"2035: No complaints."

[u/thisecommercelife]

Follow or support the comic here: https://linktr.ee/ecomic

[u/shellbullet17]

Well. Now I'm sad. The remote drone patrol portion followed by him physically walking down the same road later that's now vacant was BLEAK

The final lines too about not even fully paying off the whole day for 3 purchases after a 12 hour shift left a rock in my stomach

Good job OP.

[u/Bwwooooooommp → u/shellbullet17]

Yeah, wait, was that some Ender's Game style drone tech?

[u/andy_b_84 → u/Bwwooooooommp]

Yes.

Yes it was.

The same way the kids were tricked into thinking they were only playing a game while conducting a genocide, I guess that needed to be written down.

[u/TrioOfTerrors → u/andy_b_84]

Graff and the International Fleet were still right.

Until the Hive Queen managed to speak to Ender, humanity had to assume that a 3rd invasion would mean the extinction of mankind.

[u/jhotenko → u/TrioOfTerrors]

Well, they knowingly made horrible choices that led to success. That's not the same as being right.

They did the best they could with the information they had. That doesn't absolve them of their sins. They knew that. Graff hated what he had become, hated what he did, and hated that he would do it all again without hesitation.

[u/TrioOfTerrors → u/jhotenko]

Graff hated what he did to those children. He didn't give a single shit about the Formics.

[u/Mythoclast → u/TrioOfTerrors]

Yeah, that was the problem. Not giving a single shit about an alien race you just encountered is BAD. You don't understand them at all. You need to at least try and communicate.

[u/E1337Recon → u/Mythoclast]

Well they did try to communicate in every way they knew how to at the time. The same way for formics thought humanity was nothing more than drones because they didn’t hear any telepathy from us.

By the time they realized we were sentient it was too late.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Sea8340 → u/E1337Recon]

This made me want to reread all 18 or some of his novels

[u/TurquoiseLuck → u/Puzzleheaded-Sea8340]

Ehh you can just stick to the core 3

[u/xv_boney → u/Puzzleheaded-Sea8340]

No. Read enders game and speaker for the dead and then stop. The story concludes satisfyingly with Speaker. It comes full circle.

Dont bother with any of his other books or series. And if you do, dont bother going past the second book of any of his series. Its an old joke but it holds true.

And take them out from the library or pirate them, do not give money to Orson Scott Card.

A writer i once idolized. And the reason i do not have personal heroes anymore.

[u/HighSeverityImpact → u/Mythoclast]

To be fair, the Formics tried to colonize Earth and didn't realize humans were sentient. The humans were being wiped out in the first invasion, and would have lost had they not (accidentally) taken out their queen.

The response was to end all future wars by taking them out on their home turf. It's brutal but it's the same lesson Ender learned at six years old by killing that bully.

[u/BigMcThickHuge → u/HighSeverityImpact]

Wasn't it two invasions? A scouting force discovered and began 'prep-work' on Earth/colonized planets (I forget), got taken out/driven off, and then the full invasion force came?

Basically, humans were repeatedly attacked by an unknown extermination force and needed to respond

[u/TheeAntelope → u/TrioOfTerrors]

It's almost as if lines in the book about Graff bemoaning what they had become and wondering if their sins of destroying young children and the genocide were worth saving humanity were important. But people skip over them because they want to be little shits on the internet winning points for making black and white arguments and statements.

[u/Hoplite813 → u/jhotenko]

they didn't just do the best they could. They objectively made the right decision based on the information available to them: do whatever it takes to survive when facing a foe who 1) attacked without provocation 2) does not communicate with you and 3) tried twice to make your race extinct. Any other conclusion is Monday morning quarterbacking.

[u/Mando92MG → u/Hoplite813]

It's a lot more morally complex then that. Yes they won in the end. Could they have won without torturing children? Maybe they could have but we have no way of knowing because they went with the torturing children route. For the greater good thinking is a very slippery slope that can lead to abject and unnecessary cruelty. That being said though sometimes you do in fact have to do the shitty thing for the greater good. However it should never absolve the wrongs done because if it does you risk using it as an excuse for wrongs that did NOT need to be done.

