[IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

That's because they are. They're inherently imperialistic manipulators,

Ya do know that most of the time all they do is sell mildly exotic goods, in exchange for local commodities, right?

[Flyndaran]

At absolute best, Infinity is like both parties during the cold war. They often topple governments, start wars, etc. That they sometimes engage in more classic commerce wouldn't matter much at all to native Monster Hunters.

Edit: but even if you're playing Infinity as "white hats", locals have no reason to believe that.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

At absolute best, Infinity is like both parties during the cold war. They often topple governments, start wars, etc. .

No. They don't. Why would Infinity want to topple governments and start wars when their biggest priority is to maximize profit while remaining unnoticed? Being a threat to the local power structure goes directly against the "going unnoticed" part.

[Apollonian]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

No. They don't. Why would Infinity want to topple governments and start wars when their biggest priority is to maximize profit while remaining unnoticed. Being a threat to the local power structure goes directly against the "going unnoticed" part.

Is it worth anyone's time to rehash in the "Evil Infinity" argument yet again?

[Flyndaran]

Right. For this thread, it doesn't matter how good, indifferent, or evil they are. Monster Hunter natives would simply see them as dangerous invaders of undetermined motives.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Right. For this thread, it doesn't matter how good, indifferent, or evil they are. Monster Hunter natives would simply see them as dangerous invaders of undetermined motives.

To add to that, how would they know...

A) That infinity's goods are safe.

B) That no harm is done by removing what Infinity buys.

C) That Infinity isn't pocessed of a long term plan which requires them to seem harmless and gain trust before striking.

And then there's the simple problem that the Monster Hunters wouldn't be able to distinguish between Infinity, Centrum, the Cabal, or the Swagmen, without clear briefings. None of these groups gives clear briefings or would tolerate others doing so.

[Culture20]

Back to Ordinary...
Cryptocurrency 1-5+ are a series of very near Homeline realities where cryptocurrency computations have already been performed which have not been mined on Homeline. Bonus; booms of new currencies have reduced the values of the “old” ones, so Infinity can buy the calculations for a song.

Rainbow Tables 1-10+ are a similar series of realities where hackers have discovered and posted the passwords of prominent businessmen and officials of various governments. After cross referencing the lists, Infinity has determined that 90% of the passwords are probably correct on Homeline until the users decide or are forced to change them by policy.

[PTTG]

In Seropian, a few tiny changes in the early 90s results in Macintosh OSes being seen as the premiere gaming platform. Windows becomes the computer for businesses.

Apple leans into this hard, building a walled-garden PC gaming empire. The smart phone revolution passes them by, instead being picked up by a starving Microsoft.

Apples walled-garden approach means that fewer games are produced, but they are of higher quality. Homeliners interested in exceptional and vaguely familiar desktop computer games find this place a treasure trove of games built in different ways.

Meanwhile, cell phones here follow Microsoft's open-ended model, and are highly maintainable and flexible.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by PTTG

Apple leans into this hard, building a walled-garden PC gaming empire. The smart phone revolution passes them by, instead being picked up by a starving Microsoft.

Fair, but historically, the reason why IBM compatibles dominated PC gaming was because the sole source of computers wasn't IBM, and thus there were cheaper prices available. Apple's literally the opposite of this, though I suppose a less flexible but cheap system might have the same effect. I do imagine that they will end up being hit with anti-trust suits the same way Nintendo was in the 80s.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Fair, but historically, the reason why IBM compatibles dominated PC gaming was because the sole source of computers wasn't IBM, and thus there were cheaper prices available. Apple's literally the opposite of this, though I suppose a less flexible but cheap system might have the same effect. I do imagine that they will end up being hit with anti-trust suits the same way Nintendo was in the 80s.

In terms of being valuable though, it has the same barrier I think plagues a lot of the cultural goods suggestions in this thread. That is a game industry that diverged this early and this significantly from Homeline will have a totally different set of tropes, traditions and expectations that is unlikely to align with the tastes of Homeline audiences.

It's made worse in this case because most of them can't even try it to see if they like it. Games lean heavily on specific hardware, even more than most software, which is why they're platform specific in the first place. You can't port games with a simple recompile. In this situation that hardware is so divergent that anybody who wants to play these games will need to buy a new imported gaming system too.