>>22076049
For Reference: 4chan is a small star system closely adjacent to the blue supergiant of Youtube.com

>>22076240
Reddit, on the other hand, is in the Newsfeed Cluster between Tumblr and Twitter, and is quite far from 4chan.

Something Awful is very close to Reddit, and is just "off the coast" of Imgur, which in turn is a satellite system of Tumblr.

>>22076049
I'd post about your setting idea but I'm too busy looking for the sites I visit on that map.

>>22076276
All the webcomics are in a cluster, with their capital system being XKCD.com.

>>22076049
Lot's of bestiality. Lot's of bestiality orbiting around Redtube, specifically.

>>22076276
>Something Awful is very close to Reddit

Well. that could only lead to constant interstellar warfare.

>>22076307
Holy shit my sides are blasting off.

>>22076325
And both are under the oppressive rule of the local capital system of Tumblr, which rules over that Principality Sector, and in turn is subordinate to Twitter.

>>22076049
Wheres a bigger version? Can't see shit captain.

>People go to Yamahamotor.eu a lot after visiting 4chan.

>>22076345
Meanwhile we're youtube's bitch

>>22076049
Hm... space here seems to be organized in terms of heavily populated "capital" systems, with clusters of smaller systems very close around them, which in turn have their own rings of smaller systems...

It would seem to be a sort of feudal hierarchy, with Google being the emperor of USAian space, then with lesser kings, princes, barons, and fiefdom systems.

Sort of like Foundation, but with tubes.

>>22076347
http://internet-map.net/

There you go.

Is it strange that I sort of imagine China's sector surrounded by a gigantic wall of fire?

>>22076353
The Youtubian Empire is a kind, gentle ruler. Plus it's one of the big 4 center systems so at least our trade is well protected.

>>22076347
>open picture
>upper left
>The Internet Map
>internet-map.net
>hey guyz what site is dis?

>>22076353
We have non-aggression treaties since the age of Rickroll.

>>22076347
Do you see how it says "internet-map.net" in big letters? Try going to that site.

>>22076379
Oh. Derp.

familynetworker orbits 4chan.

>wcl/drc;2 1/2
what the fuck captcha?

>>22076376
Basically, if this were EVE Online, we're in high-sec space.

>>22076049
I want to visit the porn clusters.

>>22076370
Why's Wikipedia surrounded by small European satellites?

Why is Iran such a big presence?

Is it like Muslim-center or something?

>>22076049
The colors clearly represent political allegiances. Could somebody draw up some borders in MS Paint?

Of course, the borders are blurry, and it's not unheard of to find, for instance, a Nipponese-sympathetic world deep within the boundaries of Usonia. Triple-ecks, meanwhile, is a lawless trade nation, where anything goes and standards are somewhat "relaxed."

>>22076405
Probably because of the smaller foreign-language versions.

There are a small pair of sites off in deep space, one Chinese and one Russian. To the top left beside the China cluster.

What are you, Coral-Club.com? And what is our relationship with Coralorder.com?

File: 1355705801526.jpg-(22 KB, 544x321, Reavers.jpg)

>That vast emptiness between Wordpress and the rest of Netspace.

>>22076423
Porn is bigger than the entire Canadian presence.

Jesus christ, the galaxy is dominated by the Goggle Alliance, and we're only a stones throw from one of their tributaries.

Hmm.... Well, there's a large Google outpost in every single sector. Google.ru, Google.es, Google.co.uk...

Clearly, Google is the major governing body of The Internet, keeping tabs on every region of space and overseeing their squabbles, carefully notating all of their data for "marketing purposes."

Tl;dr Google is the corporate emperor of the entire Web.

The Web, by the way, is the name for this space's form of hyperspace, which is accessed world-to-world by traveling through Hyperspace Links, or "Hyperlinks" for short, operating on the HTTP drive. Due to the wormhole-like nature of Hyperlinks, they're also known as "Tubes". In this way, transfer between two different sites essentially involves moving through a series of tubes.

>>22076423
Government inspired secluded censored internet, vide China.

File: 1355705997954.gif-(13 KB, 633x758, feek.gif)

>>22076491
>Even on the internet my country is insignificant

>>22076503
So the colors represent stellar nations but Google (and others?) are basically megacorps?

>>22076469
"they'll rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skins into their clothing. And, if we're very, very lucky, they'll do it in that order."

Fucking Wordpress

>>22076529
Don't feel so bad. England is in the same boat!

>>22076503
What does that make TOR network?

>>22076542
That makes me feel worse.
How the commonwealth has fallen.
Actually, that could be a thing, an internet commonwealth.

I'm imagining google as this enormous, sprawling, yet cloistered super-metropolis bigger than a planet, stacked dozens deep with cities bigger than your country. The further toward the center you go, the harder it is to stay.

>>22076552
Shadow Goverments.

>>22076503
The Web was discovered, incidentally, at a particle-physics research laboratory known as CERN at the hyperlink coordinates info.cern.ch, where the very first Webway link was accidentally created while researching superluminal transmission of research data. In doing so, they connected to the ancient Arpa Network, a network of inter-Web gateways laid down by the Forerunners.

>>22076552
It grants access to Deep Web, a kind of hyperspace at alternate wavelengths. It is slow but leaves no trail and entrance and exit from it can be entirely hidden.

>>22076559
And it all bows to High Lord Larry Page. There are none who dare to cross Page, for entire web-clusters live and die on his whim.

>>22076574
Webway access was originally restricted to those at similar universities, where thousands of people chatted and met through the USE Net. However, one fateful September, the Arkham-Orison-Leyland corporation opened the USE Net to all, in the process flooding the Web with the poorly-understood extrauniversal entities known as "Trolls," "Flamers," and culturally-naive travelers known as "N00Bs", due to the N00 identification code from AOL linkups, who started more wars and crushed more interesting societies than anything else in history.

Lot's of China's domain names are just numbers. That's disappointing.

>>22076596
The whole star system has been cannibalized into a Dyson Sphere known as the Googleplex.

>>22076595
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS THE DEEP WEB!

File: 1355706412251.jpg-(443 KB, 1522x1080, SPEHSS MARP.jpg)

>>22076426
Here you go.
The Borders resemble that of the Holy Roman Empire, various independent planets subordinate to larger ones which are subordinate to even larger ones. Emperor Google reigns the larger part of the Empire, while Electors such as Facebook or yahoo have significant political power.

>>22076633
And at the center, their star has been harnessed to power the vast DNS machines that make hyperspace accessible and to control the great Google "Searchlight" Engine, which guides others through the Web and allows discovery of new Web-sites. They also keep tabs on all information, and the comings and goings and doings and sayings of all who falls under their ever-watchful eye.