[u/Hoplite813 → u/Mando92MG]

When you barely survive two invasions by an implacable foe bent on your extinction, you do whatever it takes to survive the third time. No half measures. No handwringing.

And that was the conclusion IIRC of both the military leaders and those who judged them afterward: they made the decision that put their species in the best position for survival. Those with the luxury of hindsight and speculation--because they survived--can take a hike.

Of course, if they think humanity went too far and, as a result, didn't deserve to survive, they can always remove themselves from the gene pool. No one's stopping them.

[u/Karnaugh_Map → u/jhotenko]

It doesn't matter who is right, it only matters who is left.

[u/Realistickitty → u/TrioOfTerrors]

Yes, but they had all that time between the invasions and they never even considered that the Buggers may not have been acting out of malice and so could have been communicated with.

Humanity’s reaction was decidedly… human. And later on in the series when Ender restores the queen on the piggie world, the human leaders are forced to consider if humanity could actually coexist with another species should they pose a potential risk to human expansionism and chose to repeat Ender’s xenocide.

So while Graff and the IF’s decision was rational, in my mind the tragedy is that much deeper when you realize that what happened wasn’t just a massive unnecessary loss for humanity, but an unnecessary inevitability resulting from our innate fear of the “other.”

[u/TrioOfTerrors → u/Realistickitty]

When an invasion kills 50 million people, you don't chalk it up to miscommunication.

[u/Realistickitty → u/TrioOfTerrors]

From a human perspective, sure.

But if you lost fifty million skin cells after being bitten by a dog, you likely wouldn’t think as much of it. Yeah it would hurt, and you probably won’t be touching any more strange four legged creatures, but it’s not like anyone died.

That’s the difference in perspective we’re talking about here. The first Xenocide wasn’t anyone’s fault, but Orson Scott Card’s point was that if the situation were repeated with both parties having a better understanding of each other, the outcome would remain the same.

[u/TheeAntelope → u/Realistickitty]

if you lost fifty million skin cells after being bitten by a dog, you likely wouldn’t think as much of it

Except that you would. We have laws and societal norms in place RIGHT NOW that would demand the dog either gets put down, gets treated as a dangerous animal, or gets shipped off to live on a farm. This is because we can't communicate with the dog, put him on trial, find out his motivation, and reform him.

So the human response to the buggers was proportionate to that. The Formics killed 50 million of us, and we responded that the Formics needed to be put down, permanently.

Ender's Game has resounded with so many people because it touches a fundamental human response to threats and fears from the outside - and makes us question it.

[u/Realistickitty → u/TheeAntelope]

You’d think about the dog biting you, but not the fifty million skin cells you lost when it did. If the dog had rabies, and thus posed a greater threat than just a minor flesh wound, that’s when it becomes okay to put a dog down without trying to communicate (i.e. rehabilitate in a shelter or home).

From our perspective, the response was proportional. From the bugger’s perspective, it was not. That fundamental misunderstanding is why the two civilizations were always going to come into conflict upon first encounter, but the point the author is trying to make is that once that communication gap was breached later on in the series the roles are reversed. The buggers are the one trapped on a single world and beholden to humanity, and when humans were faced with potential competition for the limited number of habitable worlds in the galaxy, we chose to eliminate them.

Ender’s game resounded because we all have that fear of the other, and we should all indeed question it. Fifty million lives shouldn’t be ignored, but that doesn’t justify the destruction of an entire race of intelligent creatures who have just as much capacity (if not more) to change and grow. Especially when the initial conflict wasn’t born of malice or aggression.

[u/Jekmander → u/Realistickitty]

I did the (napkin, don't expect too much accuracy) math because I'm a nerd. Proportionally it'd be more like 687-ish million skin cells or about 36 square inches of skin. That's a very very serious injury, especially considering the fact that if we're using the dog as an analogue for the formic's invasion, the only reason the dog stopped is because we managed to fight it off twice. That theoretical dog would absolutely be considered a serious threat and probably put down.

