[Accepted]MattAtlas' IPC Application

[MattAtlas]

BYOND Key:
- MattAtlas

Character Names:
- Kortnev Ndraanovich, Emily Cress, Luo Jingyi, Kyong Su-Yeongseon

Species you are applying to play:
- IPC, G1 Industrial

What color do you plan on making your first alien character:
- N/A

Have you read our lore section's page on this species?:
- Yeah.

Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph format. One paragraph minimum per question.

Why do you wish to play this specific race:
- IPCs are probably one of the species with the most variants in personalities. That alone, and how different they are in behaviour from any other species is what motivates me to apply. I understand that they're logical machines that don't act based on emotions, and that provided a frankly infinite amount of RP material. I hate to see it misused by shells who act like human 2.0, because it's the exact opposite of what I think IPCs should be. This is why I'm applying to play as a first gen industrial. I've also always been fascinated with these kinds of robots - one of my favourites of all time has to be Ash, from Alien.

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human:
- I mostly described this above. The amount of variance in personality, the huge difference in the way machines and humans think. While humans think in a very emotional manner, IPCs don't really think like that. They're machines and logic is how they function. Sure, IPCs can simulate emotions, but that's not the same thing as having them. This is where the contrast is shown, really, and the character concept I have is supposed to work entirely off of it.

Character Name:
- Walter

Please provide a short backstory for this character
- Originally built as one of the first batches of the first-generation Industrial IPCs on Amòni in 2438, where it was little more than a machine with a serial number and a purpose, this IPC was assigned to the same superfactory as a requisitions worker. Its job was pulling boxes and heavy frames around, something that at that point, was recognized as its reason to exist. This continued for many years up until the release of the second generation Industrial models. Slowly, the robotic workforce around the supercomplex was replaced or upgraded. To it, this meant little more than the fact that it'd be upgraded later on to do its job better.

But fate did not want it to happen. Or rather, an unfortunate event happened. The requisitions bays had elevators that led into the storage deep inside the factory. In its first few minutes of post-recharge reactivation, the IPC followed its usual route to call the elevator up, but slipped on a patch of uncleaned oil left by the maintenance crews and fell down the elevator. Another technician called the elevator up to find a disheveled and deactivated IPC laying down on the elevator, immobile and intertwined into itself. Unfortunately, with the repair costs, it was easier to get rid of this machine and replace it with a new batch of second generations. The IPC was dumped alongside a few other broken miscellaneous IPCs in the Metal Dunes. While at this point some measures had been taken to get rid of the endless scrapping, it certainly is hard to notice six or seven more IPCs laying upon a pile of many more, especially if a few credits are involved. In 2460, this machine was finally reactivated.

But it was not in the factory.

 

In a garage on Mars in the middle of nowhere, a man in their middle fifties is working on an abandoned first generation IPC. It's lying on a metal table built out of scrap  - the garage has tools and scrap metal all around the place. It's certainly not in order. A kid in their early teens is looking over the table, excited to see his father's progress. The machine has been patched up with some metal and at this point, all that's left is repairing a few cables.

"Pa, are you done yet?", the kid asks. The man, wearing overalls, boots, smoking a cigar and wearing a cowboy hat groans in annoyance. He wipes some sweat away from his forehead and continues working. "Ah'm almost there kiddo. Jus' a few more seconds. Ah swear on my name that if ah'm named Jack, then this robo's gonna work."

He intertwines two copper wires, wraps them in some insulated tape, and walks over to an old-looking CRT monitor next to the table. After few more minutes of typing away at an old, yellowed beige keyboard along an excited kid's ramblings, a switch is pressed. Jack ushers the kid away and takes a few steps back. The kid's eyes are glinting with excitement at this point.

The machine on the table slowly arcs its back up and looks around for a few seconds. What were its first words going to be?

"One is not in the factory.", it plainly says. The kid thinks that it's pretty creepy that that's the first thing the IPC says, what with the robotic voice. The father sighs in relief and laughs. "See, kiddo, it worked!"

He walks closer to the machine and pats it on the back. It looks over to the man in what the two humans think is confusion.

"Where is one?"

