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His original psych profile on the game website very clearly indicates that he manipulated his evaluator.
Yang is also closely associated with the Chinese philosophy of legalism, which proposes that a ruler should use subterfuge as a tool of governance.
Quote from: bvanevery Not seeing the "low odds of success", frankly. They built a big ship. That's predicated on shipping experience in the solar system. For a trip that requires automation to a level until then unprecedented.
Not seeing the "low odds of success", frankly. They built a big ship. That's predicated on shipping experience in the solar system.
Leads of whole nations may calculate that they cannot really empathize with imagined future generations enough to risk their own hides for them.
Yes, orbital habs are probably a thing. Yet they are far more easily destroyed than whole worlds.
I guess you're going to make me go look at the teeny, tiny amount of background material presented about him during the course of a regular game. As opposed to the vast swath of quotes that primarily define him as a player plays the game.
You say this but why is a Western audience supposed to know anything about it? It's not like the game says "Yang is a proponent of legalism." Rather, you figure it's part of his backstory, even though it isn't stated anywhere. Maybe after I've looked at all of Yang's game materials more closely again, I'll make the stronger claim that you're flat out making this up / inserting it. That it isn't actually there or stated anywhere, that you interpret Yang in this manner. Which might not be completely unfair and no evidence may be provided to the contrary, but it comes off a lot like someone saying, "Gandalf is this and this and that." Really? Where is it in the book? How would a reader know it?
I suppose you think they zipped to Mars in a day? That's not hard sci-fi.
Getting off-world is not about risking one's hide for someone else! It's about saving your own bacon, if you think Earth is doomed.
I dunno, if destroyed = rendered uninhabitable for a generation, it's not that tough to destroy a world.
You're right. I misremembered. Neither the instruction manual nor the Yang bio on SMAC's website refer to legalism. This was apparently a popular conclusion drawn by the fan base after the game's release. Echoes of it appear on the Civilization Wiki, the "Paean to SMAC" blog (which engages in a partial reimagining of some factions, to be sure), the game's Wikipedia page, and including what I take to be an official GURPS RPG adaptation from late 2002 that includes a one-word reference to the philosophy among Yang's character skills.
I think the reference to Legalism gives Yang some needed depth.
The real question is whether collectivism and authoritarianism are ideologies on the same level as environmentalism and capitalism, or just methods of social organization that can be laid atop most ideologies -- in which case Yang would benefit from a unique ideology of his own.
Quote from: bvaneveryI suppose you think they zipped to Mars in a day? That's not hard sci-fi.I think the first manned expedition outside the Sol System would be regarded as far more challenging than missions to Mars, which would not involve hibernation of the same duration.
Quote from: bvaneveryGetting off-world is not about risking one's hide for someone else! It's about saving your own bacon, if you think Earth is doomed.Not if you believe that it will be three, four, five, or six lifetimes before the world finally ends. "To rule in Hell..."
Interesting to know. It might be frustrating for a fan base to arrive at ideas, only to have authors or screenwriters squash / eliminate them when finally designating a canon. Not that SMAC has this problem; I'm thinking of Star Wars or Star Trek fans. Not that I've followed their fandoms enough to know what their community harrunges might be. I've had a rather solo experience of sci-fi, which tends to orient me towards "the materials as presented".
All the faction leaders can benefit from more depth. SMAC is a good effort for a game of its time and genre, but it isn't Game of Thrones. Consider the writing and acting resources dedicated to each and it's pretty clear why character depth is going to fall short. Isn't it interesting that it's the only 4X TBS I can think of, that has any character depth at all? And that this hasn't changed in the 18 years since its release.
I'd say SMAC offers a fair amount of philosophical depth, quoting so may various philosophers, and allowing the main characters to be mouthpieces of certain philosophies. Yang expounds on death, nihilism, and collectivism a lot. But I think we're realizing in this debate, that philosophical depth does not equate to character depth. The cognitive dissonance of this can be seen when doing diplomacy with Yang. Yes it's cool that the faction leaders have any depth at all when doing diplomacy, but compared to the level of nuance Yang displays in his quotes and passages, interacting with "Yang your enemy" can be quite jarring as to how straightforward he is.
I'm inclined to see the Communist version of collectivism as a distinct ideology, but that in practice wasn't much implemented. Instead, the actual Communist regimes have been authoritarian, with the State and the Communist Party becoming the new ladder by which to dominate everything. There's even a term for this... can't remember it, would have to pore over wiki pages about Socialism again to find it. The wikipedia entry on Statism seems relevant to these musings in general, such as whether Authoritarianism or Fascism are ideologies.
Sorta like arguing ocean-worthiness vs. Trans-Atlantic voyages.
And why would they believe they had that long? The cutscene for The Planetary Datalinks indicates that the USA became a rather un-free place, big on information control. That would seem to be a weatherbell of the whole world getting ready to go <POOF> frankly. I'm supposing that the Unity still got built and launched as the USA was turning despotic. That Unity was built in response to a crisis, and not when everything was peaches and rosy. "Earth is turning to crap" is the premise of the opening cutscene of SMAC.
Plenty of people live in awful conditions like that depicted in the opening cutscene credits for years or even lifetimes.
...If I was looking to live forever, I wouldn't run for President. Too much of a target, the President...