nasfaqg

Hi. /nasfaqg/ rep here, chosen by the thread.

I'm coming here to discuss something that we've discussed for a while, which is /nasfaqg/'s aesthetics and technological level. The world of /vtwbg/ has been bumped up several times since we've debuted our initial aesthetics (XVth Century Venice) or subsequent one (XVIth Century Netherlands). Right now, the thread treats late XVIIIth and early XIXth century inventions and concepts as if they were common, together with the presence of multiple early XIXth century threads (you can say it's the 1700's but surprisingly basically no one is in them). Which leads us to...

The Proposal

/nasfaqg/ would wish to move onto a late Victorian-era aesthetics building on the European-esque feel of Venice/Netherlands, into something akin to London - think Dishonored. The Exchange itself would be based on NYSE from the 1860s-1880s, the era of industrial and financial magnates like Dow, Rockefeller, or Morgan.
Regarding technology, it'd vary wildly for reasons I will get into in the reasoning/drawbacks section, but it'd likely use a pre-industrial 1800s as the baseline, with individual plutocrats reaching tech in their favoured discipline up to the 1880s. Overall, we'd assume the 1850s tech level would be "average", primarily in commercial and theoretical technology, with tech that'd be mass-produced stalling behind significantly, including military technology.

The level of technology /is/ higher than the general level of technology, and I will explain the reasoning and the drawbacks that would a) cull back on its usefulness and b) stop its spread.

The Reasoning

/nasfaqg/'s core identity relies on two things: the stock market and trade. The former comes from the fact that the game the thread centres around clearly parodies NASDAQ - a modern exchange, supporting digital purchases, as well as taking certain elements of the cryptocurrency aesthetics. As such, we've always strived to be the most "modern" stock exchange/financial setting of the /vtwbg/ current era, which currently falls outside of the Dutch Golden Age. The latter comes from both the game's auction system and translation of the game's mechanics into thread culture and ultimately /vtwbg/ behaviour. In order to remain competitive in the trading department, one either has to stay ahead of the curve in terms of development of transport, good production, and information, or maintain an iron-grip monopoly over a specific market.

The first core identity drives us to the stock exchange that'd be closest to the modern one - thus our choice of NYSE and Dishonored-ish aesthetics. The second means that it's extremely hard to justify /nasfaqg/'s wealth or trade when several other threads offer to /share/ their technology while using it to benefit them economically. Why accept /nasfaqg/'s investors when someone domestically can build a better cement/a faster ship/a better product?

Finally, it does make sense logically. /nasfaqg/ is an extremely open melting pot thread, which means that putting the baseline below what other threads openly know about would be illogical - this excludes, of course, technology that is unique, being kept secret, or is unusable AND kept secret (a'la /nasa/). It's an extremely competitive environment where traders aim to gain any kind of tangible advantage over their opponents, meaning tons of funding and drive to improve /specific/ technologies.
If you can learn information about what goods are needed on the other side of the globe and send it faster to the chapters of your company present there, you can respond to crises and shortages faster than your competition.
If you can transport certain goods either faster, in bigger amounts, or cheaper than your competition, you're carving out a niche for yourself that your opponents cannot fill.
If you can model and process data better than your rivals, your financial investments domestically and on the stock exchange will yield greater returns.
If you can improve your mental processing power and physical stamina, you can trade for longer.
If you develop psychoactive substances from Chuubanite/Vitubium and study biology/chemistry extensively, you can tap onto your subconscious to make trades using the "flow" of the market, turning into its "black magics".
This competitiveness and extreme individualism, while driving progress forward, ironically also stops it from proliferation which I will touch upon in the Drawbacks.

The Drawbacks

  1. Extreme Competition + Laissez Faire = Secrecy
    /nasfaqg/ traders love profit. They really do. But it's not just the monetary value of it - it's also staying ahead of the curve.
    The government of /nasfaqg/ is basically nonexistent. There are no patents and no copyrights.
    If you want to keep onto your hard-earned advantage, you paranoidly keep it a secret from every other trader. If someone were to develop a mechanical computer, you can be completely sure that its plans would never exit the trader's room. If someone were to develop a drug from Chuubanite, they'd only take it for themselves. If someone invents better transportation, he'd rather have it self-destruct than have anyone else learn its secrets.
    This is the reason for the extreme disparity in technology between the plutocrats. The technology, simply put, doesn't spread /even internally/, much less externally. A person with access to a telegraph is unlikely to have access to the fastest clipper ships.
    This also means that /nasfaqg/ traders would never, ever widely use or sell goods or objects that could potentially be reverse-engineered.
  2. Fractured Society
    /nasfaqg/'s second drawback is its political system. It ensures amazing wealth if you were to add it together, and incredible technology if you were to gather it all up... but it isn't whole. /nasfaqg/ as a society is fragmented, and therefore unable to apply the technology and its benefits to the fullest extent. Formed monopolies, while offering added utility, ultimately jack up the prices for consumers on technology-related products that would normally push out other goods from the market.
    As a whole, the overall fracture of society in /nasfaqg/ would hold back most advantages it'd get from higher-tech, although individually /nasfaqg/ companies would be able to carve out niches for themselves.
  3. Quality over Quantity
    Not necessarily a drawback, but a tenet to drive the point home: /nasfaqg/'s individualism also results in an approach that refuses standardization and mass production. While perhaps a partially refrigerated ship is possible, you can be almost sure that it will never enter mass production and instead serve as a singular behemoth in that company's operations.
    While focus on quality over quantity will ultimately result in better i.e. ships or facilities, lack of standardization would again hold back a potentially united /nasfaqg/ fleet from using its strengths to the fullest.

The Concerns, Addressed

  • Wouldn't that be too far ahead?
    We're using punk history. I think it still fits, plus remember that the tech level would be extremely uneven. We also really want the aesthetics to be honest.
  • What's stopping the tech from being exported?
    Paranoid obsession over profit and out-competing your rivals. If you were to share the technology, your advantage would be gone (and this is something that is happening in NASFAQ as a game - people who build bots or develop tools basically never share them).
  • Aren't you getting too much/isn't this too far ahead?
    The drawbacks I listed, especially 1) and 2) are very real and impossible to write out without changing the entire culture, political system, and societal organization of our thread. I think that the justification for it also makes sense, considering you have one thread settled in the 1810s Napoleonic Era and one thread that's in 1850s apparently without significant drawbacks that could be written out... the most significant of them already written out.

I wanted to post it to ask the thread for feedback, but also understand the reason why it's being brought forward - no one wants to be 'backwards', especially when your identity is, ultimately, modern. We've tried again and again to fit into the current thread period, but it just keeps rising. Hopefully with punk history this can be our final aesthetic and tech level discussion for /nasfaqg/.

nasfaqg2


KatNol
i'm making a new language for /nasfqg/ while I finish up kikinese
i made it look like hebrew cause i though it would be funny
i hope this is the right kinda thing to anchor

Edit
Pub: 17 Mar 2022 02:27 UTC
Edit: 21 Mar 2022 06:34 UTC
Views: 582