>>22076642
>Canada and the UK part of the US' empire
Manifest destiny pls go.

>>22076596
>Larry Page is the Vect of the Internet's commorragh

>>22076672
Of course, other Searchlight Engines - Bing, Yahoo, Jeeves, Altavista, Duck-Duck-Go, and half a dozen others allow for navigation free of the watching eye of Google, although travelers may often get lost following these rebellious beacons.

>>22076674
Who cares where the lines are, you all answer to High Lord Page at the end of the day.

>>22076642
(cont)
This Murikan Empire rose with the alliance between the Porn and USA Empires, both of which benefited greatly from a burgeoning, well-funded population eager to colonize. Other empires arose at the borders of the Murikan Empire, such as the Russian, Chinese or Japanese empires, though they are for the most part isolationist, with significant tarrifs and language difficulties preventing a mesh with the USA empire as was the case with Europe or the Commonwealth countries.

This is beautiful.

>>22076674
You aren't a significant enough presence to be independent! Maybe if you put in as much effort as Porn, you'd get your own territory.

>>22076642

And behold, the lawless systems of the Pornographer Kings, a wretched hive and empire unto themselves.

>>22076535
Effectively. Anything with a multi-national domain name presence is a corporation branch. So Wikipedia, Google, Youtube, Facebook... All of them are megacorps.

So what I'm getting here is that each nation as its own internet empire, but they all power to the Higher and Supreme, Google.

File: 1355706973344.png-(220 KB, 435x322, 1349119458487.png)

>>22076724

>Maybe if you put in as much effort as Porn, you'd get your own territory.

>>22076306
Oh hey, they really are. Giantitp, Erfworld, Penny Arcade, Gunnerkrigg, Girl Genius, Oglaf, even CAD and Questionable Content... they're all in one cluster, with XKCD and Penny Arcade ruling over them all.

They're actually in pretty low-sec space, far from the nearby lord worlds of Wikipedia and Twitter, and situated near the edge of colonized space on the border of half a dozen empires.

This could actually be politically interesting.

>>22076770
>power to
derp, meant "answer to"

>>22076714
The Murikan Empire is a loose collection of Megacorps, Electors, Bishoprics, Cities and Fiefdoms answering supposedly to the Imperial domain of Google. Electors such as Count Zuckerberg of Facebook have a great degree of independence and nothing stops one of noble birth to go out and colonize their own system - there are hundreds of such systems which answer to a Baron or directly to the Emperor.

The Border Princes, along with the Sultanate of Turkey, are exceedingly rich due to their position as a hub of intergalactic trade and diplomacy. However, banditry and pirates are a continuous problem.

Some say that if the lesser Kingdoms, barbarian nations and rebellious Electors join forces the Empire could very well fall...

File: 1355707055849.jpg-(46 KB, 732x294, info-eng.jpg)

>>22076529

Read 'em and weep.

Checking my logbook, I found that I had been traveling in this one direction for much longer than anticipated. My journey to the system known as "blogspot" had gone off course, much more then normal.

I began the necessary actions any good captain would do in the situation. The crew was swiftly warned of the incoming problem, and everyone was assured that the best course of action was to not panic.

You see, getting lost in the giant mess of this galaxy is a common occurrence. Most of the time this will end in some embarrassed and arriving a few days late. But not this particular area.

The peaceful quiet we were so used to was pierced by strange moans.

We were already here.

Huh. Urbandictionary is off in nullsec, off in the lawless reaches of space far away from anything. The nearest Lord World is the independent, benevolent, neutral, and democratic Wikipedia.

>>22076799
>Worse than poland
It's over.

>>22076833
Encyclopedia Dramatica, however, is literally a direct fiefdom of Tumblr.

That's going to lead to warfare and revolution, no question. Maybe it's a colony world of 4chan or something.

Navigation between planets would probably be difficult without the use of one of the many transport agencies, none of which can compare to the giant known as google. However, a skilled pilot may plot his own course without the use of these "search engines".

>>22076833

Wordpress, meanwhile, is one of the only largely-populated worlds that's off in the deep reaches of space, far away from anything.

They're practically blogging out in the Wild West.

Only China has a web-empire who can claim relative independence from the influence and power of Google.
Yet they suffer for it by being one of the most closed off sectors of web-space

>>22076529

Think of it this way.

Far more people fap than are Canadian.

>>22076893
They're called "Searchlight" Engines, bro. The star at the center of the Googleplex dyson sphere was converted into one.

They're pretty much like the Astronomicon, except powered by stars. Which is why every search engine has its own site, because each site is a star system.

>>22076776
I just looked in to that and learned that Goblins gets more traffic than Gunnerkrigg. Fuck the internet.

>>22076914
Literally; the entire area is surrounded by nuclear mines, and Webway access is avaliable only through carefully gated border systems.

Interestingly, the purpose of this security is not just to keep people and foreign thought out, but to keep their citizens in.

File: 1355707479403.jpg-(821 KB, 1522x1080, SPEHSS MARP 1.jpg)

>>22076791
An updated map showing the violent Imammate of Persia and the benevolent Indian Republics, which are dealing with being a confused clusterfuck. The small orange Duchy is the Netherlands and the indigo beneath Eastern Europe is the land of the Italian Counts.

>>22076776

Awkward Zombie rides separately, however, within the sphere of the relatively young Dropbox Municipality.

>>22076949
Move the Murikan border in so that Wordpress is extraterritorial.

>>22076949
The green blob inside the Chinese Empire is the Korean Kingdom, a proud place even though it is out of necessity a vassal of the Chinese due to being surrounded by them. An enterprising Murikan Emperor could use this place in a war against China...

>>22076920
There are also permanent short jumps between individual planets. Links!

>>22076924
Never read goblins, does it update faster?

Cern.ch, meanwhile, the very first Website and the beginner of it all, is now an insignificant fief world under the dominion of Facebook. One wonders if it is irritated by this, if it longs to become the Giant of the Web, the master port it once was...

>>22077024
It spends it's long day sitting in it's empty castle, surrounded by empty fields and unmanned walls, plotting it's resurgence to glory.

>>22077001
All of this was gone over earlier, bro.
>>22076503

"Links" are for short-term jumps; the Searchlight Engines allow for free navigation and dialing into unshielded Link points.

Those that wish to be hidden from Google can shield their hyperlink casters by using a special device known as a Robotic Jammer, or to use its full name, a Robot TXT.

>>22077043
And, of course, firing giant particle cannons at each other. You know, for Science!

