- Aug 7, 2016
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- Thread starter brynhildr
- Start date
- Dec 23, 2017
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"Strict policies are in place in to enforce a ban upon firearms within the city limits. Thus, though terrorism and power struggles run rampant, swordplay, not gunfire, claims the lives of those not powerful to stake out their claims here."
This is a cool premise, but I call bullshit.
Even if the entirety of the nation had an extremely strict ban on guns and World War hostilities had ended, then you'd still have fishermen and such on the border of the no-gun and gun nations bringing in guns for a huge payday all the time, or you would see guns turning up "missing" within the military and soldiers getting "miraculously" rich. You'd still have guns all over the place in the hands of criminals regardless of the nation's laws. This situation would likely just lead to greater financial and militaristic strong arming by the mob bosses of Japan - in other words, a scarier Yakuza. If the neighboring lands were still hostile but in a ceasefire, the hostile nations would be smuggling in guns to hopefully (in their view) help destabilize the country Middle-East style (along with the rich soldiers) leading to a similar situation as before. This a best case situation with an even stronger restriction of guns. There is literally no way to actually limit the supply of firearms enough to lead to a reliance on swordplay among the bad guys.
The only situations I can see working are a "5000 years in the future, after [Author's chosen calamity] scorched the earth,..." (Mad Max but worse in other words) or a "XXX years ago in feudal japan" kind of story working. Alternatively, you could just say "Fuck gunpowder! It doesn't exist in my alternate version of history."
This is a cool premise, but I call bullshit.
Even if the entirety of the nation had an extremely strict ban on guns and World War hostilities had ended, then you'd still have fishermen and such on the border of the no-gun and gun nations bringing in guns for a huge payday all the time, or you would see guns turning up "missing" within the military and soldiers getting "miraculously" rich. You'd still have guns all over the place in the hands of criminals regardless of the nation's laws. This situation would likely just lead to greater financial and militaristic strong arming by the mob bosses of Japan - in other words, a scarier Yakuza. If the neighboring lands were still hostile but in a ceasefire, the hostile nations would be smuggling in guns to hopefully (in their view) help destabilize the country Middle-East style (along with the rich soldiers) leading to a similar situation as before. This a best case situation with an even stronger restriction of guns. There is literally no way to actually limit the supply of firearms enough to lead to a reliance on swordplay among the bad guys.
The only situations I can see working are a "5000 years in the future, after [Author's chosen calamity] scorched the earth,..." (Mad Max but worse in other words) or a "XXX years ago in feudal japan" kind of story working. Alternatively, you could just say "Fuck gunpowder! It doesn't exist in my alternate version of history."
You're largely attacking strawmen there; the premise merely states a hard ban on firearms within the city limits which taken at face value says absolutely nothing about for example folks out in the countryside, and there would appear to be no grounds whatsoever to assume the Westphalian state monopoly on legitimate violence isn't backed up by the usual stockpiles of guns of all sizes in hands of the authorities.
Which is basically no different from the Japanese situation IRL.
What indeed is pulled right out of the writers' derriere is the elaboration that this somehow magically results in edged weaponry being, by the sounds of it, entirely unregulated and somehow the underworld types are settling things with fancy-ass swordsmanship like it was still the Bakumatsu - as opposed to how it *actually* works out, which is that the gangsters mainly rely on the usual knives (though the Yakuza are apparently pretentious enough to actually sometimes use about wakizashi-sized blades) and blunt instruments with a sprinkling of comically overpriced smuggled handguns.
It's basically a really really transparently nonsensical excuse to mash together samurai period pieces and crime drama.
okerFace:
Which is basically no different from the Japanese situation IRL.
What indeed is pulled right out of the writers' derriere is the elaboration that this somehow magically results in edged weaponry being, by the sounds of it, entirely unregulated and somehow the underworld types are settling things with fancy-ass swordsmanship like it was still the Bakumatsu - as opposed to how it *actually* works out, which is that the gangsters mainly rely on the usual knives (though the Yakuza are apparently pretentious enough to actually sometimes use about wakizashi-sized blades) and blunt instruments with a sprinkling of comically overpriced smuggled handguns.
It's basically a really really transparently nonsensical excuse to mash together samurai period pieces and crime drama.
okerFace:
- Dec 23, 2017
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Actually what I was doing was purposefully steelmanning the author's premise, but I can see how my statement may have been misconstrued. I essentially added a situation where it was banned in the countryside, too, yet firearms would still find their way into the city in my example which is true to the reality of any hard ban. Granted, knives, bats, and knuckle dusters are often preferable for organized crime which matches the state of Japan. As for the rest, I can't find a reason to disagree with you. Sadly, it seems I won't get to hone those old debate club skills.
- Oct 1, 2017
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- Nov 17, 2017
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- Nov 17, 2017
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Again what. So its rape but its unavoidable huh just like any porn game that has rape in it interesting.
- Mar 20, 2018
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Australia has basically banned guns. Cops and the Military still have them but there's almost no gun violence here. I'm guessing you're from America? America fetishises guns so I get it probably wouldn't work there. If it can work in Australia I don't see why it wouldn't in an alternate Japan.
- Aug 22, 2018
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Not really, a lot of VN's that have rape that's avoidable by making different choices.
- Dec 23, 2017
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I don't actually own a gun --- although I have a steam cannon I made which could work as a homemade mortar or an anti-tank gun (I doubt I have the balls to put explosives in that heated tube)--- so take what I say in this next paragraph with a grain of salt.
I wouldn't go so far as to say Americans fetishize guns. It is more the concept of independence from others (whether that other is something as complex as the government or as simple as your parents) that we fetishize as you put it. A major part of that is being able to rely on yourself instead of the goverment leading a lot of rural people to value guns for their self defense as opposed to police that wouldn't arrive until long after the blood has dried (an hour response time can be pretty common for emergencies and a full day or more is possible for less urgent crimes).
As for whether it could work, I don't think it could. Even in Australia, crimes involving guns are still prevalent (around 15% of homicides).
- Mar 20, 2018
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Sorry if fetishises sounded harsh. We get American culture here filtered through a heavy filter haha. We could speculate forever about the cause of crime etc. 15% of homicides is still pretty low considering the amount of homicides itself is also pretty low. Australia hasn't actually banned guns outright actually, only automatic and semi-automatic weapons so maybe I'm talking out my arse (happened before, will happen again). It's still fairly difficult to get your hands on a gun legally.
Australia is a pretty vast place. Growing up I lived a 10min drive from the nearest town which had 2 policemen to cover a huge area counting about 5 small towns, mostly farmers, most crimes were people punching eachother at the local pub or, more depressingly, domestic violence.
- Oct 1, 2017
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as a spoiler a character does get a gun, and they fucking wreck shit, so its not as unrealistically restricted as you guys are thinking i just didn't want to spoil it since it was a major plot point, but so many people seem to be refusing to even consider this since they can't believe a gun couldn't get through customs.
- Aug 5, 2017
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- Apr 26, 2019
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For some reason, this game always freezes around 20 mins at the same scene. any ideas?
Tried out this game but it uses a absolutely whooping 0% of CPU, rendering it unplayable.
Using w10 if it matters.
Using w10 if it matters.
- Sep 12, 2021
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Good novel. The writing was a bit cringe and over the top and the plot didn't make much sense in places but it was a super fun read. See my review for more details.
