Chefelf.com Night Life: "the hopeless endeavour" - Chefelf.com Night Life

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"the hopeless endeavour" Yahtzee's latest short story

#16 User is offline   AdamM Icon

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Posted 24 August 2008 - 09:26 PM

Yes, that is what Travis said, it could only make use of 'what it has seen before'. Presumably one of the previous Travis clones gave it the idea to play Battleships. Or maybe it saw people playing Battleships to pass the time before the entire crew had died. (Although the AI was erased after that, so maybe it couldn't have remembered the game from back then.)

Personally my suspension of disbelief is tested when I am asked to accept that this situation could occur with... what was it?... over eighty-seven thousand clones and not a single one managed to activate the self-destruct.
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#17 User is offline   FFreak3 Icon

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Posted 24 August 2008 - 11:25 PM

Well, with all his knowledge, the sceond last one couldn't self-destruct the ship for some reason.

Maybe they removed that functionality . . . or maybe the AI had forgotten how. Each clone only has a week to figure out why the ship isn't being normal.

Personally, my disbelief would be suspended by the fact that the clones have the memories of the first travis, somehow, and not the memory of all the clones before them, somehow, rather then the very slow learning curve.


edit: btw, Yahtzee, you bastard, releasing a new beta one week too early! If you had released it next week this time I'd have been testing my ass off for you! (as it is, I'm in Germany right now).
If it's still in beta when I get back, you can be sure I'll become one of your main testers.
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This post has been edited by FFreak3: 24 August 2008 - 11:28 PM

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#18 User is offline   Maggot4Life Icon

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Posted 25 August 2008 - 01:58 AM

Hokay, the bit where he tells the computer to self destruct, does he die? And why does the computer want him to draw a spaceship again?
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#19 User is offline   Reibear Icon

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Posted 25 August 2008 - 03:54 AM

QUOTE (Maggot4Life @ Aug 24 2008, 11:58 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Hokay, the bit where he tells the computer to self destruct, does he die? And why does the computer want him to draw a spaceship again?

He doesn't finish telling the computer to self-destruct, he says "Computer-" and drops dead.
Describing Pertwee: "You topple over with perfect comic timing."
Describing Mary's death: "It’s true; Pertwee really does make you die with perfect comic timing. "

Only it's not so funny for the ship, IS IT? So the ship tries to teach the new clone about how much it wants to die. Drawing and erasing a ship is faster and perhaps more clear.

QUOTE (FFreak3 @ Aug 24 2008, 09:25 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Personally, my disbelief would be suspended by the fact that the clones have the memories of the first travis, somehow, and not the memory of all the clones before them, somehow, rather then the very slow learning curve.

In Yahtzee's universe, clones are the exact copy of a person at a particular moment, like in 6DAS.
If the computer cloned the second-last Travis after he figured it out, he'd still drop dead too soon.
What's this about releasing a new beta, by the way? If you mean Poseidon 12, that was released 4 years ago, and was only recently bumped because someone brought it up when I-


As for the over eighty-seven thousand clones, maybe it really did take an insane amount of times for the Travises and Marys to decide to play Battleship or do anything ship-destroying-related, I don't know.

This post has been edited by Reibear: 25 August 2008 - 03:55 AM

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#20 User is offline   Spann Icon

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Posted 25 August 2008 - 05:44 AM

Just read the story through, here's my thoughts:

The Red Dwarf influences are obvious: Mass death leaving an AI to go mad, and every time I read the words 'Cleaning Robots' I read Skutters. The Chzo references have already been discussed (Clones, Lenkmann, Quinn, Somerset et al), which plants it pretty firmly in the Chzo universe (I remember reading somewhere that Yahtzee quite likes the ideas of the Chzo stories happening to the same few family lines).

All that aside, I really enjoyed it. It had that Yahtzee hallmark of several bizarre and seemingly irreverently humorous little details slowly coming together to become huge parts of a bigger story, something I wish I was clever enough to incorporate properly into my writing.

One slightly odd thing, though:

QUOTE
“Mikey, it isn’t very nice in here,” complained Mary, her voice becoming more and more muffled as I twisted the wheel lock on the quarantine door.


Am I the only person wondering who Mikey is?