>>22077024

I'd always presumed that the Cern.ch was a memorial system, where the experimental transport technology that eventually led to the next generation of civilisation was developed and tested.

Notice how close Yahoo.com and Google.com are. I'd bet all my money that the border situation there is tense as fuck.

File: 1355707946843.jpg-(20 KB, 512x333, eye-of-sauron_0.jpg)

Hyperspace Beacon aka Golden Throne of the Holy Empire of Google

>>22077075
Nah, yahoo knows its place and pays its virtual tribute like everyone else.

So, in this, what does the .whatever suffix (Dominion Code?) after the Website Identifier mean? .com, .ru, .xxx ... does it signify political allegiance? The primary "type" of world? Specific web-gating protocols?

>>22077024
It is the domain of the Ancients, where the creation of the Universe is rumored to have begun with the Sacred Utterance 'Lo'.

Several religions squabble over the doctrine of the original word of creation. Fundamentalists suggesting it is literally 'Lo' while the Church of Intent claim it was 'Log'.

>>22077098
The thing is, Yahoo.com and Google.com are two of the greatest powers on the Net, if you look at the size of the bubble. Yahoo may be smaller, but it is dreaming of its time to shine.

>>22076949
When one looks deeper it is plainly seen that even though there are general patterns of settlement, loyalty to a world higher in social stature means more than nationality. This is most plainly seen in the center areas of the Empire, where the Emperor, Google, and Elector Worlds of Yahoo, Youtube (itself a vassal of Google) and Facebook amass a wide variety of multinational fiefs. This system allowed the Empire to extend its area over South-East Asia, the UK, Australia, Canada and allowed its alliance with the Porn Lands.

>>22077099
>(Dominion Code?) after the Website Identifier mean? .com, .ru, .xxx ... does it signify political allegiance?

Cultural Origin?

>>22077115
In fact, explorers even now visit the quarantined planet of Info.cern.ch, where the Web itself began, to decipher the archaic runes detailing how to create a Webgate and explore the ruins of the Arpa Net.

>this thread
Europa Universalis mod where?

>>22077118
Still makes sense though. As it stands, that dream can only exist as long as its tribute is paid and High Lord Page is appeased.

>>22077126
Those are the megacorps and multinational organizations. Notice how they have corporate "branches" in other nations? (Google.ru, google.co.uk)

>>22077118
Dreaming of the time it did shine, but it knows it has little hope of reganing it's past glory. It simply has no ability to grow.

Gaia Online is a puppet state of Paypal, for some reason.

The ruins of the civilization of Aol, the First Great Hegemony are scattered throughout the galaxy. Some in the nations of Google, Yahoo and other Mighty Search Engines value them for their historical significance. Others deride the ancient artifacts as nothing more than trash.

>>22077170
Large virtual cash purchases by people with no credit cards.

What about the Space Jam website? That thing was still up a couple years ago and probably still is. Would it be some sort of planet lost to the rest of the galaxy, like a time capsule of a simpler time?

>>22077132
In essence, yes. It signifies in most cases the origin of the founders of the colony. For example, a world ending with .xxx is of Porn origin.
>>22077153
Just like the Habsburgs ruled the HRE even though they had foreign lands.

>>22077178
Strangely, one of the most common artifacts of Aol , who first opened the USE Net to everyone, are strange silver disks with a small hole in the center. The damn things are everywhere.

>>22077178
Few still live who remains the Great War between Aol and Google.
But Google came out of it as the unchallenged Rulers of the Web-verse

>>22077230
I cannot into typing and ordering my thoughts today

>>22077202
It is part of the direct lands of Lord Warnerbors.com, which has a multitude of knightly vassals from both Murika and India.

What happened when Geocities went down? It would have been as though an entire galaxy vanished from the universe, carrying millennia of history with it.

>>22077255
And megaupload, for that matter

>>22077118
>>22077144
>>22077165
Did none of you notice? Yahoo.co.jp has usurped Google.co.jp's control over Japanese space!

>>22077285
Cheeky fuckers!

>>22077278
MegaUpload was struck down by the Murrikan Empire's agents.

So what character classes exist in this galaxy?

>>22076893

-Smugger Pilots - can navigate without using the hyperspace links of the Search Engine Empires.

>>22077115

-Cern Fundamentalists vs the Church of the Utterance of Intent.

>>22076833

- Idealistic Ambassadors of the Wikipedian Democracy

- Watchers of the Google Empire who monitor the hyperlinks for pirates.


What races are there?

And meanwhile, on the border of Indian and Murikan space, the vast computational world of Archive.org quietly watches and records everything, ensuring that as little as possible is ever lost.

>>22077255
They, like the Mayans, underwent gradual decay as Count Yahoo conquered them, until they were destroyed utterly. However, remnants of that civilization can be found in the isolationist Japanese Empire's space.

We had this, way back when. We called is System Crash, it was almost verbatim what you explained, OP.

But I like the discussion here.

>>22077312
Race is indicated by the domain ending.
.com, .ca, .xxx and so on.

>>22077312
Elders: The Forerunners of the modern web; they remember the Arpa Network and the utopian USENet. Older than time, they remember the world before the Eternal September.

Trolls, and their subspecies, Flamers: Extradimensional entities that were once rare, but when the Aol Empire tore open the borders of Webspace and opened it to the universe, they flooded in through the Tubes by the millions. Belligerent, sarcastic, and relatively unintelligent.

>>22077312
Crawlers or Spiders, automated drones for the Searchlight Empires that do the reconnaissance and scouting. That could be one of them.

>>22077308

-Erasure Agents of the Murrikan Empire (think CIA types)

-Imperial Navy characters of the Murrikan Empire.

And obviously Archeologists/Anthropologists would be very useful in this universe.

>>22077349
Undera'jband- A new race, wide-eyed and innocent, and fully believing in their own superiority. Aggravating. Small and insectoid, with large heads and irritating, high-pitched voices.

Furries - Furries. Animal-people.

Don't forget Bing, the secluded system of wealthy separatists who hide cravenly behind the Yahoo system, plotting in vain to overthrow Google's might.

And where does Facebook stand in this great battle?

>>22077329
link please

I'm liking the Southern Cross in the Australian cluster.

>>22077372
They're Google's new arch-nemesis, which they seek to fight with their own Plus system in a bitter fight for control of the galaxy. They are the second-most-powerful site on the Web.

4chan is probably the Middle East of the web.

>>22077329
Do you mean 'Server Crash'? Couldn't find 'System Crash' on sup/tg/

link: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=server%20crash

>>22077372
while using an inferior copy of googles navcom coordinates. they shall fall with time. we are not worried.

>>22077396
The threat of Facebook is what led Google to annex the mighty Youtube Imperium.

