Do Citizens have Jobs?

[Anasazi]

I was wondering, do the Citizens in HL2 have jobs/ is there any clue towards them having jobs? Let me know what you guys think.

 

[WriterforHire]

This is actually a really good question. Do the Combine actually put the citizens to work, or do they merely allow them to thrive while keeping constant surveilance on them? Well, we know that some citizens can decide to actually join the ranks of the Combine as CPs. Also, someone must have helped create and manufacture Breen's Private Reserve and farmers and other such must still be able to create and make the food that humans eat. So some sort of labor is neccesary.

 

[Officer Combine]

Civil Protection is a job. The humans are the combine's slaves. If there were to be another war I'm pretty sure they would be the main fighters. Like the vorts.

 

[Mech Man]

Well, we know that some citizens can decide to actually join the ranks of the Combine as CPs. Also, someone must have helped create and manufacture Breen's Private Reserve and farmers and other such must still be able to create and make the food that humans eat. So some sort of labor is neccesary.

It has been hinted that the food is dead people or completely synthetic materials.

Spoiler

SOILENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!

If there were to be another war I'm pretty sure they would be the main fighters. Like the vorts.

Uh no , the main fighters would be the overwatch and the synths :dozey:.

 

[Officer Combine]

It has been hinted that the food is dead people or completely synthetic materials.

Spoiler

SOILENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!

Uh no , the main fighters would be the overwatch and the synths :dozey:.

I don't think Black Mesa could have had a strider in it.

Also, in the original concept before children were gone, they were forced to build a...scrapped synth.

 

[WriterforHire]

It has been hinted that the food is dead people or completely synthetic materials.

Spoiler

SOILENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!

Wait. Hold on. Let's back up and reverse here for a second. When has it ever been stated or even half-way implied that the Combine makes humans eat other dead people? Cannabalism? Forced Cannabalism? In a Valve game? I can't see that happening. So I'm hoping your joking.

 

[Officer Combine]

Wait. Hold on. Let's back up and reverse here for a second. When has it ever been stated or even half-way implied that the Combine makes humans eat other dead people? Cannabalism? Forced Cannabalism? In a Valve game? I can't see that happening. So I'm hoping your joking.

Of course there is no hummmannsss...just chickennnns. Jussst beliiieve. beliiieve.

 

[WriterforHire]

Of course there is no hummmannsss...just chickennnns. Jussst beliiieve. beliiieve.

G-Man draws out only Ss. Not Ns, Ms or Is. I think.

 

[Glue]

Well some are forced to become stalkers right? but as you walk through half life 2, people are sitting around...watching breen talk...they seem pretty lazy hehe.

 

[the cow says moo]

What's wrong with putting cannibalism in HL2 as long as they don't show it. They talk about and hint towards mass genocide all the time in the game.

 

[Officer Combine]

G-Man draws out only Ss. Not Ns, Ms or Is. I think.

I was just trying to sound insane.

 

[WriterforHire]

What's wrong with putting cannibalism in HL2 as long as they don't show it. They talk about and hint towards mass genocide all the time in the game.

The thing that bugs me is that I don't think it is in HL2. I don't remember any refrences about it at all. But even if you did manage to prove that such a thing is the case, I would still find it incredibly hard to swallow. The thing about the mass-genocide is that it makes sense: Due to the Portal Storms, the inclusion of Xen Wildlife, the 7 Hour War, and the absoption of Earth's resources, (i.e. the oceans) it's only natural that a lot of people would start dieing. But what purpose does the Combine have in forcing humans to eat one another? The claim was not that the Combine would make them do canablism if a shortage occurs and people start starving, but rather it was their normal diet. Such a unnatural thing would cause all sane humans to instantly despise the Combine, for those few who actually do canabalism only do so when they themselves are starving or as a ritualistic rite. It'll go against their purposes. What man would willingly become a CP knowing that the ones they work for not only took over the planet but is forcing all humans to eat their own kind? Besides logic-issues, the reason why I stated the "In a Valve game?" thing was because I don't think canabalism fits the atmosphere and mood of Half Life. Then again, I could be looking at it with a tinted view since I only recently came across canabalism in Fallout 3. A Fallout 3 is nothing like Half Life.

I was just trying to sound insane.

And I was just trying to sound like a perfectionist. No hard feelings?

 

[coheedswicked]

i don't know about that whole cannibalism thing... btw overwatch and combine are humans... just synth humans and probably would constitute a large force if the combine were to try to invade another world but you can't compare them to vortigaunts because as far as we know the Xen creatures never actually became enslaved to the combine but were running away from them in the 1st game. the vorts were slaves to the nihilanth. as far as jobs go... who knows... seems like the combine make cps, overwatch, and stalkers do everything. maybe they don't trust the general public to work for them and so they just make them live in ghettos like jews and poles during WWII?

