Jonathan Linneman jacks into the 'net once again with Question #11
Do you find that some [technological] elements of your games are actually retro-futuristic at this point and if so, do you embrace that or try to keep modern tech in mind?
I view all genre fiction in the way one might imagine a piece of period fiction, it's simply that the period in question might be the present or the distant future. You wouldn't add cellphones to the era of the Vikings or give Victorian England streaming television now would you? Of course not. The attraction of playing in a different time and place is partially that it features the props of some other time and place.
In my opinion, the worlds of ALIEN, Cyberpunk 2020, Star Trek, and Traveller are no different. They need not line up with our current, real world technological developments but rather they should be internally logical and consistent.
All too often I see writers and GMs trying to make their game settings 'realistic' even though they deal with elves and wizards, superheroes flying unaided across the sky, and fleets of FTL starships. Realism? Sorry Captain, that boat has sailed. The universes of Sci-Fi and Fantasy need not line up with ours but they must absolutely, positively line up with themselves.
So yes, one could say the Star Trek TOS Communicator or the MUTH/R computer interface of ALIEN is anachronistic but only to us, to our knowledge of current technologies. To them, those in that setting, it's not just advanced but more importantly, perfectly normal.
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