>>22077427
We're a fiefdom of youtube.

>>22077349
>>22077355
>>22077370

I like these ideas. But how do we make them less of legitimate stereotypes and more into races people would be interested in playing.

>>22077427
We're one of the Youtubian's larger vassal sites, along with wix.com, ustream, pastebin, and tinypic.

So what's the history of the setting like?

Let's see. In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee made the first HTTP protocol communication between a client and a server at CERN, so that right there marks the creation of the Web. Let's call that Year Zero, when the Forerunners invented the HTTP drive.

Now, in real life, that was only twenty-two years ago. Let's extend that by a factor of a hundred.

The current date is about 2200. What happened in between then and now?

>>22077455
And suddenly everything makes sense.

>>22077461
It should all just be humans and robots.

That's what the internet is anyway, right?

>>22077477
WWIII

>>22076834
Canada cannot into internet.

>>22077477
This is a great fucking idea for a start.

>>22077494
That's okay, we can into Space.

File: 1355709561056.jpg-(353 KB, 500x750, tumblr_m5r4k9QTOS1rytjzto2_500.jpg)

>>22076595
"...as soon as my breath was returned, I did my best to see as much of the brave new world as I could. My gaze rolled across what was only the frontier of onionland, yet ironically the name it assumed was Core."

"Said gaze soon rested, to my grim amusement, on the hyperlink, 'ACTUAL BOY VIDS V2.0 FORUM'. The sensation soon subsided to be replaced by that of dread, as I realised what fate I was separated from by but a single click."

"I steeled myself and moved on, pondering the immense burden that I had unwittingly laid on my conscience upon entry to this strange land."

-'Diary of a Deepweb Traveller'

>>22077494
Look at it this way, think of all the nations that aren't even on the list. Like Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and all the others.

>>22077461
Do we need to stat them?

>>22077477
So in that case, the Arpa Net, the precursor built by the Elder Things, was created in about -200.

Let's take a look at a typical world.
Let's look at 4chan.org
It is a Murrikan world ruled by Lord Moot - it is a tyranny, but a benign one, like an Ancient Greek autocrat or Lord Vertinari. Moot devotes most of his time ensuring that taxes are paid and that the world does not go into deficit. The day-to-day business is taken care of by Mods, with the authority to publicly administer justice and by lesser Janitors, who 'clean up' rebellious and/or invasive elements. A zealous Mod or Janitor is often despised by the people but when there is no Mod/Janitor spammers can run rampant.
The Electoral County of Youtube has a strong influence over 4chan, due to many citizens of 4chan conducting trade and other affairs with the County.
4chan has its own fiefdoms:
4channel, ls-rp, communiques.pro, usenetreviewz, linkio.fr, onlinecasinoextra, yamahamotor and ipadcakes to name but a few. In times of war, they are expected to provide ships and supplies for a campaign or a piratical raid conducted by many of the 4chan citizens.

>>22076895
Its actually orbited by two tiny Chinese hosted bailbond websites.

>>22077533
>Lord Vertinari

Yes. Who is Captain Carrot? And Vimes?

>>22077519
Its clear the danger of Deepweb travel is full blown insanity or conversion into a Reaver-like being.

>>22077477
So the Arpa and all that was in the Years PP (Pre Protocol)?

That means each year translates to 100 years. When was rickrolling funny again?

>>22077564
2007ish to 2011ish

>>22077564
Never.

>>22077435
Er, fuck. Yeah, Server Crash. It's been a while for me.

FTL engines are search engines, spaceship hulls are browsers.

>>22077533
And in turn, the Electoral County of Youtube is a puppet state of the Googleplex. Youtube's government is restructured from the ground up about every fifty years, when Google grows dissatisfied.

According to my conversion, the Google Empire siezed control of Youtube somwhere in the late 1500s.

>>22077564
Yep. The Arpa Network was founded by the Elder Things around 200 PP.

>>22077576
So that's around 5 centuries. Someone earlier mentioned that 4chan became a fiefdom of Youtube by armistice in the Rickroll years.

It was almost (over?) a hundred years ago now that the Google Empire acquired the Youtube Imperium.

>>22077564
rickrolling. Either a universe wide viral plague or a new very popular weapon system.

>>22077533
Ok, going from that the world of 4chan had several periodic attacks (DDos) that crashed its economy (4chan being down). However the anarchistic and autonomist lifestyle made it very attractive for traders and it rebuilt itsself several times.

Also the Empire of SomethingAwful had to have war with Ebaums world, which was subjected to a hostile takeover by China or something.


Also what do we call this setting.

>>22077595
Chrome is made by the Google Corporation, they are often 3 bright colours and obviously polished Chrome.

Internet Explorer is the mostly-blue ship types that are made by the Microsoft Corporation; They are derided often, but used by the majority of the galaxy.

Firefox is often Orange-Red in colour, made by the Mozilla company and they are used because the blueprints to make them are free.

Safari is made by the Apple Corporation , etc.

Each new browser version is a different ship class, new versions being Big Dreadnoughts and older versions going down a ship class to the size of a Corvette.

>>22077632
And the USE Net, that utopian empire of the Early Web that has since fallen to near-insignificance, was first connected to the Arpa Net in 100 PP,

>>22077646
A Web Between Stars

>>22077646
Gulliver's Travels.

>>22077646
Ebaums world is a slaver planet. They take others OC and brand it their own.

>>22077646
INTERNET EXPLORER

>>22077652
Deep in the junkyards of the Old Web, you might run across an ancient Netscape model, the very first starship capable of Tube travel.

>>22077664
The Rise of 4chan

>>22077646

"Holy Shit Guys Look At Wordpress Seriously Hahahaha"

>>22077677
This

>>22077677

I laughed really hard

This thread needs an archive.

Neverwinter Nights was the first Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, and was released just one year after the invention of the Web. Surely this has some significance in this setting.

>>22077677
"Internet Explorer"
We follow a young traveller anxious to leave the bounds of the /tg/ district of 4chan for the first time. Along the way, he sees some strange shit.

>>22077674
Same with Ninegag. Despite bordering closely the reddit and imgur systems, they range far and wide, culling slaves from dozens of light years away because they are improperly policed. New statutes are being worked on in an attempt to curtail these raids, but are thus far ineffective due to prohibitive expense (no one cares THAT much, but everyone knows they're dicks).

>>22077717
We can move on to other characters as we finish each character's story.

>>22077737
And so a new legend begins...

>>22077674
>>22077646
Taking a look at nine gag, reddit, funnyjunk, somethingawful and ebaumsworld reveals that they are all autonomous to some degree and posess their own fiefdoms. Out of them all, Reddit is the largest and has the most independence, rising to the status of Barony.