Anyway, it's essentially a story about computer euthanasia, if I've read it right. The computer is trying to self destruct, but can't do it itself and also can't ask the crew to do it, made even worse by the fact that the only tools it has are rendered completely useless after a week. Utter brilliance, I say.

QUOTE
As for the over eighty-seven thousand clones, maybe it really did take an insane amount of times for the Travises and Marys to decide to play Battleship or do anything ship-destroying-related, I don't know.


That would make complete sense, though. It's like the old saying about Monkeys, typewriters and Shakespeare: Given ten thousand years, it's not unthinkable that one of the clones would have decided on playing Battleships at some point. From now on the computer might start using the drawing and erasing of a spaceship as a starting point; after all, that's the way that the Travis in our story worked it out, so again it's not unthinkable that the 'new' Travis might make the neccesary connections in less than a week.

Although, thinking about it, if he's already infected with Pertwee, surely he's always doomed to die part way through initiating the self destruct, as that is perfect comic timing.



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#21 User is offline   Patch Icon

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Posted 25 August 2008 - 06:48 AM

QUOTE (Spann @ Aug 25 2008, 08:44 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Although, thinking about it, if he's already infected with Pertwee, surely he's always doomed to die part way through initiating the self destruct, as that is perfect comic timing.

Not neccesarily true. If the virus has to get to a certain state before it can kill the infected then they might die at another time. Say, when he's about to say his last ever final words.
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#22 User is offline   FFreak3 Icon

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Posted 25 August 2008 - 08:58 AM

1) It hadn't occured to me that he died as he was saying the self-destruct sequence.

2) I need to check time stamps on posts before I jump to conclusions. I hate you, Deuacon and Reibear. ><
Well, only half-way, since i hadn't lurked about the forums back then and so had absolutely no knowledge of this game before. At least this way, i know it exists.

This post has been edited by FFreak3: 25 August 2008 - 08:58 AM

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#23 User is offline   Reibear Icon

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Posted 25 August 2008 - 04:47 PM

Ha, I didn't notice the "Mikey" thing. I didn't have a very solid grasp on names in the story, there was just "protagonist," "that chick" and "computer."
In any case, although it is true that Pertwee seems to make people die in a very comical timing, it is still based on a certain incubation period.
Otherwise, it would seem that characters in the Chzo stories have a large tendency to be single and dead, I guess the ones not in the stories live and have multiple kids or something!
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#24 User is offline   Spann Icon

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Posted 25 August 2008 - 05:56 PM

Well alot of the characters are of child bearing age, and in many cases we don't know enough about their private lives. Plus, even those we do know about could have had brothers and sisters, parents etc.

Maybe we'll find out who Mikey is one day...
"There comes a time in every person's life when they should learn to shut up. It is called 'birth'."

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#25 User is offline   arien Icon

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Posted 25 August 2008 - 06:16 PM

QUOTE (Spann @ Aug 25 2008, 06:56 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Maybe we'll find out who Mikey is one day...


The kid in the Life cereal commercials?
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#26 User is offline   AdamM Icon

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Posted 26 August 2008 - 04:18 AM

Maybe Yahtzee originally named the protagonist Michael and just forgot to proofread it after he changed to Travis.
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#27 User is offline   Millitant Pacifist Icon

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Posted 26 August 2008 - 12:23 PM

Maybe Travis was his surname? Michael Travis?
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#28 User is offline   arien Icon

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Posted 26 August 2008 - 12:34 PM

QUOTE (Millitant Pacifist @ Aug 26 2008, 01:23 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Maybe Travis was his surname? Michael Travis?


QUOTE (The story itself!)
“January 15th, 2113, 02:31. Death of Personnel Officer Travis Pritchard. Cause of death: Pertwee infection."


So, no.
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#29 User is offline   Maggot4Life Icon

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Posted 26 August 2008 - 03:51 PM

I always thought mikey was a sort of curse similar to 'crikey!' or something?? like,"Oh Mikey, my foot got caught in the toaster!" i dunno i just got out o bed
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#30 User is offline   Reibear Icon

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Posted 27 August 2008 - 07:25 PM

Of course the initial thing that comes to mind is "oh he changed the names" but that theory on mikey being something like crikey is also perhaps possible, I don't know, he sometimes uses words I don't know.

Like that... corpse in a parka in 6DAS. I don't even remember what word he used, or how it related to the story, if at all. Or this one time in TN where he used this big word twice, I don't remember.
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