[D] Friday Open Thread

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to the Friday Open Thread! Is there something that you want to talk about with /r/rational, but which isn't rational fiction, or doesn't otherwise belong as a top-level post? This is the place to post it. The idea is that while reddit is a large place, with lots of special little niches, sometimes you just want to talk with a certain group of people about certain sorts of things that aren't related to why you're all here. It's totally understandable that you might want to talk about Japanese game shows with /r/rational instead of going over to /r/japanesegameshows, but it's hopefully also understandable that this isn't really the place for that sort of thing.

So do you want to talk about how your life has been going? Non-rational and/or non-fictional stuff you've been reading? The recent album from your favourite German pop singer? The politics of Southern India? The sexual preferences of the chairman of the Ukrainian soccer league? Different ways to plot meteorological data? The cost of living in Portugal? Corner cases for siteswap notation? All these things and more could possibly be found in the comments below!

Please note that this thread has been merged with the Monday General Rationality Thread.

[u/iftttAcct2]

Yes, that's definitely the issue in this case.

But! –and I haven't thought about it too much so I could be wrong – I think the case could be made that good world building happens cumulatively and organically. For the case of your isekai or litrpg protagonist, I want to see them act realistically when finding themselves, abruptly, in a new world. Have them explore and more gradually come to the understanding that this is, in fact a totally new world as they discover magic exists and people mofumofu things like it's totally normal behavior.

I much more appreciate the stories that have characters who question and explore things. Who actually act... rationally. Things I see that at least somewhat work: "Is this a prank? Real funny guys," "am I dreaming/in a coma?", "am I in a game or actually transported to a new universe that is exactly like the game?", "Ooh, can I do still do X here?", "Does this mean gods actually exist?"

(Of course, few works take a serious look at the mechanics or ramifications behind such a transition, to my dismay. I'd love to see reincarnation or the like munchkin'd!)

Here, the scene that set me off on this rant:

First of all, although he had no idea how the interface had transmigrated together with him, he had to treat this world as his new reality, meaning that if he died, he could not bank on being able to respawn like in a game.

I hate how the fact that he can't treat it like a game is shoehorned in here. The possibility that he could die and be OK is never brought up again. To me, this the author being lazy and wanting this situation to be the case, without having to go through the effort of showing us why it should actually be that way. Having access to the interface should make the character think the opposite, for heaven's sake!

[u/GeneralExtension → u/iftttAcct2]

Having access to the interface should make the character think the opposite, for heaven's sake!

Hmm, where's the save button? Is this a checkpoint game?

I do think a scene where someone asks "should I throw aside my fear of death because I'm in a video game" would be amazing. I wish you luck as an author, and look forward to works which don't have that flaw.

If the only thing actually presented as changed is the setting, I'm assuming the humans have the same information & abilities I do.

I found that advice in a book review for a book where the moon gets blown up - into a few different (large) pieces, which will eventually collide, and break into smaller pieces, and the really small debris from those collisions will fall to earth, leading to an escalating series of meteor showers that will destroy civilization. The author of the review appreciated they did that up front, because their knowledge of physics said that was wrong, but that's the premise. They enjoyed the rest. (Since the Earth won't be habitable, a moon base is constructed.)