"Suprise, m$#%@-f#%a!"
Westworld, Futureworld, and Beyond Westworld are a series of movies and a short-lived TV series set on a mixed-themed adult amusement park called Delos, with android actors as its attraction. In Westworld, Delos featured three parks: Westworld - a spaghetti western theme park; Medievalworld - a semi-historical Medieval Europe theme park; and Romanworld - a semi-historical pre-Christian Rome theme park. After the events of the first movie (an android cowboy malfunctions and kills staffers and guests), Westworld is abandoned and replaced by Futureworld, which simulates an orbiting space station. The TV series Beyond Westworld, revolved around an evil scientist with plans to use the robots in Delos to try to take over the world. The androids in Delos are build with a balance between the ease of maintenance and level of social interaction, with the former being used as stock extras and the latter being the most human-like. They are mechanical constructs with rubber-skin, and wires and circuits for "guts". (Essentially, they are Basic Androids from Mutant Future.)
The more recent HBO series, Westworld, is separate from what came before it. Unlike the classic movies and series, the reboot series focuses more on the robotic "Hosts", and weaves a more complex story that explores human nature and existence, with a number of unfolding mysteries. Not to mention all the gratuitous sex, violence and nudity that comes with an HBO production. Although they once mechanical, the Hosts currently have highly realistic synthetic bodies that emulate a lot of biological functions making them hard to tell apart from guests. Each and every Host possess a complex A.I. network with an "Attribute Matrix" that is used to adjust their artificial personalities.
Westworld Scenario[]
As a Mutant Future scenario, a "Westworld" would be an adventure site based around an old amusement theme-park where costumed androids continue to act out their per-programed identities. They may or may not be aware of their false state of being. There maybe those who are so immersed in the simulation, they can be dangerous to anyone acting out of costume or not in costume. There maybe those who gained enough self-awareness to figure that there is not something right, and might act beyond their programing.
The "theme" could be anything, form historical periods, to fictional settings and genre. The end result would be a fabricated enviroment and community that contrasts with the surrounding wasteland. This enviroment can be full of mysteries, dangers, treasures, as well as an opportunity to engage in some interesting storytelling.
Examples of Westworlds in Fiction[]
- In Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth, Kamandi finds himself in Chicagoland, a themed park full of mobsters, lawmen and speakeasies.
- Star Trek features a number of worlds built around specific historical Earth eras — they are typically called "Planet of Hats" by fans, as the inhabitants usually sport Jerry-helmits (the Nazi planet), Centenarian Helmets (the Roman planet) or fedoras (the mobster plant and possibly the hipster plant — but they were sporting the fedoras before the mob plant made it hip). In fact, the Holodeck form Star Trek: The Next Generation was created to accommodate these scenarios. (Holodecks are the vary apex of what Delos was striding for in Westworld.)
- In Stargate Infinity (an animated version of Stargate SG1), had an alien-built museum designed to simulate a number major Earth governments up to the American Revolution. In this scenario, the exhibits are at war, with Julius Caesar of Rome and Napoleon Bonaparte of France being the major two factions.
- The Stepford Wives is a 1950's-stlyed gated community that replaces their normal wives with android or cyborg replicas. (Although, the premise and horror presented in The Stepford Wives was about the fear of women loosing their rights in the Women's Lib era of the '70s, and a general comparison of the post-war domestic life as form of Disneyland -- a facade of domestic bliss.)