Printing Press in Altera

[Gaby]

yes/no?

if no...

restricted by Immortal Kings' techlock?
too modern for medieval?
other reason why?

if yes...

commonplace?
rare/expensive?
knowledge of such only passed around mages, scholars, and monks?
needs to be invented?


and on an entirely different note,

can the overall literacy of Altera be measured or estimated?


((I ask this question because of the ability of certain things like village shopkeepers being able to infinitely copy MC books. it makes me wonder how they do it.))

 

[Naelwyn]

No, been mentioned a few times before.

 

[Gaby]

No, been mentioned a few times before.

I thought it was, but couldn't find any evidence to support that.

Perhaps you could explain a bit why?

 

[Centurion]

To answer your second question, I would presume that, seeing as though Altera (version 1.0 to whatever we are now) has been in existence for several thousand years, the literacy of the world is fairly decent. Excepting the lowest class servantry and slaves, it seems that most people on Altera can read with or without a background in nobility. I don't necessarily have a problem with the realism aspect of this due to the fact the civilization has been a thing for thousands upon thousands of years.

It seems that about 90% of Alterans can read and write, from what I have witnessed.

 

[Baron]

I thought it was, but couldn't find any evidence to support that.

Perhaps you could explain a bit why?

IC non-guaranteed-as-true fluff:

The Immortal Kings invested a fair bit of power into making an everlasting tech lock that prevents the world from ever progressing into the Industrial Revolution. To that end, the denizens of Altera will never have the inspiration or idea to create the printing press or a number of other technologies that would kick off the Industrial Revolution, because the lock prevents them from wanting to invent it.

OOC:

The server is meant to take place around the Renaissance, maybe a bit after. People love snowflaking it up and will invent technologies that exist IRL without knowing how they actually work in order to make their character a special inventor or notable or whatever, and even if nobody specifically has the intent to move the server timeline forward, enough people doing it will warp what we've got to some steampunk nonsense that isn't regulated as tightly as the current lore and then it's a whole mess to clean it up and push things back to a reasonable condition. It's happened before in a different direction, the 2012 HW mess of high fantasy, powergaming, metagaming, and rampant terrible roleplay with orphan assassins all over the place was the result of not keeping things regulated to prevent a slow slide into that molasses, and the loreteam ended up having to invent a series of campaigns to push the server back to low fantasy and had to tighten the rules a lot, leading to people mad that their character was being changed, people mad that airships were going away, people mad they couldn't do X because the new lore forbade it, and so on. The shift back alienated a lot of people and we rode through early-mid 2013 with a historical low player count until it started replenishing when the Negative Nancys finally left and the server stabilized to where it is now.

Hell, there's still cleaning going on now, three years later, because it was such a huge mess. Before she left, Mich was reworking a bunch of lore. We still don't have a concrete IC reason for why the airships are gone (besides, y'know, physics, since not one of those things should've been able to fly).

 

[Teeke]

I think I even recall some sort of floating city at one point... Maybe I'm mistaken?

At any rate:
Printing pres. There is clear indication that these existed as early ad the 900s. It found European use in the 1400s, this would place it squarely in the late middle ages/early renaissance. The concept of applying ink to some sort of a block and then pressing the block to paper is not terribly abstract, and I'm certain ic stamps or seals exist in altera already. Why then can the inked stamps not to lined up on a bar or something similar?
My argument only holds validity if stamps/seals are used ic.

Further printing press does not rely on wonky physics. I do understand how it can be cited as a step towards industrialization, but at the same time these sorts of devices were in existence for hundreds of years before the renaissance.

Food for thought.

 

[Baron]

I think I even recall some sort of floating city at one point... Maybe I'm mistaken?

At any rate:
Printing pres. There is clear indication that these existed as early ad the 900s. It found European use in the 1400s, this would place it squarely in the late middle ages/early renaissance. The concept of applying ink to some sort of a block and then pressing the block to paper is not terribly abstract, and I'm certain ic stamps or seals exist in altera already. Why then can the inked stamps not to lined up on a bar or something similar?
My argument only holds validity if stamps/seals are used ic.

Further printing press does not rely on wonky physics. I do understand how it can be cited as a step towards industrialization, but at the same time these sorts of devices were in existence for hundreds of years before the renaissance.

Food for thought.

We've had at least three floating cities.

Allow me to demonstrate the tech lock in action. No printing press allowed and if you try it we'll retcon it. Wood carved stamping to mass-produce a page of something is expensive and limited to that one reproduction is different from a shifting type printing press.

 

[Teeke]

We've had at least three floating cities.

Allow me to demonstrate the tech lock in action. No printing press allowed and if you try it we'll retcon it. Wood carved stamping to mass-produce a page of something is expensive and limited to that one reproduction is different from a shifting type printing press.

