official Westworld thread

All three of you gave good responses. Mad Dog's is the closest to my thoughts about it, but I'm glad to hear I missed a line of dialog that addressed it.

So Ford basically created and controls everything in Westworld. Is it still a god complex if you are actually a god?

Dolores seemed to talk to Bernard after leaving the ranch, but then woke up with William and Logan. I don't think she got up and left them in the night then returned before they noticed. I wonder if she actually dreamed that whole interaction with Bernard (or is it?) telling her to find the maze.

Loved the "upgrade" line from Logan when he took that guys gun. He really is playing it just like a sandbox video game.

I also thought Hector as more of a market-tested thing for the more touristy starting town. Suddenly the character has become interesting. I hope he gets to open that safe some day.

"This is my god damned vacation".

The last episode was OK, but it's starting to feel a little thin already. Like this would have been a great 2 hour feature.

How the hell is this going to go on for five seasons unless they open it up to the world outside of the park. Which could be interesting. Are there moral objections/cultural perspectives on the park, for example.

I really hope it doesn't go the "final five" route where it becomes a guessing game as to who is/isn't an android.

The more time this show spends on the minutiae of the theme park, the less plausible it all looks.
It seems like it is written by someone who has played an open-world game like the GTAs (or, rather, Red Dead Redemption), but did not spend enough time with a MMO, or even the on-line component of the GTAs. To put it mildly, the tourists are far too civilized in this show, and focus their attention on the hosts far too much, while in reality the most fun of MMO is the interaction with other players (and it is also where it offers more possibilities for depravity).
And I just don't see how it can possibly work from the business perspective. Like when Hopkins speaks with such contempt about "money-makers", I can't avoid thinking that whoever is investing in this park must have lost billions of dollars, because this thing can't be profitable.
As for the philosophical musings on the nature of human beings and robots, I like it but can't take it seriously. I just hope they do something interesting, like rebel and destroy their human masters, and whatever comes next. The writers need to up the stakes, because right now it's like watching a very well-done youtube play through.
And I agree with Michael, if they want to make this show last, they have to go beyond Westworld itself and show us the "real" world.
Having said that, I can't say I haven't been enjoying it so far. The acting and cinematography are very good. It is always a pleasure watching Hopkins doing that mysterious-menacing-snobbish-know-it-all he does so well.

Vlad wrote: The more time this show spends on the minutiae of the theme park, the less plausible it all looks.
It seems like it is written by someone who has played an open-world game like the GTAs (or, rather, Red Dead Redemption), but did not spend enough time with a MMO, or even the on-line component of the GTAs. To put it mildly, the tourists are far too civilized in this show, and focus their attention on the hosts far too much, while in reality the most fun of MMO is the interaction with other players (and it is also where it offers more possibilities for depravity).
And I just don't see how it can possibly work from the business perspective. Like when Hopkins speaks with such contempt about "money-makers", I can't avoid thinking that whoever is investing in this park must have lost billions of dollars, because this thing can't be profitable.
As for the philosophical musings on the nature of human beings and robots, I like it but can't take it seriously. I just hope they do something interesting, like rebel and destroy their human masters, and whatever comes next. The writers need to up the stakes, because right now it's like watching a very well-done youtube play through.
And I agree with Michael, if they want to make this show last, they have to go beyond Westworld itself and show us the "real" world.
Having said that, I can't say I haven't been enjoying it so far. The acting and cinematography are very good. It is always a pleasure watching Hopkins doing that mysterious-menacing-snobbish-know-it-all he does so well.

Part of the reason the Guests don't act like MMO players may be because it's damn expensive to go there. They may also try to have some sort of weed-out process. Or, that may be a direction the writers plan to go in the future. I can easily see an episode or storyline following either problem Guests or fetishist Guests who want to pretend to be Hosts. We're only a few episodes in, you know.

As for profitability, that's probably missing the point. Just like Disney doesn't make all their money from the theme parks, I have no doubt that Delos makes their money somewhere else. Probably huge money just on their patents alone. Maybe Ford developed the AI that runs every self-driving car in the world? Maybe when it started it was a novelty that made money, but now it's just an indulgence to keep Ford happy. Maybe Ford's spending too much time here and not enough on the more profitable ventures, and that's what worries the board. I'm not bothered by the financial aspect of it at all.

