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# Why are Runners illegal?

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# Why are Runners illegal?

OompaMyLoompaa
✭14 posts
June 27, 2016 11:05PM
The Runner service offers a way to deliver sensitive documents and packages away from the prying eyes of the Conglomerate. But if there is any reason for the contents of these deliveries to be unseen by the Conglomerate, isn't this a bad thing? They could potentially be carrying something that harms other people.
If it wasn't something that harms other people, why can't being a Runner be an official position on the Grid? Instead of working as an employ for a Corporation, Runners are freelance workers providing a fast way to deliver your packages. That's all Runners do -- so there is no need for the Conglomerate to act hostile towards them.

## Comments

- Bird_Of_Faith
  162 posts ✭
  June 28, 2016 12:31AM
  Runners are burglarers, they don't just deliver packages, they also steal data from corporations by infaltrating into a corporate buildings. This data can be sold by the runners, and then they get scrip, which is practically runner currency. And since the conglomerate wants full control over all, they label runners as bad since they are off the grid and don't accept the horrific rule that the conglomerate has over Glass and Cascadia. In reality the runners are good since they are the protagonists in the story, but there is a whole backstory to why the conglomerate is bad.
- tinypanmilk
  130 posts ✭
  June 28, 2016 1:12AM
  A lot of the packages runners deliver are harmful to the conglomerate too. For example, there's a mission in Catalyst where you have to deliver a vial of medicine that will help the OutCastes in the Greylands. The conglomerate doesn't want to help the people in the Greylands, that's the point of them being out there, so anybody engaging in an activity that's going to provide them help (or anybody the conglomerate deems undeserving of help) is going to be considered and promoted as bad. As Bird_Of_Faith said, really the runners are good, but it's a corrupt government dystopia thing.
- Pure_Majestic
  36 posts ✭
  June 28, 2016 2:48AM
  Also to add - The runners are off the grid which is illegal because all employs must have a valid grid print. As already mentioned the conglomerate wants full control of all it's citizens lives, so being off the grid and not belonging to a corporation makes them considered leeches.
- FaithConnors
  133 posts ✭
  June 28, 2016 3:29AM
  Yeah they don't want any leeches subjugating the process.
  "Yeah yeah I'm sure the birds are real impressed Faith, but once you're done showing off think you might concentrate on some actual work?!!" - Merc
- OompaMyLoompaa
  14 posts ✭
  June 28, 2016 6:32PM edited June 2016

  > Bird_Of_Faith wrote: »
  > Runners are burglarers, they don't just deliver packages, they also steal data from corporations by infaltrating into a corporate buildings. This data can be sold by the runners, and then they get scrip, which is practically runner currency. And since the conglomerate wants full control over all, they label runners as bad since they are off the grid and don't accept the horrific rule that the conglomerate has over Glass and Cascadia. In reality the runners are good since they are the protagonists in the story, but there is a whole backstory to why the conglomerate is bad.

  How is breaking in to a corporate building and stealing data a good thing? That seems like they're stirring up trouble to me. If someone broke in to the Apple headquarters to steal the new iPhone design so they could sell it, that seems like there is a valid reason to punish the Runners.
  Why is the Conglomerate's rule over Glass and Cascadia so horrible? Isn't it nearly identical to how our society is run? Just like Cascadia, in society, there is an upper class like the hiCaste, a middle class like the midCaste, and a lower class like the loCaste. I'm not sure about an outCaste though, whatever crimes you commit, you're a human being and you are still a part of society. People are registered just like employs are connected to the Grid, and to make a living, people work. What is the problem with that?
  Gabriel Kruger and K-Sec killing Runners and Faith's parents needs to be stopped, but overthrowing the Conglomerate is something I don't understand.
- Pure_Majestic
  36 posts ✭
  June 28, 2016 7:25PM edited June 2016

  > OompaMyLoompaa wrote: »
  > How is breaking in to a corporate building and stealing data a good thing? That seems like they're stirring up trouble to me. If someone broke in to the Apple headquarters to steal the new iPhone design so they could sell it, that seems like there is a valid reason to punish the Runners.
  > Why is the Conglomerate's rule over Glass and Cascadia so horrible? Isn't it nearly identical to how our society is run? Just like Cascadia, in society, there is an upper class like the hiCaste, a middle class like the midCaste, and a lower class like the loCaste. I'm not sure about an outCaste though, whatever crimes you commit, you're a human being and you are still a part of society. People are registered just like employs are connected to the Grid, and to make a living, people work. What is the problem with that?
  > Gabriel Kruger and K-Sec killing Runners and Faith's parents needs to be stopped, but overthrowing the Conglomerate is something I don't understand.