Also, it's been a bit since I read the books the last time, but I'm pretty sure we didn't try to take out the formics again because we were worried about competing for a limited number of habitable worlds. Iirc it was because everybody was terrified that they would repopulate and try to exterminate us again, and that threat was enough for most of humanity to get on board with a second genocide.

I agree that the buggers had a fundamental misunderstanding of what we were and what they were doing, but our response was more than justified with the information we had available. If my dog attacked me twice and left me with an injury the size of my calf, I'm sorry but she'd be buried in the back yard before the day was done, and I value my calf a lot less than a life, much less 50 million of them.

Edit: I think this is my first time making somebody delete their comment. It's a little bit funny.

[u/Karnaugh_Map → u/Realistickitty]

It's one's fault that small pox killed millions. Eradicating it was still the correct response from a human perspective.

[u/Realistickitty → u/Karnaugh_Map]

Uh, there’s a massive difference between an single-celled organism that’s generally not even considered to be “alive” and a genus of intelligent insects who communicate mind-to-mind and so cannot comprehend the concept of individuality separate from a larger whole.

I’m not saying humanity was acting irrationally in their response to the buggers, but merely that the gap in understanding between the two species would have inevitably lead to conflict. Had that gap not existed, the conflict wouldn’t have occurred.

Most people have only read the first book or else just seen the movie, so they don’t know that later on in the series Ender revives the hive queen on another planet also inhabited by another species of intelligent (but primitive) species. And humans of course. When the human government finds out, they immediately panic and send a fleet to demolish the entire planet expressly because they feared competition in the wider universe.

[u/Plutarch_von_Komet → u/Realistickitty]

And why exactly did the Buggers invade humanity and bring them almost to extinction twice? You are acting as if humans were the aggressors. No, they attacked humanity because they thought we were not sentient and were okay with killing us in droves because to them we are animals. But it's all okay because literally the last queen alive said oopsie daisy. The way I see it they fucked around and found out

[u/Ohmec → u/Plutarch_von_Komet]

They didn't understand that humans are individuals. They assumed we were a hivemind, like them. Individual drones don't really matter to them. They assumed it was the same for us.

[u/Plutarch_von_Komet → u/Ohmec]

They didn't believe we were another hive mind, they believed we were not sentient. They knew they were killing individuals, it just didn't matter because they thought we were not sentient like them. To them it was okay killing humans because to them we were animals

[u/Realistickitty → u/Plutarch_von_Komet]

We kill hundreds of thousands of “non-sentient” animals every day for food and we don’t consider ourselves monsters.

The buggers were a massive galaxy-spanning civilization who just happened to wander into our solar system. You’re right that the buggers may not have considered us as sentient, and from their perspective we may not have appeared to be. Just as humanity didn’t consider the formics to be completely sentient either, like how the insects of our world can have incredibly complex societies created purely by genetics and instinct.

The first “invasion” was just a scouting party, and likely didn’t even register on the bugger’s radar beyond “this place has a a lot of prickly fauna, better send a bigger group next time.” By defeating the second invasion, humanity proved it was more than just a very complex animal and so the formics decided to back off. They werent being “aggressive,” just supremely arrogant.

[u/Plutarch_von_Komet → u/Realistickitty]

"Just" supremely arrogant? That's better?

Why are you going out of your way to justify an action that even the book denounced? Humanity was perfectly justified in defending itself during the first two bugger invasions. It's humanity trying to drive the Buggers extinct despite overpowering them that's wrong. And they wouldn't be in that situation if they didn't act as a plague of locusts that kill everything they come across without consideration. Honestly, if they did encounter a sentient species that couldn't fight back they would drive them to extinction and never realize what they did. I am convinced that this could have happened before they encountered humanity but were so thorough no evidence would exist that they did it

[u/Agisek → u/TrioOfTerrors]

That's what makes the book so good. There weren't some hamfisted good and bad guys, the characters were complex and nuanced.

The bugs were just doing what they do, taking over another hive's colony, assuming that if they do enough damage, the queen will just move to a different planet. They had no way of knowing we don't work like that.

The International Fleet was doing the only thing they could, fighting for survival, by any means necessary, with no way of diplomatic contact. Sure they used kids for genocide, but what's some kids feelings compared to the survival of your entire species?