The Pandora.com district's most common export is radios designed for ship hulls themselves. Previously their radios were in every hull that went out, but there has recently been a growth in competition.

>>22077733
Reddit is an Agreggator Site, so in the setting that means they collect the cultures of other planets to share and examine?

>>22077709
The Neverwinter War was the first to be fought mainly in the Web, rather than Realspace. The experimental weapons developed here led to great strides in technology, but at terrible cost of life.

The expanding arms race eventually exploded an event now known as the Wow Explosion, a war fought ENTIRELY in the Web. Some people say the war (and others like it) continue even now, but it is difficult to observe if you're not involved in it.

>>22077766
And pay close attention to 4chan's unique distribution of culture across boards.

How does Second Life factor into all this?

>>22077766
They are like Ancient Greeks or Phoenicians.
Rabid traders and pirates, skilled diplomats and loud places altogether.

>>22077777
nice quints brah

>>22077766
A big chaotic clusterfuck of a melting pot, where the currency is only useful within the system--it is not used anywhere else in the galaxy.

>>22077772
And then there was the EVE crisis.

Furaffinity is surrounded by websites popular in Turkey. I am confused.

The Eternal September- the end of the USE-Net Golden Age, when the Aol Empire opened up USENet to everyone in the universe - occurred around year 175.

>>22077800
Something Awful completely dominated that war, fell apart, then dominated it AGAIN!

>>22077856
When a SomethingAwful Mod/Eve online Player/Diplomat Worker was killed in Libya does it play into the setting?

Is anyone putting all this on 1d4chan?

>>22077533
Taking a further look at 4chan.
There is the spaceport, dubbed lovingly HOME.
Upon entrance, travellers and immigrants are asked to sign a form that the administration of the world does not take responsibility to personal damage, loss of ship or loss of goods.
Upon acceptance, they receive a "cookie", a passport stamp.
Inside, there are the various regions. There are populous slum cities such as /b/ and desolate text boards where the weather is unforgiving and the beasts are deadly.
Travellers have the comfort of settings, spaceship modifications designed specifically for 4chan. During times of strife, the status beacon is used to relay to citizens the extent of the situation.

>>22077883
Political assasination by the way of /po/

>>22077900
I thought /b/ to be more of a chaotic marketplace.

>>22077919
It has chaotic marketplaces but there is a lot of shitposting that makes it dirty.

>>22077900
/a/ is a supremacist gated community that requires you take a "power level" test before gaining entry.

Popular musicians include Bedford Strangler

Rei is a schizo.

>>22077919
/b/ is a lot of things. Most of them are terrible.

You can walk the borders of /b/-city and laugh at an innocent show, or you can stumble across a bloody fight to the death.

Here's what the various Web-capable Ships look like:

The Microsoft "Internet Explorer"-class vessel"

http://ship.shapewright.com/?name=Internet+Explorer

The Google "Chrome" model:

http://ship.shapewright.com/?name=Google+Chrome

The Firefox:

http://ship.shapewright.com/?name=Mozilla+Firefox

The Opera:

http://ship.shapewright.com/?name=Opera

The Safari:

http://ship.shapewright.com/?name=Opera

And the ancient bucket-of-bolts ship that started off the Great Web Expansion, the venerable, classic Netscape:

http://ship.shapewright.com/?name=Netscape

>>22076240
The 4C-Habitat Nodes are a cluster of space stations, observation posts, and Dyson spheres in close proximity and with a governing system best described as "semi-anarchic democracy"

Automated, self-pilotting sage bombers defend the vulnerable installations against both foreign invaders and the forces of other Habitats.

At their center is the homeworld of 4chan, where the first colonists settled and from which the self sustaining Boards spread out across local space. /b/ was the first and greatest of these Boards.

>>22077963
I thought the Browsers would have different sizes of ships based on versions, IE1.0 being a corvette and IE 11 or whatever is a Dreadnought.

Those are cool though.

>>22077963
Also you got Opera in Safari

>>22076049
I look at this and I see a solar system (or two?) with a few inhabited worlds with orbitals and a bunch of asteroid habs.

Or just one fuckhuge asteroid belt full of dwarf planets, maybe a few habitats in the closest Jovian planet's rings. And moons.

Internet hosting sites are the equivalent of space construction companies.

>>22077969
I hope you mean "greatest" only in size.

It's certainly the most notorious.

>>22077753
The settlers of Ebaum's World are reviled for their piratical tendencies. Known as jackals and thieves, they shamelessly steal supplies, ships, and even settlers, passing them off as their own on the interstellar market and in trade wars. It is a desperate or foolish system that does business more than once with a stray E'baum trader, but in this universe, both are rarely in short supply.

So, what does the setting look like so far?

1. Each website is a star system or cluster of star systems in the Galaxy; the "Website" itself represents the main DNS Node for that system, though there may be smaller hyperspace interlinks within the Site.

2. Hyperspace in this setting is called the Web or the Webway, a network of many wormholes known technically as Hyperlinks and informally as Tubes. Hyperspace is traversed with the HTTP drive, which was invented on the world of Cern.Ch in Year 0. The HTTP Drive allowed access to the ancient Arpa Net, established by the Elder Things in year -200.

>>22076949
This reminds me of Battletech in a way.

>>22078016
It was the first. Sure, it's a filthy, broken-down den of depravity and filth where the air filters are on the blink, but it works and it has its place in history.

Now, if you look at the Tropers of the Tee-Vee worlds... much has been written of their cultural impact on the systems of the cosmos, some of it less than flattering. But their hold on the ebb and flow of life across a thousand worlds remains strong, despite their said decline from their own glory days.

>>22078080
>So, what does the setting look like so far?
I don't know, I'm ignoring anything /tg/ says because it'll be half-finished shit.

>>22078080
3. Hyperlinks and IP Coordinates are only one way to travel; ships may also chart their own path through the Web. However, in order to do so, they must triangulate themselves with one of the great Searchlight Engines, huge HTTP-drive transmitters powered by entire stars. The Searchlight Engine at the core of the vast city-Dyson Sphere known as the Googleplex allows free navigation between nodes; by requiring travelers to pay tolls to the Google Corporation and by covertly collecting information on travelers, the megacorp known as Google has become the most powerful force in the web.

>>22078125
Governance in the setting is split between the various governments of nearby star systems - the Murikan Empire, the Chinese Empire, the Nipponese Empire- and the vast megacorporations and organizations (Google, Wikipedia, Youtube, Facebook, and the other Big Twelve) that have the real power over their vassal Websites.

