Because it has derailed the topic about certain release dates, the discussion should continue henceforth within the confines of this topic.

The topic for discussion goes something like this: why the hell is gold the currency in cortex command? what possible uses could it have that it requires mining is such large quanities, and how is it still desirable when it's as common as it is?

my main suspected reason is that it makes for good gameplay, but the discussion was getting interesting in the B23 topic, so i figured it may as well have been sanctioned somewhere else.

Why gold? The only person who could tell us the true answer is Data himself. And maybe God if you believe in that kind of stuff. As for us, DRLFF members, we can only but suppose and hypothetise.

Personnally, I think it is for conceptual values. Gold is a fun ressource, and it can actually be dug. If it was some other mineral, then it could also be dug, but it wouldn't be as cool as gold. Well, not exactly dug, but it seems to me like a good way of harvesting it. If it was wood, than it would have to be chopped, and that would make for horrendous gameplay. If it were cash, then it would require factories to print cash. Again, not a good choice gameplay-wise.

Gold. It's plain fun.

And gold is an easy to use currency. It can't be affected by inflation, it can't be counterfeited, and it's relatively hard to get.

Required to make neural implants and negotiate with primitive races.

Great. This thread has win written all over it.

/facepalm

In CC, gold is not really that valuable, according to the price of a grenade. 5oz of gold here on earth is worth about USD$4500, and I don't think an old WW2-era grenade has ever cost that much. In fact, replicas (probably 2-3x the cost of the actual when produced for war) cost about USD$80, so an ounce would only be worth about USD$18. Still more valuable than, say, steel, which is currently USD$0.024, but you get the idea.
Perhaps the planet does not have any other valuable resources (or gold is the most valuable one), so that's why it is being fought over. So after the gold seams have been mined out, other prospectors will come down to scavenge the planet's store of iron or marble.

Hmm, so now the rails will purposefully direct us into those poor, poor kangaroos.

Anyways, my argument for why it's silly is the meager practical uses of gold.

Gold is valued in current society still because for much of human history, gold has been interwoven with the societal concept of wealth.
The idea has just kinda of stuck around.

Currency has always just been 'credit', generally 'attached' to an object.
Money, wealth, etc is a concept that was developed for civilized, advanced, easy interchangeable trade, allowing specialties, allowing advancement.

But we clearly don't need material currency any more.
Coins of cheaper, more abundant materials that represent wealth have been used.
Cash, which is just specifically designed and durable paper scraps have been used.
Non material, writing-recorded checks has been used.
Non material, digitally recorded and tracked credit cards have been used.
RFID chips containing credit data, embedded into bodies and interacting with digital equipment, will likely be used.

See where we're going here? We're cutting out the material usage of currency. We're simplifying the matter in it's practice for us. We're cheapening the cost of production of money (ironic) and replacing the value of the physical object and just cutting it all down to the credit itself. That's all you really need for currency. And then we'll make it easier to handle, more convenient.

Virtual credit can work, but it's distribution needs control to stay consistent. With advanced control, it could be perfected. The credit could be unshakable, always keeping it's same value. Inflation could be avoided by proper management.

Gold is bulky, ponderous stuff. Ridiculous expenses would be incurred when shipping it intergalactically or whatever. Dealing with money in a way that costs that much money is insane in this context of advanced, space traveling civilizations. Something fast and easy will rather be in mainstream use.

What's past the RFID chips for money? I have no idea, maybe an atomically recorded attribute of future cyborgs telekinetically communicated through dimensional rifts, but I'm pretty sure we aren't going back to gold. And I'm pretty sure in an advanced society where brain surgery and rocket science become simple matters, it will be realized that highly valuing gold is absurd, in practicality. While it does have practical uses, such as it's conductivity, that alone doesn't make it in demand nearly as much as the economy does.

It would be more sensible to violently fight over and destroy another planet that is strewn with something rare and in demand for it's applications, or something that is in demand in high quantities. But the demand of gold for practical purposes likely isn't terribly high in contrast to it's supply.