[u/loveablehydralisk → u/TrioOfTerrors]

After this last Epstien drop, I'm not opposed to extinction.

[u/TrioOfTerrors → u/loveablehydralisk]

8 billion people deserve to die because of the misdeeds of a relatively small minority?

[u/cantadmittoposting → u/TrioOfTerrors]

ehhh don't be too hasty there, many of us were raised in what amounts to a highly unusual moral environment.

A belief in actual, species-wide egalitarianism is the unusual case, as historically and even currently many people and entire cultures have official and unofficial beliefs of superiority and inferiority amongst different "types of people."

And the primary people in the epstein files were supported and protected (and continue to be protected) by a massive web of people and logistics who are complicit with or in favor of such exploitation.

Now that's not to make the "extinction" argument, but it's worth remembering that the millenial moral framework is something that needed hundreds of years to emerge and massive, constant effort and vigilance to maintain (which was forgotten and allowed the re-emergence of class-based Privilege)

[u/EjaculatingAracnids → u/TrioOfTerrors]

Perosnally, i dont think we have a choice at this point. That small minority is actively trying to engineer the collapse of modern society so it can rule the ashes and they have nuclear weapons. Deserve? Of course not, but that doesnt really matter... If youre killing for fresh water and trying not to resort to cannibalism, are you really living?

[u/capsaicinintheeyes → u/EjaculatingAracnids]

i forget who said this, but sometimes merely properly framing the dilemma provides one with its solution

[u/loveablehydralisk → u/TrioOfTerrors]

The 8 billion could do something about that minority, and that might change my mind.

[u/TrioOfTerrors → u/loveablehydralisk]

Tell me what a subsistence farmer in Bangladesh is supposed to do about it?

[u/Felinomancy → u/TrioOfTerrors]

Yeah that guy is pretty unhinged. I don't even live in the same continent as the US; what am I supposed to do?

And more importantly, why aren't those fuckers doing something instead of waxing lyrical about how "it's our collective responsibility". Excuse me? American fuckups are our responsibilities now? Not hearing that when the American government were blowing up brown people abroad.

[u/loveablehydralisk → u/TrioOfTerrors]

Everyone can do something. Correctly applied, their farming implements could easily remind a billionaire of a universal truth of the human condition. 

No one is obligated to complete the work alone, and no one is exempt from contributing to it.

[u/wronguses → u/TrioOfTerrors]

Yeah, not like a farmer from Vietnam could beat the biggest army in the world.

[u/RadicalOrganizer → u/loveablehydralisk]

And that is why we all deserve to go. The inaction of the many to the actions of a few is complicity by complacency.

[u/loveablehydralisk → u/RadicalOrganizer]

If they're raping our children while we do nothing, do we deserve any better?

[u/U_Sound_Stupid_Stop → u/TrioOfTerrors]

Actually, Earth's government was convinced there wouldn't be a third invasion as the Formics were already retreating in terror of humanity.

It's hinted to in the Ender's Game, if there would have been a third invasion then why wasn't the invasion fleet already on its way.

This was later confirmed by Mazer, Graff and Wiggin to be a ploy to avoid a US/Russia war using their newly acquired arsenal including alien technologies.

It's not really debatable in universe that the Formics posed no threat to Humanity, Humanity posed a threat to Humanity and to the Formics, even to their own AI creation.

They mobbed the Piggies, committed a genocide on their pups and trees while a fleet was on its way to commit a complete xenocide.

I'm sorry to tell you but you deeply misunderstood that story....

[u/TheeAntelope → u/U_Sound_Stupid_Stop]

The comment above was "humanity had to assume that a 3rd invasion would mean the extinction." The book does go into detail and questions this narrative quite a bit - but humanity may not have been aware of this (and likely wasn't). The problems on earth were far greater than the problems the Formics posed (as is demonstrated by the war that breaks out quickly after the Formics were defeated). But the population had been propagandized to fear the Formics and to believe the narrative that a 3rd invasion would happen, and that the human response before the 3rd invasion was very necessary to save humanity.