 

[the cow says moo]

i don't know about that whole cannibalism thing... btw overwatch and combine are humans... just synth humans and probably would constitute a large force if the combine were to try to invade another world but you can't compare them to vortigaunts because as far as we know the Xen creatures never actually became enslaved to the combine but were running away from them in the 1st game. the vorts were slaves to the nihilanth. as far as jobs go... who knows... seems like the combine make cps, overwatch, and stalkers do everything. maybe they don't trust the general public to work for them and so they just make them live in ghettos like jews and poles during WWII?

As far as we know, there are no synth humans in the series yet. Overwatch are not synths.

 

[LandStander]

I think the reason for cannibalism is because the dead are a ready food source for the living. The combine aren't doing it to be sadistic perse. They are doing it because it is cheap and efficient. No need to grow crops, or raise cattle, or synthesize food. Think the Matrix and how the dead were liquefied and used to sustain the people still alive.
I think I heard about this theory once, but I'm not too sure it is canon.

 

[Officer Combine]

i don't know about that whole cannibalism thing... btw overwatch and combine are humans... just synth humans and probably would constitute a large force if the combine were to try to invade another world but you can't compare them to vortigaunts because as far as we know the Xen creatures never actually became enslaved to the combine but were running away from them in the 1st game. the vorts were slaves to the nihilanth. as far as jobs go... who knows... seems like the combine make cps, overwatch, and stalkers do everything. maybe they don't trust the general public to work for them and so they just make them live in ghettos like jews and poles during WWII?

I said the same: If there were to be another war I'm pretty sure they would be the main fighters. Like the vorts.

The germans feared the jews. I don't think Advisors are scared of silly little depressing humans.

 

[swan_song1973]

i assumed they were slaves, so they probably do anything the combine want them to.

 

[the cow says moo]

i assumed they were slaves, so they probably do anything the combine want them to.

Anything? :naughty:

 

[swan_song1973]

Anything? :naughty:

well...i did say slave.

 

[coheedswicked]

actually there I've heard that there is actually reference to that among the combine radio chatter or something... idk. ive never heard it but it apparently is saying that cp's get certain "rewards" for doing a job wel done or something... and as far as overwatch not being synths... what actually constitutes something being a synth... i mean we know the combine soldiers and elites are enhanced robotically and possibly genetically so thats essentially what the other synths seem to be. a living organism melded with combine technology. although syths have their weapons built into them i guess... so would a stalker be considered a synth? idk. if anyone has an actual definition im all ears

*edit... ok i found it. This video at 3:15
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II5q2iXauq0&NR=1

 

[Tagaziel]

i don't know about that whole cannibalism thing... btw overwatch and combine are humans... just synth humans and probably would constitute a large force if the combine were to try to invade another world but you can't compare them to vortigaunts because as far as we know the Xen creatures never actually became enslaved to the combine but were running away from them in the 1st game. the vorts were slaves to the nihilanth. as far as jobs go... who knows... seems like the combine make cps, overwatch, and stalkers do everything. maybe they don't trust the general public to work for them and so they just make them live in ghettos like jews and poles during WWII?

Only jews lived in ghettos, numnutz.

 

[Anasazi]

actually there I've heard that there is actually reference to that among the combine radio chatter or something... idk. ive never heard it but it apparently is saying that cp's get certain "rewards" for doing a job wel done or something... and as far as overwatch not being synths... what actually constitutes something being a synth... i mean we know the combine soldiers and elites are enhanced robotically and possibly genetically so thats essentially what the other synths seem to be. a living organism melded with combine technology. although syths have their weapons built into them i guess... so would a stalker be considered a synth? idk. if anyone has an actual definition im all ears

*edit... ok i found it. This video at 3:15

Those guys choose to have jobs, I'm talking whether the citizens (blue suit people) do.

 

[Officer Combine]

actually there I've heard that there is actually reference to that among the combine radio chatter or something... idk. ive never heard it but it apparently is saying that cp's get certain "rewards" for doing a job wel done or something... and as far as overwatch not being synths... what actually constitutes something being a synth... i mean we know the combine soldiers and elites are enhanced robotically and possibly genetically so thats essentially what the other synths seem to be. a living organism melded with combine technology. although syths have their weapons built into them i guess... so would a stalker be considered a synth? idk. if anyone has an actual definition im all ears

*edit... ok i found it. This video at 3:15
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II5q2iXauq0&NR=1

Civil Protection officers are humans, but to get promoted, they become synths.

 

[Mech Man]

Wait. Hold on. Let's back up and reverse here for a second. When has it ever been stated or even half-way implied that the Combine makes humans eat other dead people? Cannabalism? Forced Cannabalism? In a Valve game? I can't see that happening. So I'm hoping your joking.

Edit: No I just played through the beginning again and it turns out it is not said there , it may have been said later in the game at the time of the rebellion but I am probably wrong. In fact it may have been in raising the bar but I can't be bothered to look through that again for one tiny quote. But still , looking at it logically why would the combine go through all the trouble of producing new food for every person under their rule when they could recycle the dead bodies? And it is not far fetched at all so I can't possibly see why you think it is.

