general Photos: An actual portal

[Samurai Equine 45,722]

I don't think this counts as a game, more like a fun little discussion. (But if it needs to be moved elsewhere, so be it.)

Imagine every photograph is an actual gateway/portal to a moment in the past.
The photo will take you to that specific moment in time, but you are not limited to what's visible in the photo. You can walk around all over the world. You can use photos to travel to old houses you've lived in, to visit relatives that are no longer with us, to see old technology no one uses anymore, etc.
And yes, ANY photo works. As long as it's not photoshopped or doctored in any extreme way outside of simple things like color-correction or red eye reduction, it'll work. Even photos you found on the internet and printed off at home, those will work too.

But like all good things, there is a catch.
Just like the photo you were looking at, everything is frozen in time. Trapped in that single, solitary moment when the photo was taken. People walking down the street? Birds flying in the air? Cars driving down the road? All of it and everything else, completely frozen.
Further more, you cannot interact with anyone or anything. If you try to talk to someone, they won't respond, because they are stuck in that moment. If you try to grab something or someone, it won't budge. It's frozen in place, so you cannot take it back with you to reality.

EDIT:
I decided to be more forgiving. The real catch is, when you travel inside a photo, you travel to the day when that photo was taken. You can experience that moment in time, but only for 24 hours. Whenever the picture was taken, you can see everything that happened 12 hours before it was taken and 12 hours after before it loops around and plays the same day all over again. Or you can pause the moment completely with everything being completely still and quiet. Your choice. The rest? Not being able to interact with anyone or anything? That remains the same. You are pretty much a ghost while history plays out before you.

And just to make it fun, while you are in the photo's world, you can phase through walls and solid objects. You can travel anywhere you want. Think of like being out of temporal sync with another world, for all you sci-fi lovers. And any sounds or ambient noises you should hear are muted, that way you aren't assaulted with a never-ending cacophony of noise everywhere you go.

The big question is, what do you do with this ability?
Where will you go? What will you do? What do you want to see? Will you take any friends along with you? Would it be awesome if we could do this in real life?
(And if possible, let's avoid any NSFW answers. There are rules here, after all.  )

[Meson Bolt 2,647]

Kinda reminds me of the first Life is Strange game, where you could go back in time and space to where a photo was taken. However, you'd be able to interact with everything and change the future from that moment on.

But this begs the question if you could go to a photo that isn't a photo of our world. Like say, Equestria. Could you go to Equestria?

Anyway, kind of a cool concept, although I don't know what I'd do with that power. Since you can't interact with anything in the photo, what's the point?

[Pentium100 2,056]

2 hours ago, Meson Bolt said:

Since you can't interact with anything in the photo, what's the point?

To look at stuff. NSFW stuff aside, it would probably be possible to film near somebody typing a password (turned away from them, then print the frames as photos, go inside and look.

Also to look at various documents, even behind locked doors (you can pass trough walls).

[TBD 17,228]

My first thought would be “Did I just stepped in a Twilight Zone?”

[Samurai Equine 45,722]

17 hours ago, Meson Bolt said:

But this begs the question if you could go to a photo that isn't a photo of our world. Like say, Equestria. Could you go to Equestria?

Anyway, kind of a cool concept, although I don't know what I'd do with that power. Since you can't interact with anything in the photo, what's the point?

Great questions!  Real glad you asked.

This ability is limited only to actual photographs. Even random screenshots from a cartoon or video game would not work because they might as well just be drawings. But if you have a screencap of a live action movie, you could use that to go to the location where the movie was filmed. The editing and movie magic would disappear, and you'd see what it was actually like while filming, but you could do it. As long as you print off the screencap.

What's the point? Haven't you ever wanted to travel somewhere? With the right photo, you could go instantly to any location in the world, or in space. Just make sure it's not an aerial shot, might make it harder to get back to that specific gateway and go home. 

[Trot Shuffle 3,560]

Is this like Google Street view? That's what pops in my head.

I would just use it to get an idea of a public location's layout before going there for real. It would save me the anxiety and headache.

I may also just use it for a bit of solace if I feel the need to "escape". Photo of a lake, lemme sit by it for a bit if I need some alone time. Something like that.

On 2019-09-26 at 10:24 PM, Samurai Equine said:

And yes, ANY photo works. As long as it's not photoshopped or doctored in any extreme way outside of simple things like color-correction or red eye reduction, it'll work. Even photos you found on the internet and printed off at home, those will work too.

At least we'll know the difference between real vs fake photos 100% of the time this way 

[Clawdeen 12,109]

I’d go back in time and see my sister again. I didn’t understand a lot of what was wrong with her or what was going on back when I was young. She died when I was quite young so…I don’t remember much of her. I can’t think of a specific moment I’d go back to since I don’t…really remember any of them. I seen photos but I just…I don’t remember.

[Samurai Equine 45,722]

I honestly forgot I made this topic, but at least there is still some interest. 

[Sir Hugsalot 8,619]

I would see my grandfather again. He was a wonderful person with golden heart, but not without problems. To make it short, he struggled with drinking.

And he went out of his way so that young me never witnesses that. He took me to church back when I still was a Catholic, he visited me regularly before classes in primary school or sometimes I stayed in his apartment which was literally on the other side of the street where my school was.

He took me for duck feeding, to the woods, enhanced my childhood with his youthful spirit that he kept safe for me despite his struggles.

And to top all that I have an apartment now thanks to him. The very apartment in which he made tea for me before school. And despite being poor and struggling he had money to pay it off completely, giving me only beautiful things and ensuring there are no debts involved. He gave me an easy start affecting my life even many years after he passed away.

 

I just want to hug him for the last time. Hug him and tell him "thank you" even if he wouldn't even know...

[Dreambiscuit 8,022]

I have this photo of Disneyland circa 1957:

This image is currently occupying my laptop homescreen as my wallpaper, and I could stare at it for hours, just imagining what it must have been like to be in my favorite place on earth back when it was at its infancy. I would love to go to that place and time and stroll around the periphery of that photo to see the rest of the place. One thing I always love to make note of (and I’m not sure this is within the rules of this thread) is the smells of the location. Smell is the sense most strongly connected to memory and I would love to take that unique memory home with me. Disneyland has a cacophony if different smells and I’d love to experience that aspect as well as the visual tour. I would also love to see what the people were wearing (most men wore suits and hats, and ladies wore dresses) and that would really put me into that point in history.

 

[Samurai Equine 45,722]

3 hours ago, Dreambiscuit said:

Disneyland has a cacophony if different smells and I’d love to experience that aspect as well as the visual tour. I would also love to see what the people were wearing (most men wore suits and hats, and ladies wore dresses) and that would really put me into that point in history.

 

19 hours ago, Sir Hugsalot said:

I would see my grandfather again. He was a wonderful person with golden heart, but not without problems. To make it short, he struggled with drinking.

[...]

I just want to hug him for the last time. Hug him and tell him "thank you" even if he wouldn't even know...

I've had a long time to think about this fictional scenario after making this thread. So I've changed the conditions.
There is now a 24 hour grace period from when the photo was taken. That way, you can experience the sights, sounds, and smells. You can hear people talk and live in the moment, just no interacting with it.

I hope that would make living in those moments all the more meaningful for you and everyone else who has posted here so far. 

[DubWolf 16,578]

My wallpaper on my phone  .

The ski slope I was skiing on some…. Wow only 8 years ago. Thought it was 10.

Just the First one I can think of.