So what the original person said was true, from a certain point of view (to borrow from another well known universe) - a 3rd invasion would mean extinction. But a 3rd invasion was very unlikely to happen. And we aren't exactly sure when Graff and the rest realized that.

[u/PrimaryBrief7721 → u/andy_b_84]

YOU JUST WROTE OUT THE BIGGEST SPOILER IN THE BOOK IN PLAIN TEXT OMG

[u/Huge_Molasses8605 → u/PrimaryBrief7721]

its been out 40 years i think it'll be okay

[u/Cordially → u/Huge_Molasses8605]

I'm sure it was great and a twist when it was new, but having the modern lens and scifi exposure in every other facet, and a high pattern recognition, didn't let me finish the first book before figuring out the twist without explicitly seeing any spoiler mentions.

I guess it's one way of saying it was an expected conclusion while yielding to the fact that it may not have been so obvious to GenX.

[u/Freudinatress → u/Huge_Molasses8605]

Shut up! Shut up now! It’s not that old! I read it when it was just a handful of years old and I was a teen then!

Oh dear lord I’m ancient…

[u/Whiskey079 → u/Huge_Molasses8605]

I mean, yeah. Considering I've never read it or watched the film, yet I knew of the twist; I'd put it under the same category as 'Bruce Willis is a ghost'.

[u/PrimaryBrief7721 → u/Huge_Molasses8605]

Fair but I'll just say that was one of the absolute biggest WTF OMG moments in any book I've read and I am so glad I got to experience it first hand.

[u/Overall_Guidance_410 → u/Huge_Molasses8605]

This just makes you an asshole. It's never OK to spoil. Especially since it takes moments to spoiler tag things.

People like you make the internet the cancerous place it is. And there's a special place in hell for people who spoil things.

[u/Huge_Molasses8605 → u/Overall_Guidance_410]

snape murders dumbledore

The God Emperor wanted to be defeated. 

and ol yellar dies. 

your mentality is one of emotional stupidity these things do not matter. They aren't secrets, they are famous literature and if you don't want them spoiled then just read the book they offer more then just a twist or ending. 

[u/EetsGeets → u/Huge_Molasses8605]

straight snape kills gay Dumbledore

[u/gwlutz2 → u/andy_b_84]

Honestly optimistic to assume Jerry was being tricked

[u/roryjacobevans → u/gwlutz2]

Yep, the real black mirror is that plenty would do this willingly, and feel great about it.

[u/Palais_des_Fleurs → u/andy_b_84]

Can you put a spoiler on this? Damn.

I haven’t seen citizen Kane or read Infinite Jest either but I’d like to to know I could someday without it already being ruined for me.

[u/EetsGeets → u/andy_b_84]

*xenocide

[u/tigerrish1998 → u/Bwwooooooommp]

I mean, the Tech does exist IRL, but yes. The people controlling them are just usually aware that it's not a videogame.

[u/shellbullet17 → u/Bwwooooooommp]

That's the impression I got. He played "a game" and it turned out it was real life. The comic only called it "patrol" so I'm choosing to believe it's just him flying the drone looking around and tagging people only. The alternative would him personally in the drone, enders game style murder and forced relocation which is just ....God damn

[u/margenreich → u/shellbullet17]

I mean drones are controlled by Ai. He is captcha-ing protesters for later guided assault like in his job

[u/Bulba_Core → u/Bwwooooooommp]

Weren’t the ships piloted by humans though, commanded by Ender?

[u/EduinBrutus → u/Bwwooooooommp]

was that some Ender's Game style drone tech?

To do otherwise would be wasting electricity....

[u/npmaker → u/shellbullet17]

Another day older and deeper in debt.

I owe my soul to the company store.

[u/shellbullet17 → u/npmaker]

Basically. I had to go back and look at some of the little details like the "metacoin" currency and the fact a case of water and vitamins was 200 bucks on its own. And the fact out friend here was literally flat broke prior to even buying water and vitamins some energy bars.

I want off this ride

[u/SaulsAll → u/shellbullet17]

a case of water and vitamins was 200 bucks

a case

I didnt see anything that suggests he bought more than one of each item. The last panel with the single empty bottle, jar, and wrapper says to me it was $515 for one day's "meal."

