How "real" do you consider the Cantr world to be?

[_Slayer]

You just blew my mind..

[Rand]

This is how cantr would be statistically and demographic wise in a real world

http://www.sharenator.com/w/cantr.net

[BrentW]

From what I heard it lacks different Cultures but thats about it. Even FTO was the same every place no matter how different they tried to be. Because for the most part we live in the same sort of world. Not much id different.

[Doug R.]

There are a few notable exceptions to the generic culture. The Blackrocks are one. The Stone Knights used to be another, but have grown nauseatingly main-stream.

[Ronja Rotschopf]

From what I heard it lacks different Cultures but thats about it. Even FTO was the same every place no matter how different they tried to be. Because for the most part we live in the same sort of world. Not much id different.

In RL different language groups (nations) do have different cultures. They don't need to try to be different, they are different.

In Cantr many language groups (if they exist at all) are too small and therefore too busy with struggling to survive and to make progress on the technological level than to establish their culture

Additionally culture isn't supported by the game mechanics. Therefore it needs a few active and dedicated players to establish a different culture (or any culture at all). Especially regarding rhythm of life (dividing the time of the day for sleeping, working, having fun) Cantr fails completely as a society simulator.

The other question is: if you meet ingame characters from a different language group who actually have a different culture, would you recognize it?

[Addicted]

The other question is: if you meet ingame characters from a different language group who actually have a different culture, would you recognize it?

Yes, I did. I had a character in several towns of a different language. My character was less affected as so many things are new to her. But it was culture shock for me. It made me feel for a few other Polish and Spanish characters who have spawned in the English regions and then I thought of the 'mixed' language towns I have characters in and the cultures that result. But by far the most different culture is the hippy, hemp smoking forest town. Wow what a place. Each town I have characters in has a subtle flavor of it's own, some stronger then others. Three towns I had characters in had oppresive cultures where my characters felt constrained.

[Miri]

But by far the most different culture is the hippy, hemp smoking forest town. Wow what a place.

I think I know which one you mean, and I fully agree. Visiting there was one of my strangest Cantr experiences

[Surly]

There are a numbers of reasons (my list is obviously not exhaustive) why most Cantr societies tend to a norm:

1) Those that develop different cultures are inevitably killed by one particular culture (i.e. those that kill for the sake of killing).
2) There is very little resource diversity
3) There are clear "best" items (e.g. crowbar, crossbow, kite shield), which leads to very similar tech lines.
4) There is no drive to create cultural material, as most people don't have time to compose songs or write novels for Cantr and all architecture and machinery are exactly the same wherever the culture is.

I think we are too far gone to fix the resource issue, a re-work of the combat issue was being considered and my attempt to remove the "best" items by altering the strength/skill base was horribly nuked by Sanchez. The change towards differentiation was aided by dynamic naming, but has slowed somewhat since.

Finally, Cantr is not the same as the real world. The resource distribution is not the same. Cantrians cannot have children (reproduction being a key part of the development of society). Activity levels are not the same. Far more so than any pen&paper game, Cantr has different fundamental laws and consequently feels very different.

[Snickie]

4) There is no drive to create cultural material, as most people don't have time to compose songs or write novels for Cantr and all architecture and machinery are exactly the same wherever the culture is.

Actually, I'm in the process of writing a song or two, as well as some poetry for one of my characters to use IG. It's not turning out very well so far, courtesy of RL, but I'm working on it.
Another one of my characters was starting to write a novel IG, but realised that she had the historical context wrong, and gave up on it. It remains stashed in an envelope in her inventory, unfinished, un....anything. It will probably end up being erased and voided or replaced with something else or something like that.

I know of at least one other character/player who writes plenty of songs.

So there are definitely people who try to contribute to the culture of their towns to make it different from other places. There just aren't really enough to have an astonishing effect.


As for architecture, I'd be all for brief custom descriptions implemented for buildings as to the architecture and structure, that perhaps could be displayed when you enter the building.

2934-3.28: You enter -Building-, where you see 2 people. It is a square room. There is a window on the left overlooking a field, and a small mural depicting a pattern of triangles painted on the wall right of the door.

The bold sentence would be something that the builder would type upon creating the project of the building, and as long as the building isn't finished, it can be altered (within reason). It'd encourage some diversity amongst the buildings and architecture, I think.
(Yes, I know this belongs more in the Suggestions thread, but it's relevant to the topic here.)

That's all I really have to say right now.

[etece]

I know of at least one other character/player who writes plenty of songs.

I've had one or two poets and song writers in my time, one of whom tried, and failed, to found a Guild of Entertainers on K Island.

Trying to create a lasting piece of culture or history is hard, but I find it by far one of the most rewarding parts of the game. I've played on and off for quite a while now, and it's one of my favorate things when I return to either hear referances to old characters or events they took part in, or better to see what has become of organisations or groups that they helped to found.

I definately agree that there aren't enough large, lasting and unique cultures around in Cantr. But there are a few, and their rareness does make it that much more rewarding when you find one, or better yet become involved in one.

[Doug R.]

Nice list, Surly.

[Miri]

I wish I had all my 'to-be-journalist/satiric' notes now, so I could get down to actually writing what he wanted to write somehow I couldn't find time for that while Cantr was up. So, all I can do now is:
- noting down rules of various dice games for my *cough*Lady*cough*
- writing music descriptions for my wandering violinist - when Cantr is back he'll actually start playing. Didn't have time to prepare 'music' for him yet
- deciding on new Guard structure for my to-be-headguard (depending on how far will the rollback be; the hacker did choose a very bad day indeed... )
- some other minor planning for other charries

at least I'm still not feeling tempted to play Cantr on Sims

[amentoraz]

For me, Cantr is as real as an interesting book. While I'm reading, my mind doves deeply in the story, feeling it as if it was real. Words dissapear in front of my eyes, and I can see the images in my mind. But when I close the book, the story is just that... a story.

Actually that's fun, because,... well, I think real life is mostly composed of that as well. Lots of words in which we tell ourselves who we are, what our aims are, what we should think, etc.

Its not that Cantr is very "real". Well, in some sense it is, the interactions are quite closer and emotionally powerful than most games I've played. But my point is, I think its unreal in a similar way as our "real world" is unreal in the sense that there's some "hard facts" but we mostly build it from words which tell us who we are and who we want to be and so on.

I think the more we identify and deconstruct the constraints words and our continuous mind chattering generate, the more freedom we acquire. In some sense I therefore perceive Cantr as an interesting way not to escape to other reality, but to help make my reality a bit more unreal so I can act more effectively upon it. Well I hope so ^^