Editing 623: Oregon

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==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
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This comic relates to the computer game ''{{w|The Oregon Trail (video game)|The Oregon Trail}}'', and humorously depicts the consequences to real-world Oregon if everyone had arrived in the same manner they did in the game.
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{{incomplete|The "another video game" at the title text is still not explained. Oregon was not overpopulated, but maybe this is a reference to the end of the gold rush.}}
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{{w|The Oregon Trail (video game)|The Oregon Trail}} was an early educational video game that was designed to teach children about the trials and hardships faced by pioneering settlers. The actual {{w|Oregon Trail}} was an overland track leading from Missouri to Oregon, and in the video game, player started his or her journey in 1848.
  
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''The Oregon Trail'' was an educational computer game released in 1971, but the version referred to is likely the more popular 1985 version. In the game, players would play as a character taking a trek west along the {{w|Oregon Trail}} from Missouri to Oregon.  The player's journey starts in 1848 and typically takes less than one year to complete. Along the way, the player must manage resources (food, spare parts, etc.) {{tvtropes|DoomedExpedition|and face risks and dangers (starvation, disease, etc.)}}.  Most players at the time were grade-school students. The game was very popular, and thousands of players played it monthly.
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Most players were grade-school students. The game was very popular, and thousands of players played it monthly. In their youthful wisdom, most players brought the minimum amount of food and planned to hunt for their meals. Large animals (bison, bears, etc.) were very easy and rewarding targets, while smaller prey (rabbits, squirrels, etc.) were harder to obtain and provided less food.  
  
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The game made it very easy to hunt for food.  Large animals (bison, bears, etc.) were very easy and rewarding targets, where spending a single bullet could be enough to collect enough food for multiple days.  There were also smaller prey available (rabbits, squirrels, etc.) which were harder to catch and provided less food. Since bullets are much lighter and cheaper than food, it was a good strategy to bring the minimum amount of food and plan to hunt for meals.  Extra food can even be traded for money or other supplies, so it wasn't necessary to start the journey with anything except bullets.  
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The comic tries to document, as though in an historical fashion, what would have been the result if that was really how people had prepared for their journey on the Oregon Trail. With no other supplies or sources of food, the land would soon have been stripped bare, all large game slaughtered for meat, with hunger, starvation and disease soon to follow. {{w|Dysentery}} in particular was very common in the original game and perhaps the most infamous way to die, hence its listing as the most prominent epidemic.
  
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Another aspect of hunting was that it made it fun to try to kill every animal available. You could end a hunt at any time, but if you played until time expired, you could amass thousands of pounds of food in a single hunt; a single buffalo could net 1,000 pounds. The game would then give a message like, "You collected 4,000 pounds of food, but you could only bring 100 pounds back." The discrepency was amusing to grade schoolers, who would practice shooting as much game as possible.
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The title text makes things rather recursive. In this alternate reality, hundreds upon hundreds of people fleeing ''from'' the overpopulated Oregon becomes the focus of another video game, much like ''Oregon Trail'' in our universe.
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Sample image: https://www.mnopedia.org/sites/default/files/styles/xlarge/public/huntingscene.jpg
 
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The comic tries to document, as though in a historical fashion, what would have been the result if all the players had been real settlers who really had prepared for their journey on the Oregon Trail in that way. The parts before 1848 are historically accurate.  Starting from 1848, however, players of the game would form an unbelievably large influx of people arriving nearly simultaneously, with very little food or supplies being brought along.  Massive overhunting would soon strip the land bare, all large game slaughtered for meat, with hunger, starvation and disease soon to follow. {{w|Dysentery}} in particular was very common in the original game and perhaps the most infamous way to die, hence its listing as the most prominent epidemic.
 
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The title text makes things rather recursive. In this alternate reality, thousands upon thousands of people fleeing ''from'' the overpopulated, devastated Oregon becomes the focus of another video game, much like ''The Oregon Trail'' in our universe.
 
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==
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:History of 19th-century Oregon
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:[Timeline, with relevant images next to each date.]
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:[Timeline, with relevant images next to various dates.]
 
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:1805
 
:1805
 
::[Two men stand at the edge of a cliff. One has a walking staff.]
 
::[Two men stand at the edge of a cliff. One has a walking staff.]
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:1841
 
:1841
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::Oregon Trail established
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::Oregon trail established
  
 
:1843
 
:1843
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:1849
 
:1849
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::[Cueball and Megan with rifles aim at something.]
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::[Two men with rifles aim at something.]
 
::Overhunting begins to devastate ecosystem  
 
::Overhunting begins to devastate ecosystem  
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::Dysentery epidemic.
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::Dysentery epidemic
  
 
:1850
 
:1850
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::[Tombstones and bodies.]
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::[Tombstones. Bodies.]
 
::Shooting deaths skyrocket
 
::Shooting deaths skyrocket
 
::Typhoid epidemic
 
::Typhoid epidemic
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:1851
 
:1851
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::All mammals larger than squirrels wiped out by overhunting
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::All mammals larger than squirrels wiped out by overhunting.
 
::Massive famine
 
::Massive famine
  
 
:1852
 
:1852
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::[Sun low over a land, devoid of life. Scattered remains of corpses and skeletons.]
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::[Sun low over a land, devoid of life. Scattered remains of corpses.]
 
::Last survivors flee
 
::Last survivors flee
 
::Oregon territory abandoned
 
::Oregon territory abandoned

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