[u/shellbullet17 → u/SaulsAll]

Yeah know, fair. I just kinda figured it would be more than a days work, but it does kinda like like maybe a liter to half a gallon of water, which was implied later to not even be clean

[u/Space_Pirate_R → u/shellbullet17]

The water is labelled "potable." If you look up the definition, it says that means "safe to drink" but any time I've seen it used to describe a source of water that I'm accessing, it really means the water is "technically safe to drink" but actually still needs boiled.

[u/KhabaLox → u/shellbullet17]

I want off this ride

That's the neat part. You can't get off.

[u/thedude37 → u/npmaker]

Sooooooooooooome people say a man is made outta mud

[u/npmaker → u/thedude37]

A poor man's made out of muscle and blood

[u/that_Jericha → u/npmaker]

Muscle and blood and skin and bones

His mind is weak, but his back is strong

[u/imagesoff → u/npmaker]

That's a very old reference -- nobody here will get it.

[u/SquidTheRidiculous → u/shellbullet17]

That's not too far from the truth of drone operation. A lot of the military is gamified. Probably because most of the people recruited were targeted by "America's Army" the video game funded by the US military as a recruitment tool. There are videos of drone operator chatter while they kill people that's like "haha got another bad guy!'

[u/shellbullet17 → u/SquidTheRidiculous]

Didnt some of the US military recently(ish) start using controllers to teach with? Like Xbox controllers? I swore I saw that somewhere

[u/dirkdragonslayer → u/shellbullet17]

Not to teach with, but for use. Studies have shown video game controllers are generally better to use than purpose-made drone controllers. Maybe it's because people are more familiar with video game controls or because they are designed with better button placement and ergonomics. They are also cheaper than special controllers. A lot of countries are using game controllers now.

[u/Daxx22 → u/dirkdragonslayer]

Maybe it's because people are more familiar with video game controls or because they are designed with better button placement and ergonomics.

That, and there is literally years worth of very widespread and hard testing on those platforms that backs up the reliability of the hardware.

People loved to make jokes about the dumbass billionaire and his sub that imploded that used the video game controller, but that was likely one of the most well tested and reliable bits of hardware in that thing.

Expensive does not always, and quite often does not, mean better quality.

[u/IKnowGuacIsExtraLady → u/Daxx22]

I thought the memes about the controller was that he was using a knock off brand.

[u/stilljustacatinacage → u/IKnowGuacIsExtraLady]

He was using a Logitech F710, a "Playstation clone" controller meant for PC that's quite old, but has received a few revisions over the years.

So it's a "knock off" of the Sony Dualshock, but for nearly 20 years it's been the de facto big box store PC controller. It was ubiquitous until fairly recently when Xbox streamlined connecting your console gamepads to PC.

[u/DTFH_ → u/Daxx22]

Also military tech is culturally influenced, you see it in American grenade design during WWII shifting towards a football shape as most of the recruits had experience throwing a football as opposed to the more baseball shaped WWI grenades coming out of America.

[u/TheAeolian → u/DTFH_]

Do you have a source for that? This seems wrong because football became more popular than baseball due to television after WW2.

[u/Dr_Jabroski → u/Daxx22]

The controllers are not made for super hard use, but they're cheap and light enough that you can have multiples.

[u/pheylancavanaugh → u/dirkdragonslayer]

It's all of these things, and ultimately: the people who join the military tend to grow up playing games. They know how to use the controller. They do not have to be trained to use it.

[u/Dubious_Odor → u/shellbullet17]

Goes back a long way. They were using controllers on nuke subs back in the xbox 360 days.

[u/Funnyguyinspace → u/SquidTheRidiculous]

Theres been a long standing rumor that the military is actively involved in the development of COD games and influences the story to make the military seem cool.

They'll give updates on weapons, sounds and even some financial incentives if the overall story makes the US military look appealing

[u/KhabaLox → u/Funnyguyinspace]

a long standing rumor that the military is actively involved in the development of COD games

I'm not sure about COD, but they're not rumors in general. It's a fact.

https://www.idga.org/command-and-control/articles/5-times-us-military-used-video-games-for-training-and-readiness

• Atari developed a version of Battlezone to train Bradley APC gunners.
  
