#Tacoma game

[egg-on-a-legg]

humanizing some of my many beloved ai,,,

[mrporg]

I've always been fascinated by fictional corporations and companies in books, tv and video games. I don't know why, probably because they lend credibility to their respective universes and help anchor the characters in a world that is believable.

Today's corporation is Venturis Corporation, from Tacoma by Fullbright.

As often in video games, this corporation is not the center point but we hear about it throughout the story. They own the Lunar Transfer Station Tacoma, which is a cargo transfer space station between the Earth and and the Moon. The game plays fully on Tacoma.

But in-game, they are more well known for being one of the pioneers of AI. Of course, this story was much more science-fictiony when it came out in 2018. Now in 2024, it's all a bit too real with companies like OpenAI...

Thankfully however, we still get to enjoy our science-fiction, because these AIs, created and owned by Venturis are not bullsh*tting engines (looking at you ChatGPT), but rather what we today call "AGI" (Artificial General Intelligence), which are much more what we imagine an AI should be: an artificial sentient being.

The AI in charge of Tacoma is called ODIN and is one of the central characters of the game. It interacts with the crew of the station throughout the story and we get to see its personality and learn more about it and its capabilities.

Venturis owns ODIN and that's a big theme in the game. But the company also develops access to space for humans and builds space habitats. Notably, you learn that they own the following locations:

Venturis Zenith Lunar Resort

Venturis Belt

Il Ridotto Orbital Caison

Fountain of Paradise Spaceport

We don't hear a lot about most of these locations, except for their purpose and that they are all managed by their own AI.

However, there's one exception. During the game, you do learn quite a lot about Venturis Belt, through personal logs, conversations and ads.

Imagine, a city in space. Hundreds of fully-automated interlinked "bungalows" encircling Earth.

"Fully-automated" is in bold above, because it's important, you'll see.

Except, the belt was never built, and it costs the Venturis Corporation dearly.

Something called the "Human Oversight Accord" was passed and the project cancelled. The accord is celebrated yearly as "Obsolescence Day", the day humans came together and decided to put a stop to full automation driven by AI, which would have made human orbital workers "obsolete".

Now, depending on how you look at it, it's either a good a bad thing.

No more jobs for humans, that sounds like a late-stage capitalism nightmare. No job = no money = no prospect = well, we all know how it goes...

Or, if you're a real optimist, it can sound like a socialist utopia, where humans would have been freed from useless work and have more time to develop to hobbies, arts, friends... you name it (Star Trek anyone?). The reasoning being more automation = less toil and also = more free time = possibly more happiness?

The interpretation is left an exercise to the player/reader.

Regardless, Venturis' plans for mass automation and removing humans from the equation didn't pan out and their project failed. It is not the only "defeat" the corporation will have to face, but I don't want to spoil the game too much for you. If you want to know the rest, I guess you will have to go and play it ;)

Credit: all the images are the property of Fullbright

[bonusquestion]

TACOMA

Just finished the game, Tacoma. realy loved the voice acting of the full cast there are no weak links all of them hit it out of the park.

(full list of cast here)

St James (Dawnn Lewis), operations specialist Clive Siddiqi (T. J. Ramini), network specialist Natali Kuroshenko (Natasha Loring), engineer Roberta "Bert" Williams (Abigail Marlowe), medic Sareh Hasmadi (Eva La Dare), and botanist Andrew Dagyab (Greg Chun).

loved the moment between the characters engineer Roberta "Bert" Williams (Abigail Marlowe) and network specialist Natali Kuroshenko (Natasha Loring) in the medical closet. I was not expecting that. It's cool to see everything they keep in their office. Loved the notes that botanist Andrew Dagyab (Greg Chun) left in the room of medic Sareh Hasmadi (Eva La Dare) with the flower he grew for the crew. In Sareh Hasmadi's (Eva La Dare) room, with the note and flower, we can see dead plants that we can assume that were given to her by botanist Andrew Dagyab (Greg Chun). The dialog is very well acted and written it finished it in 2 hours. and I will most likely listen to the maker's commentary.

almost forgot to yap about the AI on the ship. I am not going to spoil the ending of the game; it is worth the revil. as I have in other posts i love to see AI in media, what really blows my wissel with AI is how we define a liveing thing and the ending gives you some form of anser that i wish we got to see more of.

[lukael]

It's Friday, you know what that means! today we're starting a new game, in which we investigate the mystery of an empty space station... this is Part 1 of Tacoma!

[amandasgeekblog]

[ID : A still from the video game Tacoma. The note inside Kuroshenko’s locker reads, “I’ll exercise when I’m dead” in all caps. / End ID]

I'm playing Tacoma and

same.

[macaronichewtoyz]

YOU !! Ur art trademark is that it's urs and I've never seen anyone else do it quite like u do hehe :3

Realistically tho, ur use of shapes is def a big one !! It rlly works to give weight to ur art, especially with a lot of the stuff you've made in the last several months! I also love the way u use color in ur designs/art in general, pallets are always chefs kiss

GRAHHHHGGGHH SHAKES YUO LIKE A SNOWGLOBE..... <3

that meanz SOOO much... I do my best & im pretty happy with how my art has improved this past year but yk how it is sometimes im not that confident in it... ilysm u big nerd

[bbs-backlog-challenge]

Fin or Bin: Tacoma

Like Hacknet and, more recently, Orwell before it, Tacoma is a more cerebral affair, one of those investigative types of games where you are an outsider presented with a group of LiveJournal accounts and you must sift through them to find all the juicy gossip within.

