![]() ![]() He's inquisitive, he asks about their lives, and though these questions could be programmed responses, there seems to be an intention to it. ODIN is clearly exhibiting sentience, that much can be seen from his interactions with the crew members. Like his namesake, the Norse god known chiefly for his eye, ODIN is an observer above all. His presence is everywhere aboard the ship, even after the crew has left. There are at least nine other AI are detailed in the game, some mentioned only by name and some detailed more specifically, but it's ODIN with whom you spend the most time. ODIN is a complex system of artificial intelligence built by the Venturis Corporation to assist in day-to-day operation of the space station. This, it is revealed, is mostly due to the care and attention given to him by Natali Kuroshenko, the station's AI technician.Īs you enter the station, ODIN is the first sign of life you encounter. ODIN is an impressively advanced AI, one whose scores have been steadily improving in the two years onboard the Tacoma. Creativity, responsiveness, et cetera-the things deemed important to have in a synthetic worker. The AI in the universe of Tacoma are 'graded' on a nine-topic scale, measuring different traits over time. That is, until you start to work with true artificial intelligence. Why worry about having things like 'workers,' when you can have one worker, who never stops working and never requires pay? The answer seems obvious. The possibility of an AI worker in a maintenance role is the cheapest, most efficient answer for corporations like Venturis. ![]() Millions of workers laid off immediately, traded away for a worker that doesn't sleep, doesn't make mathematical mistakes, doesn't commit errors. As with many of the themes of the game, this echoes a familiar line of political discourse: Will the robots take our jobs? What will that look like? "Obsolescence Day" is celebrated once a year, in honor of the day that the OWU won a fight to continue having human labor on orbital stations like Tacoma. The greatest victory of the Orbital Worker's Union is shown early in the game. The trade is always favorable to the employer above all. Years of labor can buy you weeks of free time. Perusing documents of the crew reveals offers to exchange "Loyalty" (a company scrip of sorts gained by working for a megacorporation) for time on the tourist stations. The ride from from the central shaft of the station to the exterior wings is always accompanied by an advertisement for the more plush stations owned by Venturis. Tacoma never shows you the world of pleasure on the tourist space stations, but instead taunts you with it. The notion of every citizen living a life of leisure requires paying for that leisure, or so a capitalist system would dictate. There is no fantasy of powerful individualism here.Ĭapitalism does not play well in a utopia. In pure game design, it feels like a conscious reaction to a player-first gameworld: In Tacoma, as in Gone Home, you don't affect the world. All the world is already laid out, the other actors have played their part, and it's up to you to walk their footsteps. Tacoma recognizes this, and, like its predecessor Gone Home (Fullbright's 2013 breakout hit), it places the player in a position of only relative action-the player isn't there to save the world, only to explore and understand it. As such, it's the individual-the player-who moves the world along. In most single player video games, these reactions are given by the game itself. This back-and-forth between the player and the world forms the contours of the game, actions and reactions moving between actors in the space. Games exist in the margin between player action and world reaction: What the player does, the world will respond to. The player, through the avatar of Amitjyoti "Amy" Ferrier, is implicitly tasked with exploring the space, and by doing so illuminating the conflicts within it.Īny game with a player who affects the world, must, by definition, be individualist in some degree. Tacoma, the space station, is physically and ideologically built to separate those who work within it. In Garrett Martin's piece at Paste Magazine, "In Capitalism, No One Can Hear You Scream," he stresses the relationship between employees and employers in Tacoma forms the key conflict that the game explores. If the world is bleak and making connections between characters is difficult, it makes sense for the player to behave as a lone actor. This is purposeful it helps the individualist connotations of the mechanics portrayed to be reflected in the contextual narrative. The possible future is often portrayed as a harsh one in video games.
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