How Far Should We Go

This poll will end on the evening of Tuesday, October 26th.

First to vote!

I think to start off with, at the very least, we should remain fairly grounded in our own solar system and work with things that are reasonably possible with what is being worked on and theorized right now. Should things go well and progress as we all hope they do, then perhaps we look into starting to expand our scope.

If we get too far into the future and too far out into space with our game and story line, we run the risk of getting away from our goal (at least for now) of having an educational base for the game and site. At some future time, when the current project goals have been met and we have an established base of players and staff, we can explore the possibility of adding a more sci-fi section/add-on to the game. Perhaps, as I recall was suggested somewhere, there could be a password for parents/educators that would unlock the part of the site/game that is more geared to gaming and fun and less toward being educational.

Two cents deposited!!

Good to see some other votes. How about some posts with reasons for those votes. It would help to know what you are all thinking about stuff like this.

I think our solar system is a bit to small to have all that we need, and i dont think we want to go into other galaxys cus we want to keep it somewhat real. So i think we should just do our galaxy.

You do, or course, realize that our galaxy is flippin' enormous! Not trying to shoot down your thoughts, just making sure you realize just how big our solar system really is. 8 planets, all the moons, asteroid belt, tons of locations to do things. It's not as small as you would think. I'm just saying.

I actually agree with Blade. From both a scientific point of view, and an astrophysical one-- our solar system is quite small.

It has occurred to me that if we limit ourselves to staying within our own "small" solar system that we may restrict the ability and amount of NASA's funding. As with most companies, NASA prefers to fund things that highlight their current interests rather than interests of the past.

NASA is currently pouring a substantial amount of their money into deeper space exploration, and overhauling the DSN (Deep Space Network). With data that has been gleaned from Voyager much of what is beyond our solar system is where the majority of astrophysical research is focused.

It is my opinion that if we want this to be cutting edge; and to invoke the both the interests and finances of people who work within the astronomical field, we will need our program to compliment the current fields of study, rather than ones that are now considered "old news".

A possible idea for compromise:

What if how far you "went" was what determined the age/skill level setting.

For the younger crowd site created missions and lore that involved only our own solar system seems appropriate. This would be the "Beginner Level".

As the skill set/age rises so does the expanding further out into space. The lore would have a little more depth and the site created missions would now add a bit more conjecture rather than just straight facts. ("Intermediate Level").

The highest level would be the further out (neighboring galaxies, or beyond). This lets the older or more involved players have a place to discuss quantum theory and the possibility of what lies beyond (and yes, this could include what "life" might or might not be found in distant places).

I see this as being workable from the coding angle by implimenting the adapting NSFW control that is already coded, and by the use of tags that would divide the missions into subgroups. ("Exploratory Level").

Let me know what you guys think.

The problem I see is based in what Elric said. To quote him, our galaxy is flippin' enormous! Even at the speed of light (waaaaay faster then we can go now), it would take several YEARS to reach the nearest star, let alone the edge of the galaxy which would take us a solid 25,000 years to reach. Furthermore, places get empty fast once you leave the relative busyness of the solar system, as I said, the nearest point of interest is several years away. Once you go to that scale, you need to be quickly traveling hundreds of lightyears to have the same functionality game wise that we could have in the Solar System. The galaxy is huge, yes, but it is also VERY empty.

I voted for both within our Solar System and within our Galaxy for a few reasons. First of all, I don't like to limit ourselves from the outset; but I think anything we do outside the Solar System should be close to it. Elric is totally correct, it's a big place out there and it would take some serious creativity and stretching of current space travel theories to obtain the kind of speeds we'd need to get places.

Another problem comes when you realize that the further out we go, the further away from Earth (eg, the only known planet with life) and thus the harder it is to have conflict or interaction. How do we get anything interesting to happen out in deep space other then exploration? I'm not saying exploration is bad, just that it doesn't seem like the direction we'd be going in. The only real way (that I can think of) to rectify that is to enter aliens, of whom there is absolutely no evidence to support, despite the great lengths the US has gone to in order to find them.

As with Elric, I'm not trying to shoot down the idea, but I am trying to see how it is realistically possible.

@GiGi - An example of a good way to highlight NASA's current interests would be to use and build on my idea of a Mars based colony. We don't have to use my idea, of course, but I wanted to point out that we don't need to leave the Solar System to do things NASA would be interested in.

Our solar system is tiny. If we stayed here, how the hell would we turn our game into a PMOG, there would be nothing to use in our solar system for websites. There's a few planets with some moons, and maybe an asteroid belt. We need to go farther than that, but not too far. It needs to stay edjumacational. So, staying in our galaxy, ftw.

You are assuming that we are going with the model of having planets represent websites. If that turns out to be the case, then I would have to agree with you. If a different model is used, like cites representing websites, then our solar system would be plenty big enough.

I am liking GiGi's idea of having a gradual increase in the area of space that is used, so that as players reach higher levels and complete game missions, more of the galaxy and universe is brought into play.

How about three factions (including the one i suggested) on the major planets Earth, Venus and Mars while the other planets and moons are neutral ground?

See my post https://tnnrebootcomplex.forumotion.com/general-f15/mars-attacks-t36.htm#736 about Mars and factions.

From a marketing point of view, there is a huge body of unwritten astronomy stubs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Astronomy_stubs Obviously, if someone(s) were diligent enuf, whilst playing PMOG, astronomy students at colleges and such could be researching and filling in the details. Moreover, when I grow up, I would like to write for Wikipedia - English / Language Arts students could be made to be interested in learning how to write for wikipedia.

I was holding out my vote, and unfortunately missed the deadline. My vote would have tied the score to 3, 3, and 3 as I would have voted to "expand into neighboring galaxies". For this reason we will be having a vote one last time, however now comes the hard part. For this I am calling an executive decision. To avoid a stalemate and to keep us in the good graces of NASA for funding, I am removing the option to stay within our own solar system. We will need to be able to highlight NASA's current projects and new discoveries, if we hope to obtain a grant from them. Their current plans are to see as far into deep space as possible.

Seeing into deep space is astronomy not space travel. The Hubble Space Telescope has done some fabulous things, but if one wants to have the Martian Rebel Alliance try to disrupt Earther's knowledge-base and try to steal the secret to FTL space travel first, then you have to be based in the Solar System.

To those who are stating that space travel beyond our own solar system will take forever...
Get some Unobtanium
Given Unobtanium, we could theoretically have FTL-capable ships and/or ships capable of folding space or creating wormholes.

Note: Definition of Unobtanium