File: 1355712212071.png-(1.87 MB, 1522x1080, Internet Map Empire Space 1.png)

Here's the map of major powers:

>>22077312
The Wikipedian Democracy is less idealistic than its Chief Citizen, the now-ancient Wales, would have his people believes. Real power is in the hands of the Admin Lords, with demands for increasing "voluntary" tithes bombarding citizens day and night.

Some say war is brewing, much as happened with the Wikia Fiefdoms many years ago. That ended badly for the smaller territories, which were absorbed or crushed under the Wikipedian heel, with only a few escaping.

File: 1355712318144.jpg-(97 KB, 398x490, 1349143171447.jpg)

>>22078167
>Wiki Neutral Zone
>(citation needed)

I think I just vented my sides

Lets not forget how 4chan started because of Lord Moot (then just Moot) saw some enterprising Japanese planet colonizing method, and thus rallied back SomethingAwful a small expeditionary force, which then had to forcefully get exiled because of cultural differences with their SA progenitors.

>>22078167
Yes, thank you for the Commonwealth. We will be allies with the Murrikans, but still, independence is nice.

>>22078165
The most powerful sites are:

1. Google. Ruling from its main base of power in the heart of the Murikan Empire, it maintains the brightest and most powerful Searchlight Engine in all of webspace from within its vast and hugely populated Dyson Sphere, the great engines feeding off its solar core. Whether you pay tribute to it or you plot against it, you cannot ignore it. Its real political power comes from the information it gathers on all who travel it.

2. Facebook: Another megacorporation, and Google's arch-rival. Facebook is a relatively recent power, arising only in the last 800 years and rising to power much sooner. Facebook's strength comes from the powerful social connections it holds across the Webways, as well as its enormous store of information.

>>22078218
I suppose India could be independent, since they don't have the Queen-Empress as their leader, but it does mostly fit, yea.

>>22078248
3. Youtube: A politically unstable (the whole structure is fundamentally reorganized every fifty years) coalition of worlds that is now a mere puppet state, answering to the Googleplex. The 4C-Habitation Networks are one of its vassal states.

4. Yahoo: Once a rival for Google, this site holds the second-brightest Searchlight Engine in the galaxy and is bitterly furious with its fall in power.

>>22076049
Of all the strange customs, the inhabitants of 4chan and its associated habitats have a cultural taboo against showing their faces. (which are usually covered by a simple mask, pseudomorphic fabric, or a vacuum-helmet depending on circumstances)

Those who do are expected to have earned the right through deeds, long service, or ingenuity, and are referred to as "trip-fags". This is often taken as a suggestion to "trip" them, should they reside on a settlement with gravity and be seen as unworthy.

>>22078292
5. Baidu: Another site that came to power through its Searchlight Engine, this one operating deep within the borders of the walled-off, heavily-patrolled, and tyranically-governed section of the Galaxy controlled by the Chinese.

6.Wikipedia: A benevolent, democratic organization operating on the borders of known space, though it has embassies in every empire. The Wikipedia Foundation, led by President-For-Life Wales, provides protection to all within its borders and is kept alive by voluntary tithes from its fiefdoms. All is not as peaceful as it seems, however..

File: 1355713029106.png-(1.87 MB, 1522x1080, Internet Map Empire Space 2.png)

>>22078218
>>22078254
Changed it to make India independent, even if they will be close allies with the Commonwealth. I think that fits a bit better now, thanks.

>>22078006
It's hard to tell ships of those classes apart sometimes. They're certainly structurally similar and often undergo extensive modification by less than aboveboard Web-surfers.

>>22078340
7. Windows Live - Along with the sister world of Bing, these Searchlight Engines are maintained by the same company which manufactures the venerable Explorer-class Webship, in an attempt to strike down the supremacy of Google.

8. Amazon: A vast trade, manufacturing, shipping, construction, and industrial hub; it is the most powerful industrial and trade area in all of known space. Almost every starship was manufactured in its vast shipyards, and nearly every good bought and sold has passed through its ports.

>>22078292
Yahoo is pretty much the Roman Empire at its end, isn't it?

What about the fallen empire which has been pushed back to its heart in Mai Space?

>>22078373
Do you mean almost every modern ship? The Amazon conglomerate is certainly a fairly recent development in galactic history.

As for the Explorer-class, how many models are there? They're not like the Firefox, which is essentially the same one which first rolled out of the shipyards of Mozilla.

>>22078373
9. QQ: The "Double-Q" System is the main hub by which the People's Republic of China accesses its strictly-monitored Webways.

10. Twitter: Another site, like Facebook, focused on making social connections and on inter-system communication and shipping. Twitter broadcasts mainly short messages and ships primarily small packages, but it maintains vast power nevertheless. It is notable for having considerable power over the federation of Tumblr.

File: 1355713297058.png-(1.86 MB, 1522x1080, Internet Map Empire Space 2.png)

>>22078359
Cock, messed up the 'Merkin Empire bit - fixed it now.

>>22078420
Almost every modern ship, yes. There are currently twelve models of the Explorer-class vessel, as far as I know.

>>22078421
11. Taobao: China's main trading marketplace, where ships come from all over to trade their goods with one another.

12: Blogspot: A lawless world, in a disputed region of space claimed by both the Murikan Empire, the Domain of Allah, and even some Chinese and Indian world. They are famous as a vast public forum, where anyone may publish without fear of censorship.

>>22078478
These twelve worlds are the most influential in raw power, some of them megacorps and others hubs of trade or information or other forms of power. These are the worlds that others subjugate themselves to for protection. These worlds are the Big Twelve.

The southern fringes of the galaxy seem to be fraught with porn planets, most likely to avoid attention from the major powers who are constantly trying to crack down on their operations.

File: 1355713863816.jpg-(161 KB, 775x548, 96CxU.jpg)

hrm, guns.ru is between the guardian and wired.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

>>22078494
Other Systems of Interest:

Wordpress: A suprisingly large system out in deep space, far beyond the northwest fringe of the inhabited galaxy. They, too, are a public forum of free speech and communication. What secrets do they hide?

>>22078498
Allied with Nippon, though, due to their mutual appreciation of hentai.

>>22078422
Pretty good now, for wide-spread national/religious empires at least.

>>22078444
Warship captains and spacers might scoff at the Explorer class as outdated and vulnerable to targeted attacks, but there's a reason it's still one of the most common Web-capable vessels.

It's built in-Searcher is functional (if not the best if not the fastest in the Web, it's blocky Browser design can take some hits before crumpling, and it can pass between Hyperlinks fairly well.

And with its latest refinements, the Explorer-12 is definitely a ship of the line. Even with rumours of hidden espionage functions built by its makers into their very frames...

