Carradice: The key is "life-changing travels". Because, nowadays, most trips, for most people, are nothing like that. This game promises to bring back the thrill of actually travelling, when travelling was a rarer occurrence.
Today, what is a tourist? A tourist is just another name for a worker, a proletarian, blue or white is the same, the people at the base of the pyramid in their Rockwellian extended Sunday.
But this game might make a traveller of you. Might as well be offering to make you a conqueror of galaxies.
I'm in.
RedRagan: You're trying to be deep, but in reality it's either partying, getting lost, sore legs, eating weird food (and probably the journey to the loo afterward) and hoping you don't get mugged or scammed.
And if you're too adventurous, probably bringing home some exotic herpes or something.
Thanks for the reply, even if the
ad hominem it contains weakens it. No matter.
Your post seems to mean that there are no meaningful travels. To some degree, that might well be true for many people, due to their circumstances (hint: money is not the main limiting factor). No matter what the publicity or the current Zeitgeist rules in these times of romantic consumerism: suppossedly we are to accumulate "experiences" that somehow rely on making expenses, even if suppossedly it is not about accumulating material goods (how vulgar, right?).
On the other hand, the point of the post you quoted is this:
Most trips, for most people, are nowadays anything but meaningful. However, there [i]are meaningful travels.[/i] The game tries to capture the essence of those, and help the player dream about them, as well as someone who never sailed might dream of delivering broadsides to the Napoleonic navy.
Then, you might wonder what can make a travel meaningful? Probably it depends on how meaningful are the things you actually end up doing. Which depends largely on several factors,
without any of them being final: 1. Your own openness to experience (which is a measurable personality trait according to Jung/ Myers-Briggs.
2. Your sensitivity to the environment; empathy to others and prior knowledge/experience.
2. What you can do (abilities).
3. Your circumstance (means, responsibilities).
4. How willing you are (was it your idea?).
5. Responsibilities at your destination.
6. Motivation for the trip (work, study, holiday, running from something, running to something...)
7. Lenght of the trip.
8. Returning date known at departure time or not.
9. Travelling within an organized frame or on your own.
10. Travelling company: alone, with your partner, with friends, colleages, strangers...
11. How ready are you to learn and to change your assumptions or even your ways.
12. Do you think that true travelling begins with study?
And probably way more. Again,without any of them being completely decisive: The traveller might as well turn out to be either a Bilbo Baggins or Lawrence of Arabia on one hand, or the proverbial Englishmann of the imperial times that travelled around the world without ever speaking nothing but English, on the other hand (or even worse, the current selfie-poster that the meaning of life is looking cool on internet social networks).
Finally, the game is about dreaming with meaningful travels, and it might be fun (depending on the angle and the writing and of course the gameplay and, of course, on the appeal of the idea for the player).