Why aren't there more phones?

[Maharin]

From desk phones to phone booths.  Just seems like something is missing on desks and walls in houses.  Maybe make a few variants of blocks that sit perfectly on desks that include some of the extra gadgets we're missing?  A desk calendar, some loose pens, a pencil sharpener, stapler, 3 ring binders, you get the idea.  Take a stroll through The Stanley Parable to get some more ideas. 

[Boidster]

The older style houses should have wall-mounted phones. Preferably avocado or banana color, to really capture that 70's vibe.

[Roland]

[Maharin]

That image needs E.T.:

 

[7daysexpert]

9 hours ago, Maharin said:

From desk phones to phone booths.  Just seems like something is missing on desks and walls in houses.  Maybe make a few variants of blocks that sit perfectly on desks that include some of the extra gadgets we're missing?  A desk calendar, some loose pens, a pencil sharpener, stapler, 3 ring binders, you get the idea.  Take a stroll through The Stanley Parable to get some more ideas. 

yo ucould totally make an RPG out of those items

[doughphunghus]

Everyone took their phone with them when they left.  no...that doesn't make any sense because there would still be landlines in the office buildings and in some homes/businesses.  For a question like this, I find the clearest answer can be found by simply applying Occam's razor. Using this, the simplest reasonable explanation is:

As the zombie apocalypse began taking hold and war broke out, people started using phones less and less. Not over years, but say a few months.  The phone companies revenue drop was significant, and they needed a way to maintain quarterly profit expansion.  First they tried stock market manipulation, lying about customer numbers, short selling phone stocks, "the usual",  etc, but it wasn't profitable enough, so they made a big fanfare of hiring new CEO's to "shake things up" and immediately borrowed and sunk billions into multimedia advertising campaigns to convince the remaining people alive (there were still quite few as things heated up) that the zombie issue was really caused by the new 6G cell networks (even though there was no such thing as 6G), and that the only path to survival (other than food, water, a strong internet connection, etc) was to eschew cell phones.  Once everyone's cell phones ended up in the trash and were carted away to landfills, phase 2 of "Operation Phone Home" began, where the phone companies sent all the alive customers (the paying customer base was still shrinking rapidly) an empty box saying that the customer would be paid in cash for every phone put into the box and mailed back to an address (it also ultimately went to a landfill in another country).  The ruse was that the phone companies never planned on paying anyone, but figured if everyone had no phones, they could quickly (and reasonably) go bankrupt and pocket the money they had borrowed in the advertising campaigns they never spent, because they borrowed billions and they *spent billions on paper* but in reality they only *really* spent hundreds of millions, which the difference was routed around and pocketed by the suits. They figured by the time anyone left alive may have figured out the scam, society would have collapsed anyway, they would be set on their own zombie free private islands. Maybe some of them got to spend some of that money, or maybe they all died and its still on some dead computer hard drive in the basement of a building.  The important thing is that this is where all the phones obviously went.

 

Anyway, using the same reasonable deductive logic, the answer also becomes clear for all the pencils, 3 ring binders, desk calendars, loose pens, staplers, etc.  Every one of those companies (Big Stapler, Big Desk Calendar, Big Loose Pen, etc.) came to the same conclusions, performed the same massive loan -> blame 6G cell networks -> claim bankruptcy -> profit the difference bait and switch.  The last few months of the fall of civilization was mostly a bizarre explosion of advertising fanfare with delivery trucks running wild with all the people shipping their stuff off hoping for cash.

 

Now that's what I call all tied up, neat, and with a bow.

[Maharin]

Or maybe they were taken by all of the other animals that left the area.  I'm betting on squirrels.

[doughphunghus]

3 minutes ago, Maharin said:

Or maybe they were taken by all of the other animals that left the area.  I'm betting on squirrels.

As we don't have a definitive answer from TFP to make it canon, I'll meet you half way and say "AND squirrels". All that (sane, reasonable, and highly deductive logical stuff) AND the squirrels.

 

Of course, I can't resist and say the obvious: "... and after that everyone ate the squirrels, so no one knows where those squirrel stolen phones are buried, as ther are no squirrels to dig them back up".

 

Then again, an argument may come about that we should see some phones up in the trees the squirrels didn't bury, and unless someone can mod this in (hmmmmm) we're gonna have to conclude that:

a. There are phones up in the trees, you just haven't cut down a tree with a phone in it, yet.

b. Crows carried these phones away (Side note: and we ate all the crows too)

c. It is highly likely the burnt forest exists due to a phone battery that caught on fire (incinerating those tree phones)

[BFT2020]

2 hours ago, Maharin said:

Or maybe they were taken by all of the other animals that left the area.  I'm betting on squirrels.

Couldn't have been the squirrels.  As soon as zombies appeared and turned on humans, humans weren't around to "balance" nature.  At that point, the rabbits and chickens formed a new Mafia and exterminated the squirrels; along with woodchucks and chipmunks.  My bet is that the rabbits have the phones.  How else are they going to coordinate their war against the zombie dogs and wolves?