Tacoma sees you, an independent contractor who recovers lost AIs for the companies that own them, enter the moon base Tacoma which recently underwent a mild case of catastrophic life support failure, presumably leaving everyone aboard dead and more importantly leaving the base's AI Odin all alone by himself.

Entering the various rooms on Tacoma reveals snippets of surveillance footage recorded by the latent AI that can be downloaded and reviewed, presented as 3D holograms that move around the space. A five-minute block of time will contain more than five minutes-worth of information; for instance, persons A and B might be having a conversation on one corner of the room while C and D converse on the other. When C breaks away from D to talk with A and B, they are intercepted by E who just finished talking with F, while D goes off to do their own thing. You can pause, rewind, and fast-forward through time, allowing you to freely follow whoever you wish to and connect the conversational dots as they go.

Of course, since their actions were recorded as well as their voices, you'll also get to peek over their shoulders as they enter PINs to open doors that are otherwise barred from entry, allowing further access to the juicy juicy secrets within.

What I find really interesting, however, is you actually don't need to engage with any of it. Your character is there to download all the data, find Odin, and get out; investigating the events that led to Tacoma's ruin is not part of the mission. You are entirely free to enter each room, download its data, and get out again, without so much as playing it back once. I don't know why you would, but you totally can.

Fin or Bin:

That is of course not the way I approached Tacoma. I'm sure my employer is displeased with how much time I wasted following each person around from conversation to conversation, but I'm here for the juicy goss; what I found was an engrossing, small but deep story of personal choice when faced with catastrophe, and while there's not really any gameplay or even puzzles in the traditional sense, watching the events unfold and piecing together what actions led to which consequences was enjoyable enough to earn a Fin.

(Steam, but played via Humble Trove)

[seattlemarinerz]

i really should go to more rainiers games but it’s such an annoying drive from seattle 😭 south bound i5 near tacoma at rush hour????? no thank you!!!! but i saw sauce and ryan bliss in the game i went to on thursday and they both played tonight which was cool :)

[suburbanbonfire]

well, reblogged that one to the wrong tumblr, but i wrote too many tags to change it now. enjoy my taste in video games

[good-fwiend-in-wome]

game like tacoma but you're exploring an abandoned house and seeing the echoes of the people who lived there as ghosts. in the end you find out they left because asbestos

[justanotherfanartist]

.

[mrporg]

Today I want to celebrate Minny, a fictional character who I am very fond of despite the fact that they have so few voiced lines. Their perky personality and the way they says "ooookay" always makes me smile.

Here's the entirety of their lines:

"Oookay! Engaging retro-thrusters... now!"

"Lunar transfer station Tacoma. Commercial cargo transit facility."

"Crew... evacuated. Station AI... offline!"

"Breathable air on Tacoma for a crew of one should more than sufficient. Docking now!"

"Docked!"

"Oookay!"

"Ship is ready to depart! Please strap in to the pilot seat!"

"Oookay! Getting ready!"

"Hosted AI... online!"

Together with Amy, I'm sure they make a kickass duo on all their adventures!

Here's my favourite interaction:

Odin is such a bore in comparison.

Just kidding, you're pretty cool too, Odin ;)

[scoticus]

south tacoma station has a bunch of blue and red discs

[neproxrezi]

did you know the game Gone Home which you played is inexplicably part of the System Shock and Bioshock Universe

its wat

(i did not know this)

[antitectonic]

Game Amnesia Wanted

Thinking recently about games and media where I wish I could have that first-time blind experience again, where that first time through they grabbed me and opened my head up and poured it full of awe and joy and revelation and melancholy and triumph....

Here are games that come to mind for me. By all means, chime in and add your own so I can go discover what you all found gripping your first time through. (But no spoilers in comments, please, so we can all share these experiences!)

Portal / Portal 2 / Portal 2 co-op - UGH, a great puzzle game with outstanding narrative and character writing. The cooperative storyline is probably at the top of my list for giddy-triumphant-omg-we-did-it, even more than beating some game challenge that's just "hard."

Journey - it's hard to explain what was so mind-bending about this, especially without spoilers. Just trust me, if you aren't yet familiar, that it's gentle and beautiful and spare... and there's a layer atop that that punched me right in the feels when it dawned on me what was happening.

Horizon Zero Dawn - the well-polished action gameplay is great, of course, but the slow unfolding of the world's history, and the climactic moment of revelation, are SO DANG GOOD. I think about this one periodically to this day.

Tacoma - not much of a "game," really; an unfolding story told in interactive flashbacks. Speaking of feels, GOSH. Hopepunk, but still wrenching in the best ways at times.

The Return of the Obra Dinn - the best mystery game ever produced. Yes, some people find it inaccessible because they find the particular visual styling to be a bit queasy-making, and that's a huge shame because that visual styling is explicitly part of the puzzle designs. Similar to Tacoma in being about discovering history through interactive flashback, but explicitly a puzzle game on top of that (and with a totally different vibe). At least two distinct moments in the game that are indelible in the memory of everyone who gets that far.

[could-they-be-a-pro-wrestler]

How successful would Lucy McConky…

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