*Spoiler* Why technomancers?

[TheGigas]

I don't understand why Samedi was a technomancer instead of an otaku. By all accounts technomancers did not appear until after '63. Samedi should have been an otaku since the game takes place in '54. His young age and the fact that his powers were brought on by a disability (likly from a crash) point to being an otaku. His inability to control the situation during the ARES raid also suggests that the fading is starting to set in. Further to that, if I play a meta should I not have the option to not work with Samedi if he's a child of the matrix? Just seems like a really big plot hole when considering the SR timeline and lore.

[Snobil]

when reading through the anthology, wich details the backstory of several characters including Samedi it also shows that he is not a technomancer or otaku since he is shown to be hacking with a Deck and no Datajack there

[TheGigas]

Well that's even a bigger plot hole then. Bit disappointing coming from the creator of Shadowrun. Seems like the story was a rushed attempt to tie it into the time line instead of it being a one off.

[Snobil]

Could you explain how it is a plothole here? I don't see it right now. I mean the inability to control the situation at the raid might simply be him overestimating himself or a talented spider working against him

[TheGigas]

Yes there are many reasons that if he was actually a technomancer that he would have failed during the raid, but the fact that we have technomancers so early is odd. Your point about him hacking with a deck also brings in question the technomancer reference (just in case people did not catch it, during the raid there are a series of lines where he says he is a technomancer.)

Why are we seeing technomancers 9 years before Crash 2.0? It's a plot hole in that it's not explained in the story and begs a number of questions. Could it be explained later? Why yes, in fact I would love to see it expanded in Berlin and perhaps bring in a new angle on the rise of the technomancers.

[Snobil]

well you are definitely right that technomancers should not turn up this early, at this point it seems like a simply error of a writer there.
It might also be a term to overblow his skill since in '54 the word technomancer wasn't connected with anything so he might just be trying to portray himself as a "magician in the matrix" but that is just grasping for straws.

So its probably a simple error from a writer beeing used to '72 and not '54

[TheGigas]

Totally agree that it's likly an oversite in writing. Unfortunate if that's the case, but it happens.

[St. Haborym]

What exactly is an otaku in SR terms?

[Snobil]

well basically otakus were the predecessors of the technomancers.
In short: Otakus are children/young humans who had a special affinity with computers and could somehow interface with the wired matrix (basically the internet) without the use of a cyberdeck but only with a Datajack and a ASIST converter
Most of them lost that ability as they got older.

[Lilith]

um, according to the wiki technomancers first appeared in 2064. But it didn't say that they didn't exist before that.
This is pretty much the difference between insider information and public knowledge. In 2064 their existence became public knowledge, but Shadowrunners were hearing rumors about them before that.

[Snobil]

also true but most people tie the early technomancers to the Renraku Arcology and its shutdown by Deus, wich doesn't happen until 2059.
Also one thing you have to consider about technomancers is, that their powers only work with the wireless matrix, wich gets built after the second crash in 2064

[nothing]

So much knowledge about the canon and lore for Shadowrun.

Some of you must have read the sourcebooks several times over . ;)

[Procrastinating Gamer]

I think what someone said earlier is true - he's just a normal decker taking the term from some obscure source (I really doubt Shadowrun was the first thing to use the term). He's basically trying to show that he's head-and-shoulders over most deckers and using an overblown title to go with the overblown persona.

[TheGigas]

The most recent source books explain that technomancers were created directly from the Crash 2.0 (people stuck in the matrix when it crashed.) As pointed out above, they also need the wireless matrix. I distrust wikis as they are not canon sources, as well. Essentially Crash 2.0 evolved how people were touched by the matrix.

You also have to consider that if technomacers existed earlier then Deus would have used them, and not just otakus. Or if they sided agaist Deus that they would have fought him.

[Danger Close]

I think you're reading too deeply into it. One of the difficult things to do in any story is exposition, and trying to balance hardcore fans who know a lot about lore without overwhelming someone brand new to the world of Shadowrun. One of the things I love about the game is that the devs included the editor so that the true beauty of the game will shine once people collaborate and come up with their own stories. Half-Life 2 was pretty good, but that story pales to the story-line of Portal, which you'll remember started as a mod to HL2.

"Dead Man's Switch" was more of a model of what the game could be, not an end all summary of Shadowrun Lore. As the WoW Fact Checker dude proves, even the creators don't get the lore right all the time.

[Danger Close]

Originally posted by Klax:

This is exactly what i thought when i heard him say it, it was a boast of how skilled he is. Technomancer being a term for a computer-wizard like Necromancer is a term for a death-wizard.

Exactly. The game is based off archetypes instead of classes, so calling yourself a "technomancer" doesn't have any more meaning than calling yourself a "hipster" or "punk". There's a connotation associated with those words, but it's just that: a tag you go by.

I could walk around calling myself a "technomancer" because I know how to use Linux, but that doesn't mean any more or less than Neo calling himself "The One" who can detonate robot bombs with mind bullets.