And once again I would like to acknowledge that this is an absurd, petty detail to be discussing. Really, it is. It's puny hole in the story, that doesn't make sense, but only when you think too hard about it. And this is a pretty shallow game, as far as the story line goes. So expecting the game to account for all this is absurd.
Gold is a symbol of wealth we all know, and makes for a great gameplay element, for a simple yet bizarre game, in the aspect of story.
I don't think this discussion should cause any changes, brainwashed is very much so correct, gold fits this purpose well for a game, but I thought I would bring it up, even just as a curiosity. Because sometimes I enjoy thoroughly overanalyzing details for the sake of conversation, and I couldn't keep this to myself.

it is agreeably petty, but i basically wanted a good look into where azukki was going with his discussion. i suppose it could just be a comment by data on our futility, but i fully believe it was and still is just a convenient game play element, as shown here:

the details behind it dont matter, and i know they dont, but the discussion is nonetheless interesting. also, darlos should be annoyed that his clones and weapons are being bought with such an unrealistic resource

Did anyone really ever say gold was a widely accepted currency? Tradestar may pay workers a commission, with the option of converting ore directly into goods (Possibly selling goods at a higher rate to milk people willing to pay for/in need of the convenience.) It could simply be a way to cut out the middle-man of currency/credit/whatever when you've got several well-armed dummies knocking at your front blast door.

Gold certainly has other uses than being shiny. Maybe gold being needed for use in wiring and circuit boards is easier to accept than it being used as currency?

Didn't I um... hmm...
Not really any particular quote to bring up, that point was a bit strewn about. But it was acknowledged.

Anyways, while gold does have those practical purposes, conductivity and corrosion resistance, that still doesn't create enough demand for the material to be sought after as violently as the gold in CC is, unless it's a tremendously rare resource in space even considering this type of intergalactic mining. What I'm trying to say, is that this would have to be a once-in-a-million-lifetimes opportunity for so many factions to be so attracted to the prospect of violently conquering and mining this particular planet. There would have to be extremely limited alternate opportunities to harvest gold from the reaches of space. Like if there was only earth's gold, the CC planet, and insignificant/inaccessible other sources.

I'm not finding much prediction information on the commonality of the element of gold throughout the universe's planets, (there probably isn't much of said information, since we know little of extrasolar planets) but apparently even asteroids in our solar system, our celestial stomping grounds, have some golden composition. I don't care to interpret the data I found to see how much. If you want to, by all means, have at it.

Well gold is fairly rare on earth and it doesn't have very many ways for nuclear fusion to result in it (which is how you get other atoms besides hydrogen), so probably it's rare and hard to produce in the universe at large. Since it does have some useful properties; very soft, very heavy, very conductive, and non-corrosive and immune to acid/bases, not to mention what space-alloys and whatnot it could be used for... rare things are generally worth fighting over.

Not to mention, in the brain v brain scenario, there's fairly little actual bloodshed by real people. It's less a mini war and more miner v single bandit.

Those are some excellent points I hadn't considered, in it's rarity and practicality.

I suppose gold would be sought after, but I still think by comparison there's other resources in even higher demand. It must be one violent clash between alien civilizations throughout the universe if this planet of gold is this big of a deal. Or maybe it's just a political conflict between civilizations, for the resources of this particular planet.

Efficient large scale artificial elemental production technologies (mouthful) may even be considerably possible amongst the technology of advanced alien civilizations. But a CC prospector would be completely out of a job if the customers could get in on that deal. Heh, that would be a disappointing game ending if I've ever heard of one.

Well, with this setup they've got one guy mining an entire planet for at least a decently rare element, so probably it's fairly cheap overall. The "warfare" you'd get in matches would mainly be about breaking your opponent's equipment, hurting their bottom line... only when you directly attack a brain would real violence occur, and again, just between two people. Plus, this is just a beta of the game, what if in the finished version actually attacking the brain was only an alternate route to victory? Once everything gets more polished, I could see the most common scenario being "be the first person to accumulate X gold", then you'd have to consider the costs of your mining equipment, the extra cost of protecting it, and only then the additional burden of trying to disrupt your opponent, let alone attack his most guarded spot.

We're thinking violence in different lights here. I mean, if the clones are truly brainless, with only a digital representation of conscience, or entirely external control, then I guess you can't sympathize with them, they would literally just be bodies. Puppets in our form.

But it's still gory, to cover a region in their body remains over the course of ten minutes when spamming the human wave tactic.
It's violent, and barbaric, in appearance. Even if there's not a moral burden behind it, it's still bodies of our likeness littering the landscape.

I would call it violence even if 'true conscienceless' and 'souls' weren't being lost. ESRB certainly would too.
And that very well might be a significant part of why I like the game.
It's a fascinating premise in many ways.

Re: rarity.