RPG set in the village of the damned would suffice

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

I think a couple have tried actually. Cybergneration had augmented reality before that years ago - I have the "Media Front" supplement on my shelf somewhere. The latest edition of Shadowrun has wireless networks. Eclipse Phase might have something to go with its transhumanist themes. For that matter, the anarchy zone sphere is augmented reality based on wearable trinary optical computers.

The big question is how do you really codify the capacity to create flash mobs or otherwise macro-manipulate data? At one point I was working on a game that had a friends/gang influence mechanic where you could either roll your die pool to see if people were available or spend a die to make them come - but that was calling in favors or forcing them to duck out of work so future chances were reduced.

Or of course, we could have everyone draw from communal pools so that all the characters are technically a hive mind entity...

[Onix]

Flashmobs tend to start from a subject that pops up (like Egypt protests) or a subject is introduced by someone who has a following and then calls for an action. Small mobs could be a percentage of your "Friends" on social networks based on a "charismatic writing" (or something like that) skill. The number of friends would be based on efforts to build a network of "Friends" over time.

The other option is to piggyback what you want to a subject of general concern. This could be using an existing group to disrupt something they weren't intent on. I'm thinking if the character used something like the Egypt protests to get people to demonstrate but the demonstration just happens to be where a business the character doesn't like is trying to have a sales event. This damages the company even if the people demonstrating weren't there for that and if the company is hostile, it might generate animosity toward the company.

[koipond]

[cjoki]

Wow...did you notice the like/dislike marker for that video?

Watching that video made me think of two songs playing at the same time; Queen "I want it all" and Pink Floyds "The Wall" and I have no idea why.

Honestly I have no idea how or even why you would want to make a game on this.

[madunkieg]

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

I've stated before - the first big telecommunication revolution was the telegraph. In the 19th century, you could outrun the law, but not Morse code.

Until you can e-mail beer, traditional marketing and distribution is going to have its place. What is going to be fun is when von neuman machines and 3d printers become common place, so the only thing you buy is the CAD/CAM blueprints and then create whatever you want in the garage.

Cybergeneration actually is a good example of the gneral phenomenon. The whole point is that kids have their own slang/con-lang to get messages past adults, combined with their own cliques that have gone beyond just school clubs into pre-teen societies and terrorist cells. (Albeit, ones we're rooting for since the government is a dictatorship.) 3d printers at local shops can produce most goods with the right program. Hacking is no longer just one eccentric net-runner, but a more general skill even in the hands of the kids. And yet for all this, they're still kids, and compared to adults, their skills are not as effective, because they don't have the experience, or understanding of reality or training or their forerunners. Meanwhile, even though this was once a society that hosted urban mercenaries with assault rifles and cybernetic upgrades - when social stability is offered, most people accept it.

There is a story by Isaac Asimov about a boy named Alexander who tries to copy the achievement of the Macedonia with whom he shares a name. The boy creates a super computer called Bucephalus, use its calculations to analyze stock trends, reinvest the dividends to improve it, and then repeats the process making a greater and greater machine to see more and more of the Earth's macro trends - with the idea of basically cornering all business and government. Finally its gone from a console in his room to a building sized machine, and Alex tries one last calculation of all history to see the final step to taking over. Bucephalus churns and churns, then shuts down because its come to insurmountable problem in its analysis. Never before was there a computer like it - so it can't account for this trend.

A pretty good summary of what may happen, given it was written before 1992.

[Onix]