Items not in SGA

[Levack]

Why do you think the letters are not in SGA?

Or is all the candy Keen accumulates really from Earth?

[tulip]

This is an interesting observation. Most of the details in Keen games are relatively consistent normally, you can tell a lot of thought went into them. But this I think just plain slipped the designer's mind.

[Plasma Captain]

Wow, I never recognized that for how odd it is. I would also venture that it is probably just a mistake, though.

But now I'm curious as to what the generic "Candy Bar" from Keen 2 has spelled out on its wrapper. At first I thought that it might be "Mars", but Mars bars don't have yellow wrappers. Unless it's an allusion to the previous episode...?

[mortimer]

[MoffD]

Maybe the Vorticons are partial to stealing Earth-food from human landers, as well as random ship parts.

But that doesn't explain why it's still "vortacola"

[Roobar]

Well, obviously they're learning English in their schools:





You may think of them as South Koreans in the way PSY is using some English words in his songs.

[StupidBunny]

Teaching English to the youth of Vorticon VI was, I always figured, a militarily motivated project. However it is interesting that they also use it on their consumer products. Maybe it's one of those things where like the "Earth" aesthetic has become cool there or something. Though the Big V also uses a Terran letter V, and it's hard to imagine awards of state jumping on the same fads. Maybe they decided the Terran V looks cooler in medal form than the SGA V? Who knows, but it is a fun question to try and answer.

[Ceilick]

Speaking in terms of lore, it's seems like SGA wouldn't be the Vorticon mother tongue either, although clearly it manifests dominantly.

I really like wiivn's idea and StupidBunny's extension of it, that 'earth culture' is being used to be flashy. The Big V does pose a problem, but the Keenwiki suggests that a special version of the medal may have been given to Keen, and this really seems the best answer (even if that seems to kind of devalue the medal).

The one problem with 'earth culture' being the in-trend is that this is during the time of the Grand Intellect, who hates earth... While plausible that use of the latin alphabet is intended as some kind of praise for their Terran tyrant, I like the idea that the Vorticons were interested in Earth before that. One scenario might be that they were naively receptive to Mortimer in the first place due to this.

From a game design point of view, using the latin subtly establishes the points as tasty familiars rather than alien objects.

[Levellass]

This is obviously a case of using something to look cool as seen on commercial products from everywhere. Also known as gratuitous English: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... ousEnglish http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/G ... VideoGames

And if you think Mortimer could keep it down you've not seen communist countries. (Besides, why should he care? So a bunch of mental wimps want some stupid little toys to keep them occupied. Whatever as long as they're building his stuff. Bread and circuses after all, I suspect he's read Machiavelli's The Prince.)


As for the medal, it's structure is quite simple, I see no reason why it shouldn't be v-shaped; we don't call the ying-yang 'the big s' but it's not far from one. Who knows what that medal symbolizes and is called in Vorticonic?

[VikingBoyBilly]

It's quite probable the vorticons invented the "V" as a symbol of their people and early greeks and romans adopted it while they were visiting earth and changed it to phonetic sound that's like the beginning of their species name.

[Levellass]

Heck, englsih pretty much IS SGA... that's suspicious if you ask me. I blame the Men In Black.

[Keening_Product]

I had thought Mort had left this stuff around to tease Keen, but that doesn't explain its integration into everyday Vorticon life.

[DHeadshot]

As for the medal, it's structure is quite simple, I see no reason why it shouldn't be v-shaped; we don't call the ying-yang 'the big s' but it's not far from one. Who knows what that medal symbolizes and is called in Vorticonic?

Reminds me of the apparent explanation for the Superman "S". Perhaps "V" is a peace symbol too?

[Keening_Product]

Perhaps "V" is a peace symbol too?

How many fingers do Vorticons have?

[lemm]

Knowing that the Vorticon populace would soon be hypnotized, the Vorticon elders scattered a bunch of Candy and sweets everywhere to provide energy for an 8-year-old Earthling who could save their species from eternal slavery.


That's my theory.