Havatra

Oh, this is gonna be one of my longer comments…!

Imagine the Fallout universe only less grim and less apocalyptic. There have been not dirty/radioactive world war, but a massive solar flare that fried all global electronics. This leads to mass disarray, as society is so dependent on electronics that we’re facing a total societal collapse. However, people do not turn wild and crazy like in the Fallout franchise, Metro franchise, or others.

This is set in the year 2051, about 4 years after the solar flare called the DC (The Digital Cleansing). The first few months after the DC people panicked, and raided most stores and such for food, and a lot of people died, especially in the bigger cities, due to lack of food and transport. A lot of people thought ahead however, understood what this meant, and moved out into the countryside to live off of the land just like humanity did back in the days.

You are a Longing One; someone who longs for the times of the past, looking through ruins to find functional technology. You disassemble it, learn it, document it, and rebuild the modern society from your little village. Most people are helpful and encouraging of your adventures, but of course some people who believe the past should stay in the past.

You will face environmental dangers (abandoned structures and global warming related events), manage your resources on your excursions (hydration, temperature, sleep), and dig through all kinds of buildings - libraries, research institutes, governmental offices, and normal homes.

Back home in your village you will be able to grow fruits and vegetables, tend to animals, and trade items with your neighbors for resources both for survival and for excursions. You get to help your neighbors with quests like finding certain items in the ruins or helping them rebuild something on their farmstead.

The ultimate goal of the game is nothing more grand than a village that thrives - you grant them electricity, steady resources, and a happy life, while finding small stories both in the present and the past that tells you of how things were and have become.

A mostly peaceful game, where there’s realistic documentation about how technologies work, and a village that grows from your contributions.

Good points; I’m convinced.

I’ve enjoyed all their works tbf, and I’ll likely get to enjoy yet another good game :-)

Good point! I’m confident that they’ll deliver some thought provoking elements to the story in this regard.

Furthest removed from the core gameplay? What is the core?

The difficult survival? Not knowing what next will try to kill you? The uncertainty of the future? Living in darkness both figuratively and literally? The longing for the life before the war? Exodus is just the least dark game, but the core is still very much there I feel like?

True, though I was a bigger fan of Metro Exodus for the fact that they left the psychic stuff out honestly. Exodus is a good example of how you don’t have to follow the recipe exactly to get a good cake. Nevertheless, there has always been a big focus on the atmosphere and the people, regardless of the psychic part of the story, where they’re coping with survival while piecing together what has been going on before during and after the bombs.

However, I just read an article here that reassured me greatly: https://www.ign.com/articles/metro-2039-developers-on-how-russias-invasion-of-ukraine-changed-their-plans
They still focus on the slow burn story, so all is good, I believe! :-)

This one I’ll be keeping tabs on - sounds like a great and fun game!

I’m stoked for another Metro game, but I feel like they’re leaning a little hit too heavily into the radioactive monsters with this one? I feel like it’s becoming less “possible dystopian future” and more “save the world/country from the supernatural creatures” kind of game…?

What I really like with the franchise is how everything is grounded in possible everyday reality. Sure they have some monsters, but it’s not trippy or fantasy-like. There’s atmosphere through the environment being filled with everyday items in a post-war world, like printed photographs hung up on the walls, letters left behind by now-skeletons, and the general scarcity of resources that make survival a core piece of everyone’s mind. I hope they will achieve this like in their past games, with storytelling grounded in reality being front and center.

On another note, it’s interesting how they have made what looks like Pripyat, and I kinda hope it is! I’d much rather explore Pripyat in Metro than in Stalker.

As a lot of people here are saying, education is alpha omega. However, what makes or breaks this education (whether they end up starting to “test” this education), is how you present it:

Saying casually “You’re not allowed to go to these websites because I say so.” is like inviting them to explore anyways, and try and find out for themselves whether it’s as bad as you say or not (because their classmates have gone to these sites after all, and they’re fine).

Instead, make sure to tell them why you’re doing it is because you yourself don’t even go there, because of X serious reason. Be it big tech spying on and manipulating you, risks of implication in illegal activities, getting scammed, or psychological trauma of seeing too much. Perhaps refer them to a documentary that explains your point, so that you’re not the sole source of trust.

The internet is a dangerous place, and that should be communicated from a person who genuinely thinks so themselves (the parent).

This is not to say that the internet can also be useful, but only if used correctly. As for guardrails that can prevent accidentally ending up in the wrong place can indeed be as others mention here, family mode, blocklist, safe DNS, etc… It’s not there to restrict them, but to safeguard them (and you).

Make sure you’re also a safe person to talk to about taboo topics. Things like sex, porn, suicide, hacking, gore, drugs, war crimes, school shootings, and various illegal activities should all be safe for them to seek you out as the first point of contact. NOT the internet!

The best monitoring tool I can recommend for a child is for them to feel safe in self-reporting.

The way that kids and students learn has changed drastically ever since the start of the world wide web. We no longer need schools or teachers to acquire information or knowledge.

What we need teachers for now is to teach how to interpret the information that we find, to verify its authenticity, and when & how to challenge that information.

With AI (still hate that term) it has become easier than ever to use shortcuts in thinking. Why figure out of the answer when you can just have the answer presented to you? Big Brother loves you!

Teachers are more important than ever, lest we want a society of sheep that can only think as far as the internet and AI let them, which by this point is largely controlled by tech giants and governments. See Information Warfare.

Also worth a read/dive:
State-Sponsored Internet Propaganda
Cognitive Warfare