  Umm.. I think they did mean that it's a bad thing and that's why the runners are illegal but the runners are the good guy's because of how bad the conglomerate is lol
  As for why the conglomerate is bad....
  The Conglomerate controls EVERY aspect of it's employ's lives and monitors them 24/7 which is pretty intrusive. They even control what food they can eat (during the covert missions you help deliver out-lawed foods). The new's station and the city's other sources of information are slanted to paint what every picture the Conglomerate want's to show and no one can have any say. The employ's have Ad's running at all times on the grid links and are basically property of their corporation.
  The Conglomerate also say's that anyone can rise to the top because it is a free market but really only the elites are there because after the riot's they took all the top spots for themselves and aren't so keen on letting other have them making it so the low-mid castes can't really rise and they become pawns in the hands of the elites who are basically dictators guiseing as normal leaders.
  Another reason is K-sec rules with and iron fist jailing, exiling, and even executeing people for any reason it seems fit with no trial or a chance to defend themselves. They also have to qualms about doing deadly testing on people the led's to
  lot's of deaths (so can see the body bags on the kingdom mission)
  and murdering and torchuring people for information.
  And the greylands where they send lots of poor people and "policy breakers" for basically forced slave labor in food domes and other things. If you listen during the delivery missions and such you will hear people say that the outcastes are starving and dying from and flurry of diseases because the city (or cities maybe) take everything for themselves while resources are wearing thin but the Conglomerate will fully turns a blind eye and does not care to inform it's puppet citizens about the horrors going on in the greylands.
  they do all that and much more... so i'd say the conglomerate is pretty bad
- tinypanmilk
  130 posts ✭
  June 28, 2016 10:12PM

  > OompaMyLoompaa wrote: »

  > > Bird_Of_Faith wrote: »
  > > Runners are burglarers, they don't just deliver packages, they also steal data from corporations by infaltrating into a corporate buildings. This data can be sold by the runners, and then they get scrip, which is practically runner currency. And since the conglomerate wants full control over all, they label runners as bad since they are off the grid and don't accept the horrific rule that the conglomerate has over Glass and Cascadia. In reality the runners are good since they are the protagonists in the story, but there is a whole backstory to why the conglomerate is bad.

  > How is breaking in to a corporate building and stealing data a good thing? That seems like they're stirring up trouble to me. If someone broke in to the Apple headquarters to steal the new iPhone design so they could sell it, that seems like there is a valid reason to punish the Runners.
  > Why is the Conglomerate's rule over Glass and Cascadia so horrible? Isn't it nearly identical to how our society is run? Just like Cascadia, in society, there is an upper class like the hiCaste, a middle class like the midCaste, and a lower class like the loCaste. I'm not sure about an outCaste though, whatever crimes you commit, you're a human being and you are still a part of society. People are registered just like employs are connected to the Grid, and to make a living, people work. What is the problem with that?
  > Gabriel Kruger and K-Sec killing Runners and Faith's parents needs to be stopped, but overthrowing the Conglomerate is something I don't understand.

  Stealing data is definitely punishable, but the runners and Black November also have reason to question and eventually attempt to overthrow the Conglomerate. They monitor everything the civilians do, outlaw ridiculous things, severely punish civilians who do anything wrong, constantly advertise and control what civilians are consuming, and even
  try to control their emotions and decisions via Reflection
  . Obviously a lot of the behavior of the runners and rebels is against the law and understandably punishable, but when we learn about what the Conglomerate are doing, we can argue that there is certainly fair reason to take action against them.
- Bird_Of_Faith
  162 posts ✭
  June 29, 2016 12:43AM
  Read up on the website about the conglomerate and then you'll understand. The conglomerate is not good, never has been and never will be, with
  Reflection
  in the works, the conglomerate just wants rule over every citizen. This is opression, im sure you know this, but runners are a like a group who want to get back at the conglomerate for what they've done to the city and its inhabitants.
  Reflection is literally a new way to tap into the grid and it controls everything in your life, to thoughts, to health levels Ect.
  as tinypanmilk has stated.

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