Profitability? $40k a day. If there are 25 guests a day, it's making a million dollars a day. Which would cover maybe, what, 10% of what its operating costs would be? This is also impossibly expensive for all but the ultra-elite. Like, oil sheik money. Maybe there will be something about all of this at some point.

I think we kicked this around a week or two back - as a business or as an amusement park, Westworld as shown doesn't stand a lot of scrutiny.

Michael Barnes wrote: Profitability? $40k a day. If there are 25 guests a day, it's making a million dollars a day. Which would cover maybe, what, 10% of what its operating costs would be? This is also impossibly expensive for all but the ultra-elite. Like, oil sheik money. Maybe there will be something about all of this at some point.

There is a reason theme parks of today are targeting a middle class consumer, not the ultra-rich. With ultra rich you'd probably do a one off, exclusive event, tailored to specific person and their entourage.

However, now that I think of it... theoretically, this park could be viable - but not in the economy that we are familiar with. In the last episode there's a scene of hosts being used as labor force, basically slaves. Which makes sense. And ff the use of robots as inexpensive labor is a common thing in that society, it would obviously be a very different world. Like, if you had 10-20 highly capable robots doing stuff for you - for no compensation at all, 40K a day might seem like a reasonable expense for a holiday.

The thing is, whatever Westworld is, the society that allowed for creation of a theme park like this is more interesting than the theme park itself, just like US is more interesting than Disneyland (OK, that´s arguable).

What the fuck wth this pedantic bullshit? Vlad's got the right of this. You guys are cool with androids that look and act exactly like people and apparently get rebuilt every other day or something, but the finances of this operation keep you up at night? How's about it's powered by dilithium crystals--does that help some of it make sense? The overhead you are used to in 2016, what with it's petrochemical norms isn't present anymore because of dilithium. Whew, glad that's settled.

Donald Gennaro: And we can charge anything we want, 2,000 a day, 10,000 a day, and people will pay it. And then there's the merchandise...

John Hammond: Donald, Donald... This park was not built to cater only for the super-rich. Everyone in the world has the right to enjoy these animals.

Donald Gennaro: Sure, they will. Well, we'll have a, a coupon day or something.

Jeb, I really thank you, because "Vlad is right" are my 3 favorite words, but when I watch Westworld, the only topic of interest for me is how they can pay and organize all this shit. That's virtually the only thing I'm thinking about.
I'm sorry to be such a disappointment.

In my defense... if they live in this Dilithium-powered-uthopia, why there is so much talk of money on this show?

RobertB wrote: I think we kicked this around a week or two back - as a business or as an amusement park, Westworld as shown doesn't stand a lot of scrutiny.

There's a company behind it that we know very little about, and a couple of the characters have hinted that what Westworld is is not the company's end game. Besides, when's the last time Amazon, Blue Origin, or SpaceX turned a meaningful profit?

Tech like we see in Westworld would have no trouble getting investors and cash in hand; I'm pretty sure the park itself is a cover for something much, much bigger.

I'm sorry, but only a moron would invest in Westworld. That is, unless it is a parallel universe with no notion of Metropolis-Terminator-Matrix-BSG, etc., Jurassic Parks and the original Westworld. It is such bad idea that wouldn't have survived past an elevator pitch ( lifelike robots with guns)
But, I agree with you, it is a very good cover for something bigger and, hopefully, even more dangerous for humankind (as well as any individual investors)

wadenels wrote:

here's a company behind it that we know very little about, and a couple of the characters have hinted that what Westworld is is not the company's end game. Besides, when's the last time Amazon, Blue Origin, or SpaceX turned a meaningful profit?

Tech like we see in Westworld would have no trouble getting investors and cash in hand; I'm pretty sure the park itself is a cover for something much, much bigger.

Without digging into it, I thought that Westworld has been running for 30+ years. That the last big incident where tourists got killed en masse was 30 years prior. That's a serious length of time to keep looking for VC money.