>>22078523
Here's a few that might be interesting:

Go.com - another large system out in deep space, in the same general area as Wordpress.

Archive.org - A vast treasure trove and museum, where long-lost treasures lie hidden within its endless stacks and libraries.

Cern.ch: The very first Website, and the location where the ancient Arpa hyperspace transfer network was first accessed by the HTTP drive.

USENET: Not really a website at all, but a separate, secret, communications and transport network built on the backbone of the Arpa Network, more than 100 years before the HTTP drive was developed. It flourished into a utopian federation, where a Golden Age of freedom, prosperity, and intellectualism flourished until, one hundred years after the HTTP drive was developed, the long-lost Aol Empire dialed in to its networks and brought forth Eternal September. The clumsy breaching of these networks essentially created the modern Troll and Flamer races - while they had infiltrated USENET before, via the tears in reality created by Webway gating, they were easily controlled; the opening of USENET allowed them to spread to almost every planet and star in the galaxy.

>>22078523
What about Mai Space. Wasn't there a corporate empire based there once? Facebook was in a cold war with them at some point, if I remember my galactic history.

What about the BBC?

>>22078422
The Domain of Allah is getting between the Merikan Empire and the Porn Wastes. I find this offensive.

I have to admit that I find it hilarious that "Porn" is located between Brazil and Japan...

>>22078598
Are we actually going to use this setting for anything, or just flesh it out as much as possible, then ditch it.

>>22078587
>>22077349
Trolls and Flamers aren't aliens or whatever vac you inbred denizens of the Youtube worlds are spewing.

They're independent political movements, rallying under one motto...or being saddled with it. Trolls try to provoke the population/government into reacting with violence in order to make a point or cause change, which Flamers are comparable to the pre-Settlement "anarchists" from ancient history.

>>22078588
>What about the BBC?

Look into the Porn Wastes and despair!

>>22078621
Their communication relays still seem to work though. Islands of stability in the Wastes?

>>22078618
Up to you. Are YOU going to use it?

>>22078598
This obvious explains the Merikan Empire's invasion of the Domain of Allah - the Domain blocked off the Merikan's access through Turkish and Pirate space, and they have sent forth their fleets to regain control of the trade routes that used to flow between them.

>>22078637
Probably. Has anyone made an archive yet?

>>22078588
The corporate empire in the sector of space notated as M-Y arose in 1300s, where it remained relatively minor until the 1500s, when it was able to seize vast power. In fact, at the peak of its power, it surpassed even Google during the 1600s, though it lost the cold war between Facebook and Myspace around 1900. However, due to the great distance between it and any other body save for Wikipedia, it still retains considerable power.

>>22078621
bbc.co.uk is on the easternmost fringes of Commonwealth space. I don't know what porn site you found, but it's not the bbc.

>>22078620
Or Trolls and Flamers take their naming inspiration from the strange aliens.

Pick your poison...

>>22078685
>Doesnt get it.

>>22078704
OHHHHH
shit
How did I miss that?

Long ago in the depths of history, Google did not yet exist. A young empire called Backrub, then dependent on the ancient Arpa Net connection at the Stanford Hypergate, had established a weak and flickering Searchlight Engine, using a new design that promised higher efficiency and better navigation through the Webway. In the 8th century post-Protocol, Backrub was overthrown by a young page, who was one of the engineers of the Backrub Searchlight, whose family corporation, Googol, had been growing in power. From that time onwards, the new star-empire of Google would only grow in power. Scientists and Navigators soon found that Google's beacon truly was superior to the others- some found it was even unnervingly accurate. Navigators flocked to pay tithe to Google, and Google eagerly accepted, carefully spying and inspecting and scanning every ship that passed through its beacon. Since then, Google has only grown, invading and taking over dozens of major sites, including the enormous corporation of YouTube. The Googleplex- Google's home system, long since disassembled and rebuilt into a Dyson Sphere containing its vast and wretched city and protecting the Searchlight Engine running off the star at its core- has become the true center of economic and political power throughout the galaxy, and Google rules with an iron fist.

>>22076049
Do any of the little outer colonies make anyone nervous? They seem to all be traps for any visitors. And they look like they are looking in towards their prey...

>>22078782

It's the spies that worry me. See the two Japanese, far behind enemy lines in China territory. The number of foreign sites clustered around news sites, gathering intelligence for their overlords...

Shit, cold-war space adventure, with as many computer puns and references as I can squeeze in? Fuck yes, I'm running this.

Hm... so, what factions are there? There's the various megacorps and ruling worlds, but how does that interact with the nation-states like Murika and China? What are those countries like? What religions are there, and what species inhabit these billions of worlds? What was life like before the Web was discovered? Who created the Arpa Net? What's it like to live on these worlds?

>>22078780
Google's information storage and transmission branch, G-Docs, has often been overlooked. Abortive attempts at Video-type colonization led to their takeover of the Youtube worlds, which did not go entirely smoothly...

>>22078832
Life.... well, going by what's been said so far, it seems pretty much like a cross between Dune, Cyberpunk, and the Cold War. The government's pretty much like the collapsing and fragmented Holy Roman empire, with incredibly important and powerful cyberpunk-style megacorporations that really run everything. Every world has its own distinct culture, and its own distinct rivalries, but they're forced to cling to various more powerful worlds, who are in turn vassals of even more powerful systems, in order for protection against other sites and against the lawless dangers of space and the mythical Deep Web.

>>22078852
But has mostly calmed over.
Currently, they are engaging in active attempts to subvert the rising growth of Facebook. Their G+ network is small but growing.

>>22078832
Only the malign and ancient intelligence of the Archive.org reliquary system knows for sure, and perhaps the Googleplex's own information banks...

>>22078832

I'd imagine that instead of factions, you'd simply have who you're pledging your alliance to today. Many of the inhabitants of Facebook would throw their weight in with Lord Zuckerberg, whereas those dwelling in 4chan might use their talents in pursuit of lulz, honour, revenge, or simply upholding the reputation of 4chan itself.

And, of course, those in the Pirate Empires, and the notorious hackers of the Deep Web, might only be serving the idea of destruction, or money.

>>22078832
The religions: There's the CERN Fundamentalists, who worship the early days of the Web, contrasted with the Church of Utterance of Intent, who do so as well, but differently. Those events were so long ago they have taken on religious meaning- the creation of the Web is equated with the creation of the Universe (which is not true; even before ARPANET, slower-than-light generation ships and freezer-ships moved between neighboring stars.)

>>22078868
And by all accounts, there have been galactic governments that've collapsed already, along with countless smaller empires in decline and gone, remembered only by the Archive.