It has been made clear to me.

 

[Somnastra]

There's a reason for no airships! Just not a very advertised reason.

 

[Teeke]

There's a reason for no airships! Just not a very advertised reason.

They'd get in the way of all the dragons!

 

[Somnastra]

They'd get in the way of all the dragons!

No.

 

[Centurion]

Fairly sure the reason we were given way back when airships were removed from the world was that the atmosphere or winds or something of the new world didn't work the same way as the old world.

 

[Baron]

There's a reason for no airships! Just not a very advertised reason.

Oh, I know the reason. There just isn't an entirely concrete IC explanation for it besides the air currents of the world being inconducive to air travel.

 

[Jstar]

It's happened before in a different direction, the 2012 HW mess of high fantasy, powergaming, metagaming, and rampant terrible roleplay with orphan assassins all over the place

Oh what a year

 

[Gaby]

IC non-guaranteed-as-true fluff:

The Immortal Kings invested a fair bit of power into making an everlasting tech lock that prevents the world from ever progressing into the Industrial Revolution. To that end, the denizens of Altera will never have the inspiration or idea to create the printing press or a number of other technologies that would kick off the Industrial Revolution, because the lock prevents them from wanting to invent it.

OOC:

The server is meant to take place around the Renaissance, maybe a bit after. People love snowflaking it up and will invent technologies that exist IRL without knowing how they actually work in order to make their character a special inventor or notable or whatever, and even if nobody specifically has the intent to move the server timeline forward, enough people doing it will warp what we've got to some steampunk nonsense that isn't regulated as tightly as the current lore and then it's a whole mess to clean it up and push things back to a reasonable condition. It's happened before in a different direction, the 2012 HW mess of high fantasy, powergaming, metagaming, and rampant terrible roleplay with orphan assassins all over the place was the result of not keeping things regulated to prevent a slow slide into that molasses, and the loreteam ended up having to invent a series of campaigns to push the server back to low fantasy and had to tighten the rules a lot, leading to people mad that their character was being changed, people mad that airships were going away, people mad they couldn't do X because the new lore forbade it, and so on. The shift back alienated a lot of people and we rode through early-mid 2013 with a historical low player count until it started replenishing when the Negative Nancys finally left and the server stabilized to where it is now.

.... I. I know all that. I know about this, Baron. thank you for explaining it to the others, but I was... expecting an answer more along the lines of the other tech restriction explanations that I've been given over the years:

"gunpowder cannot be produced because firearms"
"copper doesn't exist because it's the most common conductor of electricity"
"you can't make lenses of any kind because someone tried to make a death ray using lenses, redstone, and the sun's rays."

something like that. a very specific reason for no printing press.

 

[Naelwyn]

.... I. I know all that. I know about this, Baron. thank you for explaining it to the others, but I was... expecting an answer more along the lines of the other tech restriction explanations that I've been given over the years:

"gunpowder cannot be produced because firearms"
"copper doesn't exist because it's the most common conductor of electricity"
"you can't make lenses of any kind because someone tried to make a death ray using lenses, redstone, and the sun's rays."

something like that. a very specific reason for no printing press.

Gutenberg printing press is one of the 10 most important inventions in the world and is responsible for an unavoidable paradigm shift towards greater education, erudition, and technology the world over.

 

[roopot]

.... I. I know all that. I know about this, Baron. thank you for explaining it to the others, but I was... expecting an answer more along the lines of the other tech restriction explanations that I've been given over the years:

"gunpowder cannot be produced because firearms"
"copper doesn't exist because it's the most common conductor of electricity"
"you can't make lenses of any kind because someone tried to make a death ray using lenses, redstone, and the sun's rays."

something like that. a very specific reason for no printing press.

Gutenberg printing press is one of the 10 most important inventions in the world and is responsible for an unavoidable paradigm shift towards greater education, erudition, and technology the world over.

Also the use of printing presses removes the potential for certain aspects of roleplaying. Given the speed at which presses could have been used, characters would be able to spread information incredibly quickly. It would make it harder for secrets to be kept.

 

[Sankera]

*sneeks into the thread*
Psssstt, hey Gaby, just put up a poster thread, much faster than print press, very print, much seen, so wow

 

[Gaby]

Gutenberg printing press is one of the 10 most important inventions in the world and is responsible for an unavoidable paradigm shift towards greater education, erudition, and technology the world over.

there's what I was looking for. thanks.

Also the use of printing presses removes the potential for certain aspects of roleplaying. Given the speed at which presses could have been used, characters would be able to spread information incredibly quickly. It would make it harder for secrets to be kept.

explain? *is now interested*

*sneeks into the thread*
Psssstt, hey Gaby, just put up a poster thread, much faster than print press, very print, much seen, so wow

but Sankera, poster threads are taken down as quickly as they are put up!