Codemonger, you just sound like you are arguing semantics.

I personally don't believe in Time Travel, I enjoy reading the material though, I find it fascinating. If anybody wan't ideas for time travel in their game all they have to read are these posts, they are great material. I'm not sure it works for me, the going back in past killing your mom, and then your not born thing. I mean, If I can go back in time, then why doesn't my future self go back in time too, and then his future self etc .. till their are millions of "ME" in the past and eventually take over the world. Ok I'm being really silly, It's Friday.

Original post by Boku San

Quote:

Original post by kaysik Itchy itchy Scott came ugly face so killed him. Tasty.

Resident Evil 2?

Since we don't have any empirical data on backwards time travel, debate is futile.

Quote:

Original post by furby100 Since we don't have any empirical data on backwards time travel, debate is futile.

We just have as much data as on axions, gravitons and (back in the 20ies) neutrons...
I'd love to cite an old german choral bout such things, but I'm way to drunk and frustrated right now. I wish that damn time machine had already arrived [wink].

To answer the original intent of the first post, I think there was an episode from Startrek TNG where they timetraveled and there were zero paradoxes involved, while still allowing for 'manipulation' of the time stream. (You know the one. They found Data's head in a mine/cave that hadn't been open in hundreds of years. Those two episodes have shaped my thinking even all these years later.) So you can avoid alot of mess if you just never bring the issue of paradox up in your story crafting.

If you say that humans have no 'free' will (ie: all our decisions are based on input and the current state of self, such that we have no actions that wouldn't happen the exact same way if run a thousand times), then any affects to the timeline can't create a paradox. Maybe you went back in time and killed who you thought was your grandfather, but it turns out your granny was a skank and had wicked animal relations with the milkman.

Also, alot of Greek stories play with the idea of free will vs. fate, which is ultimately what any time travel story is dealing with. Oedipus especially comes to mind. Feel free to pick any position you want, but for Heaven's sake explore it fully, and make sure it's SELF CONSISTANT. Nothing breaks emersion quicker than when you violate your own rules.