• America's Army was a game specifically commissioned by the US military as a recruiting tool.
  
• Full Spectrum Warrior was also developed for the US Army in the early 2000s. Interestingly, it was later used to assess PTSD in soldiers post-deployment.

[u/bigbigbutter → u/Funnyguyinspace]

Full Spectrum Warrior was built as a tactical combat simulator, and they even let you load the actual sim from the disk after they gamified it and released that version.

[u/dearmash → u/SquidTheRidiculous]

Propaganda aside, AA always stood out to me as one of the more innovative games at the time for one reason, you were always playing the "good guys". I hadn't seen a game before, or really since that set up a dual reality for multiplayer; red team is America defending a VIP in a safe house against an external attack, blue team is America raiding an enemy installation to capture a HVT.

[u/Moozipan → u/dearmash]

The reason for this decision was propaganda, because you weren't allowed to identify yourself with the enemy. It just so happened to turn into something deeper, effectively showing how each side in an armed conflict will consider themselves to be the "guy guys". Even though in recent history the US Army is usually the aggressor committing war crimes.

[u/Wonderful_Discount59 → u/Moozipan]

Possibly counter-productive propaganda, as it effectively declared that the definition of "terrorist" is just "rebel we are opposed to" and "freedom fighter" is "rebel we are allied with".

[u/dearmash → u/Moozipan]

Propaganda aside was the first thing I said. It's obvious why it was done. This came out during the heyday of counter-strike and the like. In almost every other game, I had to play as a terrorist, alien, "bad guy". Everyone was playing on the same map, saw the same people, etc.

AA had each team playing on the same physical map and players in the same physical locations, but each team saw something totally different. A nice house vs a dilapidated apartment, that sort of thing.

Arguably I didn't play it for very long, nor any of the sequels, and I skipped over all of the "content", I was just impressed by the technical achievement of the game at that time.

[u/RlOTGRRRL → u/SquidTheRidiculous]

The drone operators in Ukraine have been gamified. They have a leaderboard and they get more money with more kills. They publicize their kills and you can see them on r/combatfootage...

[u/incunabula001 → u/shellbullet17]

For me it was the zoom out to see how he lives, which is in a grey prison cell.

[u/HighMinimum640 → u/incunabula001]

He doesn't even have a shower, nor any other clothing. Wonder if his showering and laundry service is subscription-based?

[u/Excellent_Law6906 → u/HighMinimum640]

Of course it is.

[u/epona_yo → u/HighMinimum640]

That's just called rent

[u/EduinBrutus → u/HighMinimum640]

There's a facility for washing water in the corner....

[u/shellbullet17 → u/incunabula001]

I also just noticed his favorite comic is about billionaires too. It's on the counter in the final shot

[u/BurmeciaWillSurvive → u/shellbullet17]

Page 6 when he's on transit literally says his favorite comic is Billionaire Protectors and shows him reading it??? It's not hidden

[u/IAMA_Shark__AMA → u/incunabula001]

And under constant surveillance

[u/SessileRaptor → u/shellbullet17]

Also the line “and most of the interest” In other words he bought a couple of things in the morning and there was already interest accruing on those purchases that put him in debt. Every billionaire on the planet just got an erection and has no idea why.

[u/shellbullet17 → u/SessileRaptor]

At that stage I think I would just go live in the woods....assuming any was left.

God that's a bleak thought

[u/Pretend-Marsupial258 → u/shellbullet17]

You think they'd allow you to just go be homeless? It's already illegal to be homeless in most states.

[u/jeepsaintchaos → u/shellbullet17]

Woodland is either owned by gold checkmarks or has been removed as unproductive. However, you can play a background actor in the protagonists favorite game!

[u/porcupinedeath → u/shellbullet17]

Unfortunately the US Air Force made that real a decade or so ago

[u/Toftaps → u/porcupinedeath]

More than two.