[doughphunghus]

 

9 minutes ago, BFT2020 said:

Couldn't have been the squirrels.  As soon as zombies appeared and turned on humans, humans weren't around to "balance" nature.  At that point, the rabbits and chickens formed a new Mafia and exterminated the squirrels; along with woodchucks and chipmunks.  My bet is that the rabbits have the phones.  How else are they going to coordinate their war against the zombie dogs and wolves?

 

Very plausible.  They are really hamming it up too ;(

[eXSe]

Zombie phone boobie traps

 

[Crater Creator]

On 2/17/2021 at 10:17 PM, doughphunghus said:

Everyone took their phone with them when they left.  no...that doesn't make any sense because there would still be landlines in the office buildings and in some homes/businesses.  For a question like this, I find the clearest answer can be found by simply applying Occam's razor. Using this, the simplest reasonable explanation is:

As the zombie apocalypse began taking hold and war broke out, people started using phones less and less. Not over years, but say a few months.  The phone companies revenue drop was significant, and they needed a way to maintain quarterly profit expansion.  First they tried stock market manipulation, lying about customer numbers, short selling phone stocks, "the usual",  etc, but it wasn't profitable enough, so they made a big fanfare of hiring new CEO's to "shake things up" and immediately borrowed and sunk billions into multimedia advertising campaigns to convince the remaining people alive (there were still quite few as things heated up) that the zombie issue was really caused by the new 6G cell networks (even though there was no such thing as 6G), and that the only path to survival (other than food, water, a strong internet connection, etc) was to eschew cell phones.  Once everyone's cell phones ended up in the trash and were carted away to landfills, phase 2 of "Operation Phone Home" began, where the phone companies sent all the alive customers (the paying customer base was still shrinking rapidly) an empty box saying that the customer would be paid in cash for every phone put into the box and mailed back to an address (it also ultimately went to a landfill in another country).  The ruse was that the phone companies never planned on paying anyone, but figured if everyone had no phones, they could quickly (and reasonably) go bankrupt and pocket the money they had borrowed in the advertising campaigns they never spent, because they borrowed billions and they *spent billions on paper* but in reality they only *really* spent hundreds of millions, which the difference was routed around and pocketed by the suits. They figured by the time anyone left alive may have figured out the scam, society would have collapsed anyway, they would be set on their own zombie free private islands. Maybe some of them got to spend some of that money, or maybe they all died and its still on some dead computer hard drive in the basement of a building.  The important thing is that this is where all the phones obviously went.

 

Anyway, using the same reasonable deductive logic, the answer also becomes clear for all the pencils, 3 ring binders, desk calendars, loose pens, staplers, etc.  Every one of those companies (Big Stapler, Big Desk Calendar, Big Loose Pen, etc.) came to the same conclusions, performed the same massive loan -> blame 6G cell networks -> claim bankruptcy -> profit the difference bait and switch.  The last few months of the fall of civilization was mostly a bizarre explosion of advertising fanfare with delivery trucks running wild with all the people shipping their stuff off hoping for cash.

 

Now that's what I call all tied up, neat, and with a bow.

 

Today I learned you can tell when Occam's razor has been applied, by looking for the longest post in the thread.

[Maharin]

5 hours ago, Crater Creator said:

 

Today I learned you can tell when Occam's razor has been applied, by looking for the longest post in the thread.

 

If you slit your wrists with Occam's razor then it probably isn't suicide.  It's likely something much more complicated.

[Orclover]

I kind of wish they would go with Zomboids approach and have some kind of phone in nearly every house and every so often....one of them rings.  Rarely.  But it would draw/spawn some zeds in the area that would then head to that location to see what was making noise.  Maybe temporarily raise the heat level up real high for a bit.   Would probably make players want to destroy ever phone they find in any house they raid.

 

Also this is supposed to be the late 80's/90's, a few business zeds walking around with a 1st gen giant brick cell phone would not be uncalled for.

[doughphunghus]

38 minutes ago, Orclover said:

I kind of wish they would go with Zomboids approach and have some kind of phone in nearly every house and every so often....one of them rings.  Rarely.  But it would draw/spawn some zeds in the area that would then head to that location to see what was making noise.  Maybe temporarily raise the heat level up real high for a bit.   Would probably make players want to destroy ever phone they find in any house they raid.

 

Also this is supposed to be the late 80's/90's, a few business zeds walking around with a 1st gen giant brick cell phone would not be uncalled for.

I like this idea, and was thinking about “how it could be done”.  Other than the complexities of adding phones, triggering phones only when you’re near/in a poi (especially in a multi floored business building), I think a good mechanic would be to tie the “phone ringing” to the building power.... well, to a power box on the building or the floor of a building.  Smash that, the phone (s) for that area/floor/poi don’t ring. 
 

and if they do ring, either you pick it up and hear a nice emergency recording, or, maybe add a little flair and some more recordings for “air drops” or “incoming weather for the next 24 hours”, etc.  make it so the phones are sometimes actually a source of information you can’t easily get elsewhere, if you want to risk leaving them powered. 

