Post
by iffy » Fri Aug 10, 2018 2:26 pm
Her formative learning appears to have been in Megatokyo and out-of-game (at least non-PS2 style and depending on how you think of MT). In what Ping experienced from the parts she participated in, and then more broadening of horizons as that was extended in scope and participants. She's had multiple users but none in the sense of Princess Maker players. It's clear she already had a lot of data though, but not what it was. Nor do we really know if she is exactly what was made out to be, or if she ended up here simply as a prototype that later turned out to have apparently perhaps gone rogue, even if though no fault of her own. Seemingly. Aside from those things to wonder about, we don't know how she was created, or really even if she was per se created. Certainly there are multiple lines of data that establish she's at some level a machine that can be programmed and tinkered with electronically or emotionally, accidentally or on purpose, by herself, Largo, Ed, Miho, Kimiko, Junko, and now the Foxhole folks. Yet how much of her is made, created, mechanical or biological, and what might be merely outwardly apparent and believed by her or those observing the outward interfaces but not exactly really like it seems.
Still, whatever else Ping appears an excessively-human super-advanced android-computer, but with self-repairing hyper-complex emotional routines that apparently aren't all there or all unlocked. Can she only get certain aspects of herself by learning, and what else was lacking before she learned it? It's no easy task to take plots and characters, combine them, learn from them, and synthesize them into something both new and compelling, as we see even from humans in the many failed productions created every year that are badly done, tired, derivative and/or boring.
As for the impact of Piro and Largo in particular. Maybe not the most impact, but apparently the first. We have of course had quite a long while to observe both of them in many situations. Largo appears to have a better insight into the interrelated internal workings of things, and an inane unbelievable fantastic way of displaying, describing, explaining, implementing them. Which others have picked up upon as mere lunacy or have aligned with to gather. Mostly everyone has fallen to some extent into the second camp. (Although when it comes to work or emotion or interpersonal behaviors, that insight alone isn't enough to fully endear him at all times to any given person.) There are very few that have dismissed him out of hand and refused to interact with him on any level, even if at times (or all the time) his antics are aggravating and annoying to the point of anger. On the other hand, there's Piro. He gives the impression he fairly well understands it all, but is incapable of being wacky about it or even fully accepting any of it. Or at least admitting it out loud to anyone else much of the time.
Maybe it's just better to say that Ping isn't the only thing or person that he has been determined to not accept, that he mostly refuses to be anything but dry and logical about. Or perhaps when it comes to those two, we could just say we have an extreme extrovert and an extreme introvert, and as has been explained before, neither is fully "correct" about how they perceive things in general. When it comes to Ping, both of them have a skewed version of what and how and why she is; Piro treats her as more human in a way, but usually won't engage with her on most anything but a purely technical level, Largo is more friendly and helpful in interacting, but only when it fits his ideas and purposes.
In a way she gets her pick of two suboptimal choices; aloof toleration but no manipulation, more concern yet in a selfish way. Although actually it's a mix of both, and then spends much of her time when she can choose, to be around people like Miho and Junko. Which in a lot of ways being around the females gets a more intimate emotional experience, but in other ways gets somewhat even more extreme versions of the faults of the males. But perhaps the only person who seems the most real, accepting and forgiving is the one that has been doing so with everyone recently, Kimiko, but she hasn't spent much time with Ping aside from such as when she helps her in Chapter 8 starting 938. Which there are certainly exceptions (or certain situations) like in 950 we have Piro consoling and Largo worrying. (Or something like that, however we put it.)
That's okay, she's started taking charge now. Maybe with a little help, she can craft her own path.