Gaming Outpost Discussions

1. 

   JohnA1nut
   Member

   MJ, I need to clear something up. If it had been a fictional military base on a fictional earth that I somehow knew was going to get attacked by an enemy, you're damn right I would warn them. Pearl Harbor already happened. We know the end results of that. The reason I wouldn't warn Pearl Harbor is because it is a HISTORICAL WORLD. We know the results of Pearl Harbor being destroyed. Why take the chance, when we already know the outcome was quite favorable for the United States? A couple hundred people died heroes, the US came out of The Great Depression and became a superpower. I can live with that. If I somehow had knowledge of a completely fictional attack on a completely fictional military base, I would warn them in a heartbeat. The fact that it's a HISTORICAL WORLD is the reason to stay away.

   From one perspective, I can certainly see why you thought I would be itching to warn them. From another, I can't believe you considered it. How many hundreds of hours did we spend in discussion of why changing history was a bad idea? From that perspective, I can't believe you thought so for a moment.

   (Doing Therapy)

   Thu Jun 30 2011 6:00 am #
2. 

   M. J. Young
   Moderator

   John, how could you know that an American base was going to be attacked if it were not a historical world?

   I could put you at the Alamo, or at Little Bighorn with Custer, or maybe find another famous battle at which you are likely to know the story, but again they would all be historic worlds. I could put you at Wounded Knee with the Indians, or at Waterloo with Napoleon, but you probably wouldn't be interested in changing the outcomes there.

   I could instead invent a place and a battle, say somewhere in Viet Nam or Korea, and put you there; but how would you know what was going to happen?

   So you've got a catch twenty-two: the only way you can know to warn them is if you already know what happened in the original history, and the only way you can know what happened in the original history is if it happened.

   Unless I put you in a fictional world with which you are familiar, and let you rewrite it. I'm not sure whether there are any such worlds, though, in which I'm sure you would know a battle was coming but you don't know the world better than I.

   --M. J. Young

   Thu Jun 30 2011 8:27 pm #
3. 

   JohnA1nut
   Member

   So you've got a catch twenty-two: the only way you can know to warn them is if you already know what happened in the original history, and the only way you can know what happened in the original history is if it happened.

   You're right. It's a catch-22. I wouldn't want to stop a historical event, and unless it was a historical event, I wouldn't know to stop it. History is dead. Leave it alone. We know the US survived Pearl Harbor. In my mind, that's more than enough reason to not want to touch it.

   I could put you at the Alamo, or at Little Bighorn with Custer, or maybe find another famous battle at which you are likely to know the story, but again they would all be historic worlds.

   If you put me at The Alamo, I doubt I could make enough of a difference to change history. It would still be 150 or so against 3,000, even with all of my firepower. Little Big Horn, I'd probably side with the Indians (Assuming of course they didn't kill me for being white) and how many times do I have to tell you? I DON'T KNOW MILITARY HISTORY!!!!!!!!!! You would have been more than capable of running Pearl Harbor for me. I think we've proven more than once that you know that scenario far better than I do. I didn't even know what The Arizona was, or do you not recall?

   Thu Jun 30 2011 8:33 pm #

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