>>22078898
I'd say that the Deep Web are the raiders and "barbarians." Their vast military might and constantly warring factions, along with their access to the mysterious TOR technology, allow them to strike silently, stealthily, and from anywhere. They are the fearsome forces that require sites that might be free to cling so closely to more powerful systems and clusters for protection and policing.

>>22078948
Tor seems more like a smuggling network and criminal organization. No active attacks, but if you need something done you go through them.
Want to send messages without the watchful eye of Google noticing? Go through Tor.

>>22078948
Or so their rulers would like you to think.

>>22078977
I'd say TOR would be more like a cloaking device. Keeps you nice and hidden, but slows your ship down a hell of a lot, and merely having one gives the authorities cause to scan you a little harder than usual, while not being illegal in and of itself.

>>22079004
I think the assumption was that it worked by accessing the Deep Net?
Which is basically slower hyperlink travel that can't be tracked.

>>22079012
Point. In that case, a device that you bolt onto compatible ships that lets you travel through the Deep Net.

>>22078832
The various "nation-states" represent, I would think, a vestige of the Pre-Web social order - these are the empires that evolved separately and were colonized by slower-than-light ships over a very long time, and then expanded with the discovery of the Arpa Network hyperspace gates. Each Empire is actually a remnant of where the power was before the rise of the megacorporations and the insane free-for-all mixing bag of Web access. So, for instance, it'd be kind of like the Federation, the Klingon Empire, and the Romulan Empire, and all that- or rather, it was, two thousand years ago.

>>22078948
When the need strikes them, usually in pursuit of money, these raiders have been known to hijack thousands of small drones and crash them into the spacedocks of a target system with the intent of preventing legitimate traffic from landing. This Dissonant Deployment Of Ships attack is forbidden in all areas, and is difficult to stop, especially with the weaponry available to most smaller systems. However, some new automated defences are able to shoot down hijacked ships, keeping larger systems relatively unaffected.

>>22078832
Maybe the top-level domains actually represent what race a system was primarily colonized by?

So you'd have the main three races- the Netizens, the Orgonians, and the Com-Sill, or something- along with dozens of other species. The Merikan Empire, for instance, has three special species of it's own- classified by the planetary-habitability codes .edu, .gov, and .mil- and there's also dozens more codes corresponding to minor species or minor factions. (EDU, GOV, and MIL might refer, for instance, to different social castes or social types.)

>>22078919
The first ships.. used old style Circut switching, pre Internet Packet FTL drives. They are used for inter-system travel, and are slow, but they have their uses. You can also tie into the Internet with the right TCP/IP drive mechanism.. through a VOIP field generator..

>>22079072
Caste makes most sense, since they translate pretty directly to that. Warrior, Scholar, and Ruling.

>>22079072
The triplexians, a relatively new race, characterised by an incredible lack of subtlety, sexual deviancy, and lack of modesty? I like it.

>>22079072
What about the new domains?

>>22079077
>VOIP
>not using TELNET drives.

>>22079087
Telnet fields? You can't even hide in a telnet drive, those can be raided, I mean thats why the SSH tunneling mechanism exists..

>>22079085
.xxx is the Triplexians, as >>22079083
.biz might be some kind of trader race? Space jew basically? Or a variant of the Com-Sill.

>>22079072
Those sound more like local authorities and organizations. GOV handles the massive bureaucracy generated by the Empire, and criminal justice.

>>22079093
Hmmmm...
and FTP is small teleporting? Direct transfer of goods?

What of the outdated, primitive dial-up navigation method?

>>22079108
That means IRC is a method of mass communication, old, primitive, but still common because its easy to use. for onscreen, you use skype.

IDEA: The population of a Site corresponds to the size of its dot on the map. So, for instance, Google has 46, 380, 000, 000, 000 permanent and semi-permanent residents, or 46 /trillion/ people. (Might be even more - 46 quadrillion - considering that they're inhabiting a goddamn Dyson Sphere.)

So, depending on how crazy-populated we want this world to be, the 4C-Habitation Network sites would have a population of 83,000,000,000, or about 83 billion. Not bad for an entire small solar system and bunch of space stations.

>>22079114
Dial up vs modems has to be orthonogal to http and telnet and etc. It's not a type of drive, for instance. Maybe an advance in ship tech?

What happened to the Gopher race?

>>22079077
We're not calling it the Internet- that's all the Arpa Net, which were essentially Stargates built by Ancient Aliens. Systems were colonized by random jumping; we might want to ditch too much resemblance to the actual internet here to make the setting coherent. If we try to fit this too hard to the real Internet, it'll just be Server Crash all over again.

>>22079072
.AERO represents an incredibly-rare and slow-breeding race of sentient flyers. They require an extremely high-oxygen and low-gravity miniature gas giant to live in; these worlds are not common, and so very worlds are AERO-compatible.

.INFO represents also a very young and newly-discovered race in the still-being-explored-and-expanded Web - these are a race of robots.

>>22079193
.CAT refers to a rare race of felinid humanoids, notable for their unique language.

>>22079221
.TV refers to a race of lizard-like hexapods called the Tuvians. They are relatively common; one Tuvian world notable to us is the world of Neet, whose nexus catalog is essential for keeping track of the chaotic goings-on of the 4C-Habitation Network.

>>22079272
>not using the official 4C nexus catalog

>>22079336
>you probably use the built in nav tools instead of 4Cx

>>22079347
Hey, I used to use Neet's ncat, but the government-supported 4C version updates more quickly.

>>22079386
This is exactly the sort of consolidation of power that's led to Google and its ilk controlling massive sectors of what used to be free space.

What about currency?

>>22079462
Internets.

>>22079462
It probably depends on what megacorporation or nation-state you're ruled by. Different megacorps issue different scrip, in freespace barter might be king, some places might still use the practically-worthless national currencies, some planets might have different currencies than others if they're independent enough...

>>22079462
bitcoins perhaps?
>>22079465
also, screw you and your terrible meme.

Hm... what system could we run this in? Seems like something between Shadowrun and Traveller might be best.

>>22078090
People who go to tvtopes.com are rarely heard from again.

Wait, are we talking about the setting, or real life? I'm referring to the setting, of course. Or am I?

I am.

>>22077963

> Tron meets EVE meets the internet

Love it.
What about weaponry? We've got ships, but how do warring nations fight? Do they use Short-range Penetrative Assault Missiles or do they fire long beams of Mind-Effect Matter Eliminators? Or what about Flame Rays?

And are plug-ins ship mods? Is the Safari-class stable but difficult to modify? Is the Firefox slow but easily equipped with heavy weaponry?