NorCalRoach

FFOW is a great game. I picked it up today without playing the beta. It's pretty intense, but did anybody else get the creeps about how realistic the intro movie/theme of this game captured the possibility of oil being scarce in our lifetime? Now especially that the whole State of California has gone green, we're constantly getting bombarded with information on green house issues and conservation of natural resources. Its all good, if anything I'm more afraid of the crap our kids are going to have to deal with if nothing changes and s-*t hits the fan. I'm going to ride my bike to work tomorrow...if I don't get too lazy.

Ikonic

I am all for the whole Going Green / Al Gore-esque movement, there is only one problem though: Oil is used for virtually everything -- including all those fancy "Green" toys springing up. We are addicted to oil -- and the modern-world population wants the piece of the pie without any pain/hassle. It is extremely jaded on their part. Eventually, we will turn to Coal Liquefaction like the Nazis did to get our oil, sprout up craploads of nuclear plants and maybe glass a country or continent out of spite.

Even if the U.S. becomes "greener", that isnt going to stop China, India and all the other countries where you get your Tech Support calls. The issue is real, but we aren't going to be anywhere close to changing our ways on a global scale.

Also, we know the world is screwed if we have to open a Seed Repository that is fucking protected from nukes.

NorCalRoach

If you’re like me, you generally play games to escape from your everyday pressures of work and family. It’s fun. It’s a fantastic social and personal outlet for creativity, strategy, and role-playing. For the most part, games tend to be surreal or beyond the realm of possibilities. I just wanted to make the point that, for me, FFOW hit home. The beginning storyline sequence was thought provoking. Call of Duty 4 was another game that engaged the player in the harshness of a what-if scenario of bad events that is not out of the realm of possibility. I respect game developers that do this. It makes me a much happier consumer when the game has a compelling reason for me to believe in the storyline and have a great game to back it up.

- I probably should've come up w/ a better title to the thread, something like: "Another Reason to Buy This Game"

HBrutusH

Damn straight we're gonna have to put up with cr*p, things aren't changing fast enough.

There are just too many people.

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jepzilla

Oil isn't going to suddenly dry up next week... the current issue with rising fuel prices isn't due to a rapidly shrinking supply, but a supply that can't meet the growing demand for a highly inelastic product (but historically oil has been inelastic only in the short-term; in the long-term oil is a fairly elastic good). There are still decades of supply left.

There will be no energy crisis since there's ample supply of alternative energy, whether renewable- solar, wind, biofuel, tidal, etc... and non-renewable- nuclear, coal. The 'energy crisis' is actually a fuel crisis, and given the current rate of progress in biofuels, hydrogen and battery technology I doubt there will be any technical difficulty with solving the problem.

The issue will be infrastructure- modern fuel infrastructure is entirely designed around the production, refining and consumption of petroleum, principally gasoline. Certain aspects can be repurposed to new fuels... for example TDP and other biofuel production methods don't rely on any really new chemical engineering. The same technology and infrastructure used currently for refining could be adapted for these technologies, and likewise distribution systems (pipelines, tankers and gas stations) and engines require little change to use these fuels. And who knows, maybe someone will figure out a brilliant way to store and distribute hydrogen. Personally I'm rooting for...


What's more interesting is the question of plastics, since most plastics are derived from oil. However there are more and more bio-plastics being developed (like that nifty self-repairing rubber announced recently).

The 'energy crisis' and 'peak oil' are nice bases for a plotline, or a scare story to achieve political gains, or ratings if you're in the news biz. But it's not something I would worry about.

bleckuhffinity

"Just walk away. Give me the pump, the oil, the gasoline and the whole compound, and I'll spare your lives. Just walk away. I will give you safe passage in the Wasteland. Just walk away and there will be an end to the horror."

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-F- bleak

Nemesis

Have to love the Road Warrior.

+rep to you, sir!

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It's all in the Reflexes.

Santa

Once oil becomes economically stupid to continue to consume, youll see more hybrid/electric/whatever cars on the market. Businesses will do whatever makes them more money, and if oil becomes so high in price that alternatives are more lucrative, we'll see a transition. Currently, its economically stupid to just shift over entirely to hybrid and electric cars and if the government tries to force that on people, youll probably see a far worse recession.

Im not really worried about it. Besides, if we could get these greenies from preventing us from drilling in so many places the problem would be far less and we wouldnt have to depend on the middle east quite so much.

Zoopy

Hybrid cars still use oil and electric cars are not suitable for anywhere that is cold.

ANGELofDEATH

The new motto of the entire population of the planet.

lol
Glass factories will be very profitable in the near future...

Fixed for truth

.. I was thinking we need a "the end is near" / "doomsday" thread.. I have had some global-warming-the-end-is-near discussions with some ...
dont know if this is the wrong place(focusedgaming.com) for such discussion.

But with the loss of bees.. polar melting.. disease, famine .. blah blah blah ... it is hard to ignore.

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