baldrick0712
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Voight-Kampff test

Wed 29 Sep 2021, 12:47

Surely this will need its own rules - like a mini-game?
 
Bengt Petter
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Re: Voight-Kampff test

Thu 30 Sep 2021, 14:49

Well, in any case it should matter in the game. I see the V-K test as a narrative tool; dramatic situations should come out of it. It would also be interesting if you could manipulate the result in some way. Or if the results could be more or less uncertain. Of course, the obvious twist could be a character who, just like Deckard, suspect that he or she is actually not human. But perhaps the opposite would be even more surprising: someone who is human but grew up with a replicant identity.
 
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Vader
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Re: Voight-Kampff test

Thu 30 Sep 2021, 16:35

But perhaps the opposite would be even more surprising: someone who is human but grew up with a replicant identity.

Hmm ... can you expound a bit on how you envision that working?

I mean — after all, replicants are manufactured as adults. A newly incepted "adult" replicant could be implanted with memories of a childhood he or she never had, but how would a growing human child be indoctrinated into a replicant identity in the middle of an experience no replicant ever could go through?

An adult human who becomes convinced his or her childhood memories are false implants works of course, but I see that as a bit different...
Before you use the word "XENOMORPH" again, you should read this article through:

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/aliens-throwaway-line-confusion
 
Bengt Petter
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Re: Voight-Kampff test

Thu 30 Sep 2021, 17:07

Well, a child, perhaps an orphan who was once a findling, usually believes what he or she is told by adults, right? Perhaps this particular child was told that he or she is some kind of rare experimental prototype replicant who is growing just like a human. And maybe this unusual individual also has some kind of special abilities and a Tyrell (or other) logo tatooed somewhere on the body. Or something else that make him or her look manufactured rather than born.

I’m fascinated by the challenges findlings (babies who are just found abandoned somewhere) face in the real world. They usually only know how they were found, but nothing about their real parents. I guess they, more than others, ask themselves: who am I really? They could only guess their ethnicity from what they see in the mirror. Imagine someone who actually (right or wrong) believes she or he isn’t human. It could be a interesting character with quite a life path. You could imagine the surprises along the way.
 
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Fragpuss
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Re: Voight-Kampff test

Mon 04 Oct 2021, 23:14

It will be very interesting to see how this is implemented in the game. V-K is a test of the ability to empathise and arguably it's even more important in the book than in the film. It's not just a test to detect replicants, but the the capacity for emapthy is predominant cultural value - hence pet ownership is more or less mandatory and those that can't afford the status symbols of real animals can buy, e.g. an electric sheep, goat, etc. Sociopaths would presumably struggle to pass a V-K test, as might someone who is on the autistic spectrum. Could the test be subverted, by someone introducing certain questions to trip up non-replicants and have them 'retired'? Is a replicant that passes the test, more human than a serial killer who fails it? Would you retire them just for being a replicant on Earth?

I think the game is going to throw up some fascinating role-playing challenges, as PC/NPC behavioural nuances could be hugely important in determining how encounters play out.

Off topic, it will also be interesting to see if / how aspects of the book's worldbuilding might be incorporated beyond what was portrayed in the film - World War Terminus, lead codpieces to protect against genetic damage from radiation, Mercerism and it's 'empathy boxes' allowing large groups to share experiences... I can't wait.
 
baldrick0712
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Re: Voight-Kampff test

Tue 12 Oct 2021, 19:07

As a side note, someone made a board game that seems very like V-K...

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/261 ... conditions
 
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KastorKrieg
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Re: Voight-Kampff test

Sun 28 Nov 2021, 13:44

Sociopaths would presumably struggle to pass a V-K test, as might someone who is on the autistic spectrum.
As somebody on the spectrum (ADD, Asp), I very much disagree.

It's an old and very harmful trope, thoroughly discredited by now. Neurodivergent people do not lack empathy, if anything we have an overabundance of it, from all the social strife and hardship ensuing from the complications in our social interactions. Aspies fail to read intent or subtext, some of us fail to read when and which emotions happen in a person, based on their social cues and body language - this absolutely doesn't mean we do not understand or feel the emotions themselves. We fail to convey the socially appropriate amount of emotion (we think we've calibrated our communication well, but we "send" messages that read as too much or too little), but we rarely have an issue with empathizing with others' emotions.

As Aspie, I might have trouble recognizing that because of what I said, a "face value" reply to someone, that person feels rejected and undervalued now. If I knew (e.g. that person or a third person tells me "hey, what you just said wasn't what they expected, the wanted acceptance and reinforcement of their self-worth, now they're dejected and depressed because of what you said"), I would be horrified because that was not the intent. A sociopath would not care. They would not have empathized with that person's suffering.

A V-K test is encapsulated within the turtle question. "A turle is lying on it's back. (It's suffering.) You do not help." - an autistic person would be horrified, "why wouldn't I help?! let me help!", a sociopath would think "why would or should I help? do I gain anything from it? is this how I pass the test?". A true sociopath only mimics empathy and that's the game they play in V-K, until he's found out.
 
Vagrant
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Re: Voight-Kampff test

Tue 26 Apr 2022, 00:21

The Voight-Kampff machine is a jazzed up polygraph machine, detecting minute physiological responses to changes in emotional state. Be it changes in pupil size, voice steadiness, or judging from the air sampling bellows on the machine pheromone release.

The questions asked are to prompt changes in the emotional state of the interviewee.

I would be more inclined to suggest that while empathy and emotional considerations are intact, if not overdeveloped, there could be a disconnect in the physiological display.

I doubt this would have been a nuance that would have registered at the time of filming, let alone the time of writing.

It does beg the question though, as Replicants are a manufactured product, why they didn't just put a tracing device in them.

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