I'm not a hardcore gamer. I can honestly say I don't really even have a lot of interest for most games. I write poetry, short stories and scripts. I deal in the esoteric rather than the quantitative. I came across this game because of an interest in the epic of human experience of the past, as a story, which embodied the total war video games. This led my duplicitous yet gregarious wanderlust onto steam where another story caught my eye. One of what we think might be. Not held by the pursuit of our own subjugative temporal perception, this video game releases an aural, visual and most importantly, ethereal aspect of the storytellers. That we take the story from where they leave us through the 'play' allows us a certain polytheistic expression of inner lust; for a sense of our ideas within as differentiated from the collective. We explore the 'what if' of our minds and this video game allows us to achieve this, one thousand years into the future. An extinct alien race, a united empire, evolved species of Terran animals and an egocentric collective that ironically may be the most honest of all, not to mention fractious humans, redundant machines and a species that personally I feel I have the greatest affinity towards. Such grand makings, such a grand story! So I ask, why is this epic seemingly suppressed? I start this version with the Hissho, an avian legacy that in inspiration is obviously drawn from:

trees hanging above swamps one hundred and fifty million years ago as the heaviest of small dinosaurs fell and died while the light, flighty...

and the age of feudal Japan, from about 800 years ago to approximately 452 years ago in our knowledge. The evolution of Bushido (as referenced in the game)



I begin and then my story ends. Other than a collection of statistics that is supposed to refrence my action to this race and a ship structure, I am completely homogenous. I open dialougue with other races to find every dialogue the same. Nothing in communication seems to suggest to me that I am not talking to a machine, toped off with a little message in the box below notifying me of set predeterminate expressions. It may as well say, 'Successful +80', or some such. Simply a scene, an interactive cutscene, where my chosen race can stand at a monitor and speak to the ones it is actually speaking to. Currently if you've been involved in the production of this enterprise, you are likely thinking, 'we intended to create a sense of isolation that would signify the realistic terms of communication over light years, the abject horror of lonely necessity'. Fair enough, it certainly does achieve that sense, especiallly with the extreme (to modern minds) scientific concepts evoked to achieve simple communication of seemingly simple concepts. One must remember, though, when manipulation of ideas through a foreign lens takes flight within the mind, the lens shines through a familiar facet. Hence, ideally a theme unidentifiable, yet with pattern relatable to aspects of the race, then almost unintelligible to the figure trying to understand...



So for diplomacy, say for the Hissho, (alternative concept for other species) A Hissho flying in a cutscene of diplomatic activity. perhaps a floating screen displaying a United Empire emissary. around the scene, a backdrop of life within a group of Hissho (insert relevant faction). The Hissho speaks, in squarks, with subtitles down below. The human faction answers in kind (in the language of the release country) menu of diplomatic choices. Yet, the Hissho can't understand the united empire. Imagine, you're sitting in front of your computer screen, with the imagery of your chosen race, understanding every word while the race you've chosen doesn't understand a thing. A bunch of squarks saying, 'I don't understand' (subtitles). Not quite realised in different scenario’s (alien to alien, human to alien), but then the aspect still evocates. I'm looking to see comments those opinion. I have more ideas to express, maybe voiced...



Not enough time currently...



I may express them, or I may not. The achievement of a forum is discussion, one of which I am apprehensively excited to experience. The running theme of this thread in my hope is to evoke a spirit of the concept of race represented. Let the journey begin...

Renamed the title.