Game in the Brain

Vilani is Apple and Microsoft,
Terrans are Linux and Opensource.

Vilani don’t make crap, they make
awesome Products they’ve perfected milleniums before Terrans became
“civilized”. These products have been perfected, and
the-powers-that-be have determined what is “Perfection”. The
entire culture is primed to love their goods and worship the
technology their lords and master provide them.

Terrans Tech is in Vilani perspective buggy and not pretty, On a side by side test they get the job done and they are modular and versatile. 

Vilani Tech has a great
after sales support and awesome marketing. Thats what you get with MS and Apple, great
after sales support and a product with a reputation that cannot
afford to be tarnished. As long as you’re in the system, within the
branch and main lines expect that your stores are well stocked.

Terrans Tech is trying to
penetrate the Vliani and have a whole lot to try to beat. Their best
bet is with the frontiers, the underdeveloped colonies, and these who are denied certain technologies. 

Vilani have don’t have a of
gadgets, their technology is All-in-One. What Technology “has it all” depends on the ruling house of a region. A Major Vilani House, like one that manufactures wearable computers, jewelry, eyeware etc. will have several client houses whose technology has been incorporated into their product. 

Some Minor Vilani houses have work-around patents, and make lower tiered tech. A Vilani House is its Technology  

Vilani Tech are several grades of expensive than their terran equivalent (average at x4, x2 to x6), Vilani also have a much higher quality of life. Terra still follows the TL9 payscale, A crewman earns $3600 a month, Vilani is at $5,600.   

Vilani Tech monitors its
users, and protect their IP. Laws are made to punish people from examining or tinkering with the technology. One can argue that the Laws are that everything you “purchase” is really rented, and you don’t really own anything. 

Terrans are Transhuman Radical
Sci-Fi, Vilani are Conservative Hard Scifi

Terrans in IMTU are
transhumanistic, they’ve hacked their bodies and minds to achieve
ends which fall as taboo to the Vilani. Given the way the Vilani see
human tech, dirty and buggy, they find the Terrans disgusting and
somewhate grotesque. Terrans are ever competative and are willing to
sacrifice outdated concepts of “What is Human” to get an edge.
Consider that terrans are not in a caste system, they terrans are
from a world where the humblest origins can overcome the most
blessed, entrenched and gifted of their species.

To Vilani, there is
predestiny, as everyone has a place. Vilani are not treated poorly
BTW, they have a better standard of living than Terra by very far.
Consider that they have been an Interstellar Empire for as long as
they have an all their colonies have been significantly been
infrastructured. They have awesome devices, a great standard and
quality of living than Terrans.

I cannot paint the
Vilani as an evil empire, for all its stability, growth and
expansion, I’d rather make them the best place to live in. I’d rather
paint them as Shangrila, or very the best at making things “appear”
as Shangrila. The Vilani are not bad guys, and their overlords are
not monsters. They may be Byzantine Courtiers, but they take good
care of their people.

There is an evolution as providing technology as a service. What happened in terra is that it has taken all the residual common good and channeled it to technology development; gov’t is the chief sponsor of technology to prevent monopolies. You can say technology has gone the way of the fashion industry: no copyrights, but since everything is so complicated and sophisticated there is still a huge amount of labor that has to be privately funded at what direct the technology should move towards. 

A terran entrepreneur would set up an industrial base by using Open Source Tech for the semi conductors and the raw material extraction. Then quickly move towards creating the finished product once all the infra is in place. It is ambitious as it tries to reach the same level and quality of Vilani goods. Even if Terran goods equal of exceed Vilani goods in quality, the cognitive barriers are huge basically marketing is a BIG problem. 

Since the tech being sold is customized to the strong points of that Vilani planet. Its making a product locally, without the over-inflated Transport and Logistic costs of the Vilani (see my previous article on Vilani Margins).

Terrans are also a faster growing migrant population, they seek to specialize and improve their surrounding, while Vilani have the mindset of Province and Capital, trying to recapture something glorious and very far away. Terrans live in ghettos in vilani garden worlds.  

Market Targeting is easier when Vilani has forced everyone into a role, and has culturally ingrained everyone to love that role. Terran manufacturers slowly, insidiously hack at that cultural programming. What would be interesting is what does Terran advertisement look like vs Vilani advertisements. 

There comes 2 terran entrepreneurs, on the ground and logistics. The manufacturers and their operations try to sell terran goods, they try to provide in system after sales support, and there is the Merchant Ships who help them get personnel and technology from Terra’s industrial zones to these manufacturers.