How do the other forum cities function?

[Magnas]

Does anyone know of ad blockers? Pop-up blockers? Any of that ring a bell? No? Too bad, I browse 99% ad-free, AND I can block images and annoying flash things that are NOT ads.

I use Firefox, and I advise everyone with something other than Dial-up (Nothing is going to help Dial-up...) to either get it or get some other different browser (Google Chrome/Opera), IE is the crappiest browser in existence.

(And even so those ads wouldst be EXCELLENT target practice! )

Dude, I can practically guarantee you that 99% of this forum knows how horrible IE can be. Practically EVERYONE who is internet savvy knows that.

If the internet was represented as in TNM...

We'd have little floating drones that would destroy all the ads, spyware, etc. when they pop up.

We'd be walking along and randomly get violated by a maladjusted basement-case. (hacker/virus)

Users would all have their own homes, though a majority of them would be decked out in bright, garish colors and would take outlandishly long to build. (Loading self-made, poorly designed websites)

Facebook and MySpace would be the two most prominent religions and they'd be constantly at war with each other.

[Jetsetlemming]

Google would be the city-wide transportation system, working via near instant teleportation. MSN and Yahoo would offer competing services of buses and subways. AskJeeves would be a skyrail that can only take you to two or three locations that paid to have a stop.
Time would slow down the closer you are to black market dealers due to the heavy bandwidth they use up.
/b/ and goons would be rival terrorist factions, with /b/ with no central headquarters, except more dense around the slummier, more disgusting parts of the city, and focused on terrorizing communities while goons focused on recreational hotspots, operating from a large expensive fortress.
You'd have an additional complexity to messaging people due to differing IM networks they use. One useful sidequest will be to acquire a copy of Pidgin or Trillian, however these may prevent others from sending you images and files.
Possible mission locations inclue Google HQ, the Internet Archive, Youtube Broadcasting Station, and infiltrating the various communities of the city.

[MrBlack]

And of course theres the HUGE red light districts

But lets not elaborate on those any further

[ZeroPresence]

and you would leave those districts with some sort of virus every time... well I guess that's pretty close to real life experience as well.

[Andy.G]

The System Shock forums would have to be on a Space station/ Space ship that has been taken over by some hostile force, changing the dead crew into cyborgs and other nasty things (like rumblers).
People would be constantly separated or in small groups, all of which are desperately trying to survive and fight back against another renegade AI.

Now THAT would be an experience.......

[Jonas]

PlanetSimCity: Very meta. Also: Pure chaos.

[MrBlack]

System Shock 2 forum would be where you never meet anyone else, except glimpses through windows and you communicate via audio log

[admiraljustin]

PlanetMassEffect: All the alien chicks are hot, half of everyone wants to kill you, and your dialog is limited to

/Shotgun?
-Shotgun.
\Shotgun!

PlanetElderScrolls: Your entrance to the city receives a voice over from a top-notch actor but before you actually get going the voice is permenantly removed.

PlanetTetsuo: (Deep gamespy voodoo here) This is the secret gamespy bars on mars, no real rules, and nobody knows what's going on.

PlanetSecondLife: You log in and are surrounded by flying phallices at all times.

PlanetGhand: .... I'd move in, but ghand and I always actually managed to understand each other. Other than a few others I know who could also survive, most people would die in the nightly random candy-cane fusion device detonations.

[Andy.G]

System Shock 2 forum would be where you never meet anyone else, except glimpses through windows and you communicate via audio log

Or they would die (go offline?) right before your eyes...............

[Cermo]

And of course theres the HUGE red light districts

But lets not elaborate on those any further

Sounds like PlanetDukeNukem3D. Basically the equivalent of Bangkok. The girls are all low-res 2D sprites, but they're friendly and very affordable!