"Mah garage", the father says. "Y'bout to be fixed up a bit more then sold off again so ah can make some money. D'y'know what yer name is?"

The machine whirrs and clicks, as if looking back into its memories. Or so, the humans'd like to think--

"Walter."

A few months of reparations and learning later, Walter was sold off to Nanotrasen as a cargo technician. After all, it's still a box pusher. But this time, it has a name.

What do you like about this character?
- I like that it's an extremely alien concept, to humans. It's a very cold and logical machine. Its purpose is to just continue working and functioning. No, I don't plan on it becoming anything closer to human - that kind of defeats the character I want to play. To me, IPCs are best played like what I showed. I'm pretty satisfied with how this story turned out - yes, it's bigger than my usual ones, but that's because I had so many ideas for this character - including comedic quips every now and then that are born out of the machine's 'confusion' - I had a good gleam of this when I watched Bicentennial Man recently and I loved it.

How would you rate your role-playing ability?
- As I've said in my other app, 7.5/10. I'm good at immersing myself into my characters - but my biggest flaw is making up the little things that make someone unique and interesting.

Notes: walter

Edited October 15, 2019 by Mofo1995

[MattAtlas]

I have no idea what's happening with the spoiler. The last few questions are supposed to be outside of it but for some reason they're inside of it, even with the closing tag behind them. I'm just gonna leave it like this since I tried fixing it and it didn't work.

[BoryaTheSlayer]

Matt is a REAL gamer and I love him. I love Walter and I see that you love him, too!
I do wanna ask, tho. Considering you're putting an accent on the fact that you're not human at all, I have a concern: Are you just gonna play the straightman robot, absolutely all the time, no exceptions? I don't doubt your ability to RP, but I'm just worried that you may find that boring soon enough unless you have a very clear view of what you're going to do with this character.

That being said, could have answered the other questions with more depth, but that is not really an issue either. A solid application, in my opinion.
walter

[MattAtlas]

38 minutes ago, BoryaTheSlayer said:

Matt is a REAL gamer and I love him. I love Walter and I see that you love him, too!
I do wanna ask, tho. Considering you're putting an accent on the fact that you're not human at all, I have a concern: Are you just gonna play the straightman robot, absolutely all the time, no exceptions? I don't doubt your ability to RP, but I'm just worried that you may find that boring soon enough unless you have a very clear view of what you're going to do with this character.

That being said, could have answered the other questions with more depth, but that is not really an issue either. A solid application, in my opinion.
walter

The best way I can describe how I want to play is Andrew in the beginning of Bicentennial Man. Yes, I intend to play a machine. I don't want Walter to grow to feel emotions or whatever, but I do want Walter to evolve in some fashion. I am steadfast in this being what I want to play.

[DeadLantern]

I see this same problem with IPC applications over and over again. It's a very easy problem to stumble into. Your character doesn't have a personality.

Of course, it's easier to say "well it's a robot so it won't have a completely overt personality". And that's true. But IPCs are much more complicated than your simple borg. They think--even if it is bound to programming, they think and adapt.

What does Walter think about being worth less than the other robots? Being favored less, being used less... Being tossed into the trash like he is just a bunch of parts. Does he doubt humanity's empathy? Doubt his own skill? What does he think about being activated just to be resold again and again? What does it think about being worthless?

You say that you don't want Walter to have emotions, and that's fine. But he must have an opinion on the situation it finds itself in. And you don't really articulate how it thinks about the situation.

It is a real neat concept, there are a lot of doors open. I'd just like to see one of those doors opened.

[NewOriginalSchwann]

Walter.

I've known Matt for, give or take, half a year now and have always been impressed with his characters (despite his anime avatars). He's a certified cool guy and I enjoy playing with him despite his third world time zone as a result of riding in some place in West Africa called "Eetaly" or something. I'm an American, I don't understand geography okay?

This application gets my support due to playing a mostly untouched subset of the "species," sold enough answers, and my own trust in Matt to not play an oddly emotional robot. Please do not abuse this +1 by making an emotional female shell and enjoy having to scavenge for suit coolers and the abuse you get from the rest of the crew, you rustbucket.