 

[coheedswicked]

"Only jews lived in ghettos, numnutz."

so hostile jeez back off i meant gypsies.

"Those guys choose to have jobs, I'm talking whether the citizens (blue suit people) do. "

yes i realize this that post was just in response to the post preceding that about sexual rewards among cps

"Civil Protection officers are humans, but to get promoted, they become synths. "

yes i know, i was asking whether combine soldiers, elites, and stalkers would be considered syths or just as Kliener refers to them as "post humans.

 

[Maturin]

In the plaza citizens are going through checkpoint and have special clearance. I think it's safe to assume they all have manufacturing jobs. Notice that the Anticitizen power plant had running machinery.

Valve planned to have children working in factories, but when they jettisoned it became reasonable to guess that the citizens do it. They have to keep them busy to prevent rebellion. Booze and water sedatives only do so much.

 

[Officer Combine]

Originally Gordon, upon arriving, was to be sent to Nova Prospekt. Maybe he was to become a combine.

Edit: By the way, you must wonder what a "non mechanical reproduction" must be like.

 

[Maturin]

I suppose he wasn't to be sent anywhere. Each gate rejected you because you were unregistered.

The way I imagine it, Gman let a registry of relocation applicants fall into Barney's hands, so everyone knew that Gordon was coming, and took the necessary precautions to intercept him. Civil Protection probably would have sent a miscellaneous person to get Stalkerized if they had no orders.

 

[the cow says moo]

I think RTB stated that the combine soldiers were not synths, but there was originally going to be a human synth in the game, but never left the original concept art.

 

[coheedswicked]

Originally Gordon, upon arriving, was to be sent to Nova Prospekt. Maybe he was to become a combine.

Edit: By the way, you must wonder what a "non mechanical reproduction" must be like.

haha. ya. but what about mechanical reproduction... ew. lol

 

[Officer Combine]

I suppose he wasn't to be sent anywhere. Each gate rejected you because you were unregistered.

The way I imagine it, Gman let a registry of relocation applicants fall into Barney's hands, so everyone knew that Gordon was coming, and took the necessary precautions to intercept him. Civil Protection probably would have sent a miscellaneous person to get Stalkerized if they had no orders.

The gate you were going to was the razor train to nova prospekt. Suddenly Barney steps out and saves you.

 

[the cow says moo]

haha. ya. but what about mechanical reproduction... ew. lol

Actually I thought that was kinda kinky.

 

[Maturin]

The gate you were going to was the razor train to nova prospekt. Suddenly Barney steps out and saves you.

Barney says you were about to board the train, but since you don't appear in their records and camera archives, they stopped you from doing just that. The camera triggered an alarm and they blocked your path.

Of course, if Barney hadn't been there, I think they would have shrugged and sent you to the gulag anyway.

 

[coheedswicked]

Of course, if Barney hadn't been there, I think they would have shrugged and sent you to the gulag anyway.

ha. true. nice soviet russia reference btw as well. you never do know what goes on i those gulags.

 

[Maturin]

That's pretty much what Nova Prospekt is, of course. Everything in Half Life 2 is old, rusting Soviet industry and infrastructure, from the junkers with their wheels gone to the graffiti and apartment blocks. I think it's my favorite part of Half Life sometimes.

It would be so much cooler if half the rebels spoke some slavic language.

 

[coheedswicked]

ya i like it as well. or at least slavic accents? but it seems like everyone in c17 is american (except for odessa cubbage but hes not really in the city) so maybe all of the cities are nationally homogeneous?

 

[the cow says moo]

I think the Heavy is City 17's new mascot.

 

[Maturin]

Maybe Black Mesa East had a lot of janitors on extended visa. lol

More likely the Combine shuffled populations around to keep people off balance and so they could suck every drop of moisture from the Hudson River watershed and let New York become a desert. But I'm just BSing now.

 

[WriterforHire]

Edit: No I just played through the beginning again and it turns out it is not said there , it may have been said later in the game at the time of the rebellion but I am probably wrong. In fact it may have been in raising the bar but I can't be bothered to look through that again for one tiny quote. But still , looking at it logically why would the combine go through all the trouble of producing new food for every person under their rule when they could recycle the dead bodies? And it is not far fetched at all so I can't possibly see why you think it is.

The reason why I think its far fetched is not because I can't see the Combine doing such a thing, because I easily can, but because I can't even halfway remember a single refrence to canabalism at all. You would think that would be a HUGE thing for the rebels. They can simply state, "Fight against the Combine. They don't value human life! They've forced us to eat fellow humans for years!" It's pratically a death sentence, since most humans do not take kindly to the thought of canablism at all, and the Combine must adhere to public opinion to some degree, at least if they want to prevent a open, widespread revolt. (Yes. I realize they haven't done a great job on that part.) Even in the Matrix example, the ones who drank it couldn't possibly know it was other liquidfied humans unless someone told them it was so. But, in the end, until someone shows me a line from the game stating such, its seems like wild speculation to me. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

[coheedswicked]

ya ive never heard that referenced anywhere either