I'm Sure Someone's Noticed This Before, but.....

I hope I'm not gravedigging here, or parroting something everyone else already knows, but a Search didn't turn anything up, so I'll go ahead and post it, just because it struck me the other day, and I just -had- to see if anyone else thinks it makes sense, or if I'm just nuts.

Gil Bates, as a young man, finds a prototypical technology in the catacombs of a people who are very technically adept, but have no real use for this revolutionary design. One of their number sees how uber-cool it could be, and shows it to young Gil. He takes the design, gives it a mild makeover, and then markets it to the world. Next thing he knows, he's raking in more money than he knows what to do with.

His old buddy Stew from childhood now resents him, and Appleby Inc. is his only 'competitor', but barely qualifies for that term, since it's been utterly crushed by the Bates corporate empire. Stew knows damned well that Bates pirated the technology, but can't prove it, and no one else really seems to care, since the guy is richer than the gods.

Now, admittedly, Bates has made a lot of stuff derived from the principles of the device he lifted from the mines, but still... pirated tech nonetheless. He wishes his old buddy Stew would come work for him, but that doesn't seem too likely, since the poor fellow is quite insistent upon maintaining his independence, although trying to keep his tech proprietary instead of just mass-producing the living shit out of it like Bates did is just sinking his chicken-wire canoe even further into shit creek. And this guy wouldn't know a paddle if it bit him in the ass.

Anyone else think this story sounds a tad familiar?

Next Week: Why the Molochean Hand Is Really MI6 With Worse Hair.

 

Yes, it's quite obvious, you know... :roll:

 

I always thought that was pretty interesting. And where the hell is Sigurd?

 

How about Doc Roberts being a gunfighter as a reference to the famous Doc Holiday?

 

I'm not sure about that one. I mean, in every classic western town there's a doctor, well almost. And there's aways called "Doc". Doc Holiday had Tuberculosis as a matteruhfact.

 

The Molochean Hand-Derian Ka is a very clear reference to the infamous Assassins of Alamut- a medieval heretical Islamic sect divided into two "wings" - the "upper class" of philosophers and theologists and the "lower class" of the "fidayeen", who were used to carry out assassinations of the opponents of the sect. When the original leadership of the Assassins partly died out, partly was overthrown by the younger generations, the Assassins became mere killers working for the highest bidder.

 

Wow...that's neat thanks for that

 

The original story series "The Tales of Arcanum" was full of tongue in cheek references to historical figures and it was obviously carried over into the game. That's one of the really neat things about Arcanum, IMO. I think it just adds another fun dimension to the game that is lacking in a lot of others.

 

You don't even need to know the story, just swap the first letters in "Gil Bates". :roll: Then add the story, if you will, and the Applebey - the picture lays before you lik a 3-piece puzzle where the central, big piece was already clearly laying before you. Sheez.