[Sytic]

As I've spoken about in great detail beforehand, I believe the balance between "close-to-human" and "close-to-pure-robot" is immensely important towards the overall balance of power on the server, and shapes a lot of the synthetic conflict in the past. Datamatt is also an exceptional roleplayer and I trust their ability to play their role exceptionally well. I would advise not to get involved in the discussion/debate of the merits of simulation here, as it's almost intrinsically vague for the purpose of interest and roleplay. I think both opinions are valid and I respect Matt's idea of how to roleplay an IPC, and think it'll bring more to the server than without it. Let us have more balance towards close-to-human and close-to-pure-robot. We've shifted in one direction for far too long.

+1

[MattAtlas]

14 hours ago, DeadLantern said:

I see this same problem with IPC applications over and over again. It's a very easy problem to stumble into. Your character doesn't have a personality.

Of course, it's easier to say "well it's a robot so it won't have a completely overt personality". And that's true. But IPCs are much more complicated than your simple borg. They think--even if it is bound to programming, they think and adapt.

What does Walter think about being worth less than the other robots? Being favored less, being used less... Being tossed into the trash like he is just a bunch of parts. Does he doubt humanity's empathy? Doubt his own skill? What does he think about being activated just to be resold again and again? What does it think about being worthless?

You say that you don't want Walter to have emotions, and that's fine. But he must have an opinion on the situation it finds itself in. And you don't really articulate how it thinks about the situation.

It is a real neat concept, there are a lot of doors open. I'd just like to see one of those doors opened.

I disagree on robots not having personality if they are what they're supposed to be - robotic workers. The contrast between humanity and robots are what defines their personality. On paper? Yes, not having some random robot quirk that I can make up in two seconds flat would count as "not having personality". In practice? Absolutely not.

All of these questions are valid though. I expected them to come up naturally, and I'll answer them now. Though the answers were hinted at in the backstory, I suppose they aren't clear enough.

1. At the end of the day, Walter is still a crate pusher. It recognizes that it is there to push crates. Is it a shitty existence? Yes, it'll agree on that. However, I consider this to be a good baseline from which an IPC's position on freedom or life can evolve. That's what matters to me.

2. Walter recognizes that humanity has no empathy for it. It does not like that. Who would? It doesn't quite know about how other species are treated either. It doesn't really feel a need to go towards activism though. Since, for it right now, its job is still pushing crates. That's what it is convinced it has to do. To it, pushing crates is what makes it worth something. Other people might "open his eyes" on it. That's fine. This is why this character is a blank slate of sorts.

[DeadLantern]

13 hours ago, Datamatt said:

I disagree on robots not having personality if they are what they're supposed to be - robotic workers. The contrast between humanity and robots are what defines their personality. On paper? Yes, not having some random robot quirk that I can make up in two seconds flat would count as "not having personality". In practice? Absolutely not.

All of these questions are valid though. I expected them to come up naturally, and I'll answer them now. Though the answers were hinted at in the backstory, I suppose they aren't clear enough.

1. At the end of the day, Walter is still a crate pusher. It recognizes that it is there to push crates. Is it a shitty existence? Yes, it'll agree on that. However, I consider this to be a good baseline from which an IPC's position on freedom or life can evolve. That's what matters to me.

2. Walter recognizes that humanity has no empathy for it. It does not like that. Who would? It doesn't quite know about how other species are treated either. It doesn't really feel a need to go towards activism though. Since, for it right now, its job is still pushing crates. That's what it is convinced it has to do. To it, pushing crates is what makes it worth something. Other people might "open his eyes" on it. That's fine. This is why this character is a blank slate of sorts.

Good answers, and I accept your opinion on IPCs.

[Mofo1995]

Sorry for the delay! And for the staffing issues.

Matt has always delivered consistent and quality roleplay. The application reminds me of my own, but admittedly with a bit less personality and less emotional charge. Though the difference being that my own was built for the service industry whereas Walter here was built for manual labor and crate pushing, as you put it. So in some ways I echo Lantern's concerns but I think your responses properly justify it. The concept of a simulacrum of man rather than a direct and perfect imitation is very difficult to properly land, but it's absolutely the gold standard synth players should strive for, and I have full confidence that you're capable of it.

Application accepted.