I’ve been playing video games for a long, long time. One of the things I got into once upon a time was MMORPGs, like the now antiquated Everquest. You’d hop into this virtual world any time of the day, and it’d be teeming with other players (well, their avatars at least), many of them so addicted to the game they barely take a break to sleep. Obviously the “V-world” behind the holobands is sort of like that, only many steps forward into the future.
What’s sad about this “New Cap City” is that, just as it’s leaps and bounds forward technologically from what we have in today’s reality, the addiction level is also levels ahead of what’s in today’s games. And some of these gamers are playing nothing more than thugs standing around guarding a bank vault. Seriously, they have this impressive, massive virtual world at their disposal, and they decide to stand around in the dark? Also, how can there be people sitting in this world who never leave? Don’t they have to eat, drink, and use a toilet?
All that aside, I really loved how V-world’s New Cap City looked, almost steampunk-like and retro in its skies full of huge dirigibles and biplanes. I’m hoping we’ll see more of that outside world and won’t necessarily be leaving New Cap City too soon. Part of what we’re seeing of Tamara leads me to believe we’ll continue to see V-world for quite some time, and that’s because she’s becoming a being very much like The Matrix‘s Neo.
As I was watching this episode, I couldn’t help but draw the Matrix comparison, and I kept thinking we’d eventually wind up seeing Tamara become a sort of “god” of V-world. Well, that sure happened pretty quickly, as she proceeded to “think away” two of the bank guards and then, in the closing scene, look pretty badass and sure of herself. Throw in some fancy flying and bullet dodging and, well, it’s looking kinda Neo-like rip-off-y.
What I don’t really get about Graystone’s pitch about the Cylons was how these hulking machines differ much from the Surge butler robots. Hell, those things hover! Add some arms and they’d do everything Daniel pitched to the room. Even in the multitudes of tests that Daniel had with previous models of Cylons, those floaty robots outwitted them more times than not. So, without some sort of proven intelligence in these things, why did the board decide to give Daniel’s creation a chance? I wouldn’t call ripping its own arm off proof that it’s smart — it’s proof that it’s dangerous as frak!
Lastly, based on what I’ve seen tonight an on speculation I’ve read, I’m feeling more confident in how things are going to wind up for the little Willie Adama we all know. Time will tell.
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Feb 26, 2010 @ 22:26 EST5EDT
The vault guards were Non-Player Characters, not people with holobands.
Part of Graystone’s pitch was about the bot seeming and/or feeling sentient. This should have translated for us watching it on TV as we see Zoe (or not), but we’ll have to accept that the board members somehow understood what Graystone was saying. At least enough to differentiate it as something new and more advanced.
*POST AUTHOR*
I thought maybe they were NPCs, but why did they “de-rez” then, when they were shot? In the pilot, when an NPC was shot, they lay there dead.
Actually, Serge doesn’t hover, he has a roller ball that requires smooth surfaces to run on. If you have twitter, you should add @sergegraystone which is run by the Caprica show people and gives pretty good details.
Yeah that kid says that the guards in the bank are purely code, not real people.
I second that. They are pure code. I thought it was odd that people would choose to play a role that required them to stand around and guard things too, but the kid did tell Tamara that they were just code after he shooed away the guards when he looked like the other guy.
BTW the Matrix was a rip off of just about every William Gibson novel from the 80s.
So people are still thinking this Willy Adams is going to be taking a dirt nap? One can only hope…
I can’t help but think that in a “game” where a player is never allowed to return, complicated social rules would develop around killing. It would be as much a “crime” to kill someone in the game as it would be in real life.
Anyone who’s been in strategy games knows that politics and laws/rules self develop when there is investment on the line.