2061: Tectonics Game

2025-08-11T22:02:17Z

2001:4898:80E8:1A:4FA5:2BFC:A802:929: /* Trivia */

{{comic
| number = 2061
| date = October 19, 2018
| title = Tectonics Game
| image = tectonics_game.png
| titletext = They're limiting the playtesters to type A3 V stars, so the games will all end before the Sun consumes the Earth.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is to show similarity to many {{w|simulation video game|simulation games}}, which have various niche popularity. Similar to Maxis' ''{{w|Spore (2008 video game)|Spore}}'', the game in question allows you to {{w|terraforming|terraform}} entire worlds. However, in a typical [[Randall]] twist, unlike most simulation games, you could not speed up the progress of time to make world-changing endeavours occur in a matter of seconds. The game operates in real time, which means most of the user time-frame will be spent idly watching nearly non-moving continents drifting at the real speed of continental drift, a couple of inches a year, which makes for very slow gameplay. Thus several hundred millennia of play time is needed to reach a game {{w|Achievement (video gaming)|achievement}} of forming a kilometer high mountain.

Many {{w|computer games}} {{w|computer simulation|simulate}} to one degree or another real items and tasks, but often simplify them to fit into a game format -- to make them more exciting, to make them quicker, to advance a particular plot line or quest, etc. For example, a game about farming might allow you to grow corn, but whereas in real life corn takes about 90 days to germinate from seed and grow to maturity, in a game the growth might be instantaneous or measured by minutes, rather than by days/weeks/months. The comic may thus be a jab at how our lives already are real time {{w|MMORPG}}.

In this game, especially, one would expect such shortcuts, given the extreme time frames required for {{w|geological}} events to be manifested. The joke is that this game is so realistic that it's played in real time, which means for every second or hour or eon something would take in real life, in the game it would take the same second or hour or eon to happen. Playing such a game where the events take longer than the person would be alive would likely be unsatisfying.{{Citation_needed}} A mildly less extreme example of a simulation game being played in real-time is the {{w|Penn_%26_Teller%27s_Smoke_and_Mirrors#Desert_Bus|Desert Bus}} video game where you have to drive a bus from {{w|Tucson, Arizona}}, to {{w|Las Vegas, Nevada}}, in real time at a maximum speed of 45 MPH. The trip requires eight hours of continuous play to complete, at which point you score one point, with the option to continue playing for additional points at the rate of one point per successful eight hour trip. The action consists almost entirely of just keeping the bus from veering off the road. It cannot be paused or sped up, and failure requires a tow back to the starting point at the same 45 MPH speed.

The frames show some elements of gameplay. The first frame shows a destructive plate margin in which an oceanic plate (grey) is being subducted under a continental plate (brown with a person standing on it) while sediments between the plates are compressed to form mountains. Clockwise from top left, the second frame shows a cross section through the planet and various statistics about the planet (CO2 levels of 840 ppm, solar irradiation of 1184 W/m2 and heat-flow through the crust of 91 mW/m2). Solar irradiation and heat-flow are similar to the Earth, but CO2 levels are raised. The bottom right displays several stats titled LT, LM, LA and LL, and bottom left is a view of the planet showing the proportion covered by ice (3%), land (31%) and water (66%). It seems that the raised CO2 levels have reduced the amount of ice compared to our present-day Earth. The final panel shows some of the achievements that can be unlocked; the first row shows mountains from 1 km up to 10 km, and the next row appears to show achievements in the formation of an atoll.

{{w|Large igneous provinces}} are extremely large accumulations of igneous rocks that have arisen when magma traveled through the crust towards the surface. They are thought to be related to widespread extinction events and rapid climate changes. Thus, they are 'the worst' in this game.

The title text mentions type {{w|A-type main-sequence star|A3 V}} stars, which are white main-sequence stars with a mass from 1.4 to 2.1 times the mass of the {{w|Sun}}. They have a shorter lifespan than the Sun, hundreds of millions of years compared to the 10 billion year lifespan of the Sun. By starting the game now with an A3 V star, there would be plenty of time to complete the game before the real Sun becomes a {{w|red giant}} star in 4-7 billion years, destroying the Earth. It's not clear how having a shorter-lived star would speed up plate tectonics on a planet of the star.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing behind Ponytail, who is sitting on the floor playing a video game on a TV which displays a diagram of tectonic plates.]
:Cueball: What game is that?
:Ponytail: ''Tectonics!''
:Ponytail: You steer chunks of crust around, rifting, subducting, and building and eroding mountains.

:[A view of the game screen is shown. It includes a large cross-section of the Earth with smaller charts around it.]
:Ponytail (narrating): You try to keep your climate stable and your biosphere rich.
:Ponytail (narrating): Avoid making large igneous provinces! They're the ''worst''.

:[Cueball holds his hand out in a frameless panel.]
:Cueball: Cool!
:Cueball: Can I try?
:Ponytail (off-panel): Sure!

:[Cueball plays the game while Ponytail watches.]
:Cueball: ...How do I unpause?
:Ponytail: It's not paused.
:Cueball: ...
:Ponytail: Continents can only move a few inches per year.

:[Cueball has stopped playing and holds the controller in one hand. Ponytail points at the screen that shows an achievement page with no completed achievements, but a progress bar halfway done for an achievement with the number 1 and a mountain.]
:Cueball: It's ''real-time?''
:Ponytail: Just 400 millennia to go until your first mountain achievement!

==Trivia==
*This comic's number and content regarding simulations in real time may also be a reference to {{w|Arthur C. Clarke}}'s ''{{w|2061: Odyssey Three}}'', the third book in the ''{{w|Space Odyssey}}'' series, in which {{w|Monolith_(Space_Odyssey)|monoliths}} are left throughout the solar system, manipulating environments to encourage the evolution of intelligent life.
*During the time that this comic was on the front page of xkcd, the [[Design_of_xkcd.com#Header_text|Header text]] changed to help people on how to vote in the upcoming election. See this [[2068:_Election_Night#Election_related_header_texts|trivia]] from the [[2068: Election Night]] comic.
*In the last panel, the first mountain achievement is already halfway done, meaning that this game may have already been running for 400 millennia.
*Also in the last panel, the other mountain achievements (2km, 5km, and 10km) do not have any progress, even though the first one is halfway complete.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Games]]

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2061: Tectonics Game