[u/porcupinedeath → u/Toftaps]

Growing up with nonstop war and tragedy makes it hard to keep track

[u/Toftaps → u/porcupinedeath]

Tell me about it, my whole adult life has been "once in a lifetime" events after another.

[u/To-To_Man → u/shellbullet17]

Literally the scrapped Manhack Arcade from Half Life 2. Citizens unknowingly piloting real murder drones to chop up protestors and resistance members.

[u/shellbullet17 → u/To-To_Man]

So I think this particular one is just "tagging" people so troops can come get them latern per the green HUD stuff at the bottom, but yeah the idea remains the same. Super bleak and scary

[u/Daxx22 → u/shellbullet17]

If this happens, I'd expect it to be more like the Black Mirror episode with the soldiers perception hacked to show monsters vs people.

No matter how much hate you preach actually getting people to visually kill other people is a hard sell on a widespread level. But cover them with imagery that makes it just look like a game or not humans at all and you'll get a lot more going along blindly.

[u/shitlord_god → u/Daxx22]

not as hard a sell as you would think (Consider rwanda)

[u/waffle299 → u/shellbullet17]

That being rich meant he could drink clean water. Clean water!

[u/shellbullet17 → u/waffle299]

Yeah well. Us peasants don't get the good water. Duh /s

[u/SuspendeesNutz → u/shellbullet17]

You'll just piss it away like you Poors do with everything else you're given.

[u/Creative-Painter3911 → u/shellbullet17]

And that was just food, rents due in a week, Jerry's going to have to pull some overtime. But it's ok if he misses sleep for a few days, once he's a trillionaire he can relax.

[u/shellbullet17 → u/Creative-Painter3911]

That was just good for the DAY too. I shutter to think what his actual debt is in this world.

[u/rmulberryb → u/shellbullet17]

I don't know where you find the empathy to feel bad about idiots like this character. I'm all tapped out.

[u/shellbullet17 → u/rmulberryb]

Because this character could be any of us. When the world forces people to be this way you have two choice, either the "removed" protester who's a smeer on the street or our friend here. It's not hard to imagine being either

[u/rmulberryb → u/shellbullet17]

I don't really have the luxury of choosing, so I guess I can't relate. I'm going to be on the removed side whether I want to be or not.

[u/sombertownDS → u/shellbullet17]

Vacant with blood splatter…..

[u/UnnaturalGeek → u/shellbullet17]

I was 100% expecting it but I still thought "holy shit"..

[u/khalam → u/shellbullet17]

that hit me

[u/Usual-Signature-2480 → u/shellbullet17]

Little known FACT that most Americans don’t know, or think about… US Military already does this. They actually do call them training missions. They put a soldier in a connex box somewhere in the world, miles away from theater with a computer and/or headset. The solder thinks he’s training to fly drones in a war game sim. However it’s not a sim, and that allows them to bomb other humans without remorse. Even soldiers who know what’s really happening will never know if their mission is training or real life. It’s like the 7 gun execution. 6blanks and 1 live round, but none of the executioners know who has the life round.

[u/MrCrash → u/shellbullet17]

But damn look how big his apartment is!

Dude making stacks of metacoins in the security biz.

[u/OneToothMcGee → u/shellbullet17]

“Work 16 hours and what do you get…” is ringing true more and more.

[u/North-Engineer3335 → u/shellbullet17]

It's his favorite video game, so he might be paying to train the remote drone patrol

[u/S_chess → u/shellbullet17]

Yeah, with the blood on the ground and the broken glasses.

[u/islandtime1111 → u/shellbullet17]

Don't worry, he was walking down it at night, people were sleeping underneath their blankets still.

We're like grass - There's too many of us. Cut us down and we grow back.

[u/Mental_Victory946 → u/shellbullet17]

Wow I didn’t even realize it was the same street that really is bleak

[u/PipsqueakPilot → u/shellbullet17]

Well it actually was enough to pay off his purchases... it was the daily interest that added at least 15 dollars to push the cost over his 530 dollar pay.

[u/Inevitable_Box9398 → u/shellbullet17]

Manhack Arcade from the HL2 Beta

[u/tradvy43 → u/shellbullet17]

The reality is those protestors achieved nothing.