 

IMHO it would also be cool if you couldn’t use in game chat unless you were using a phone , like the phone opens up the chat window. Yeah, it’s probably just me.
 

[Crater Creator]

5 hours ago, Orclover said:

Also this is supposed to be the late 80's/90's, a few business zeds walking around with a 1st gen giant brick cell phone would not be uncalled for.

 

It is?? What’s your basis for that?

[Orclover]

2 hours ago, Crater Creator said:

 

It is?? What’s your basis for that?

 

I remember reading a blip of it a few years ago in some version discussion thread, pre-A16.  I think madmole or one of the other devs mentioned that this is a world that had its virus event in the late 90's or something, not post 2000's though.  Hey if i'm wrong or they changed it since then no biggie.  But ask them about it.

[Crater Creator]

2 hours ago, Orclover said:

 

I remember reading a blip of it a few years ago in some version discussion thread, pre-A16.  I think madmole or one of the other devs mentioned that this is a world that had its virus event in the late 90's or something, not post 2000's though.  Hey if i'm wrong or they changed it since then no biggie.  But ask them about it.

 

All the flat screen televisions and computers would suggest otherwise.  Now, we’re going to have drones, too.  However, games frequently include anachronistic/implausible weapons for the sake of fun gameplay.  But the interior decor, that was an artistic choice with little effect on gameplay.

 

Of course, you can have vintage stuff that survives into a newer era, so I won’t presume that a zombie with a DynaTAC is completely off the table. 

[Roland]

The original trailer for the game places it in the "near future" as of 2013. I can't remember where but I swear I saw "In the year 2034...." somewhere.

[BubbaJoe]

8 minutes ago, Roland said:

The original trailer for the game places it in the "near future" as of 2013. I can't remember where but I swear I saw "In the year 2034...." somewhere.

 

According to this older Polygon article 2034 is indeed the correct year.

[Maharin]

1 hour ago, Roland said:

The original trailer for the game places it in the "near future" as of 2013. I can't remember where but I swear I saw "In the year 2034...." somewhere.

 

What would a phone from 2034 possibly look like?  It must be very advanced.

 

[Jost Amman]

My guess is that the game is staged in an "alternative future" where tech evolution can be as different from ours as the devs need ... 

[doughphunghus]

14 hours ago, BubbaJoe said:

 

According to this older Polygon article 2034 is indeed the correct year.

ahhhh. This makes so much more sense. something I didn’t consider: the phones are simply embedded into everyone’s brains before birth. The zombie “virus” is a bad software update that the mega Corp phone/media/entertainment/search engine/waffle conglomerate company pushed out to hit an advertisement deadline for a new movie. 
 

And.. all the zeds in this area *are* the advertisement for this new movie premiere, and they simply sacrificed all these people (they’re aware, but being remotely controlled against their will) to act out the advertisement.  You were air dropped in with the phone camera in your skull as part of the. “You’re really in the movie as the survivor” clips they want to show everyone else. That’s why when you die it’s like “oh well, we dropped in another one who knows exactly where all their stuff is” by using augmented reality to overlay the backpack, home, etc.

 

anyway, that’s were all the phones went. Simple explanations are always the best.

[Orclover]

47 minutes ago, doughphunghus said:

ahhhh. This makes so much more sense. something I didn’t consider: the phones are simply embedded into everyone’s brains before birth. The zombie “virus” is a bad software update that the mega Corp phone/media/entertainment/search engine/waffle conglomerate company pushed out to hit an advertisement deadline for a new movie. 
 

And.. all the zeds in this area *are* the advertisement for this new movie premiere, and they simply sacrificed all these people (they’re aware, but being remotely controlled against their will) to act out the advertisement.  You were air dropped in with the phone camera in your skull as part of the. “You’re really in the movie as the survivor” clips they want to show everyone else. That’s why when you die it’s like “oh well, we dropped in another one who knows exactly where all their stuff is” by using augmented reality to overlay the backpack, home, etc.

 

anyway, that’s were all the phones went. Simple explanations are always the best.

 

Neat and tidy answers with no lingering questions!

 

 

.....when can we craft jet packs?

[Pichii]

On 2/17/2021 at 9:47 AM, Maharin said:

From desk phones to phone booths.  Just seems like something is missing on desks and walls in houses.  Maybe make a few variants of blocks that sit perfectly on desks that include some of the extra gadgets we're missing?  A desk calendar, some loose pens, a pencil sharpener, stapler, 3 ring binders, you get the idea.  Take a stroll through The Stanley Parable to get some more ideas. 

Well, if you think about it when was the last time you saw a public phone?
I havnt owned a LAN line in over 15 years.
So to be fair, I do think the lack of phones is realistic but itd be nice to find cell phones to dismantle for plastic, parts.