The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

[Clonus]

Re: The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

 

I'm pretty sure the existence of miracle-working "deities"' date=' "angels", "demons", etc. would have an impact on organized religion and theology, which in turn would have some effect on day-to-day life for congregants.[/quote']

 

It might if it appeared in isolation. But if it appeared along with Warren Worthington, Storm and Doc Samson, how is one to tell the "genuine" manifestations from the people who are just vaguely reminiscent of the divine?

 

 

I'm also pretty sure the confirmed existence of extraterrestrial intelligent life would have an impact on government, religion and society as well.

 

Starting in the 15th century cultures all over Earth started becoming aware of the existence of a more technologically advanced "alien" culture. How many of them were notably changed simply by knowing that Europe existed?

[Susano]

Re: The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

 

A bit like Torg and how its Storm Knights can carry the laws of their own Reality along with them?

 

I think Godlike is a little like this too but don't quote me.

 

Yes, supers in Godlike exert their will over reality. Which is why one super can stop another super's power in some situations.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

 

Wow' date=' that could get weird. Using your superpowers to divert a lava flow from a volcano that suddenly became active causes a hurricane in another universe. That universe's supers evacuate people in its path, and haul a few ships out of harm's way for good measure, causing a tidal wave in another universe. The supers there disperse the energy of the wave into the ocean, causing a volcano in our world to suddenly erupt....[/quote']

 

And this, my friends, is called Unluck.

[Mike W]

Re: The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

 

...to me, is not:

1. Magic is real and talented people can learn how to wield it.

2. The existence of other-dimensional entities (some of them calling themselves gods, possibly including those of monotheistic faiths) is real, and known to a large number of people.

3. Superhumans exist, in the hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands and many of them are capable of defeating powerful military hardware with ease.

4. Supervillains exist, and many of them engage in fairly mundane criminal activity such as bank robbery.

5. Supertech exists, and in some cases may be up to hundreds of years more advanced than real-world 2008 tech.

6. Extraterrestrials(and sometimes other terrestrial sentient races) exist, are often physically or mentally superior to humans, are almost always technologically and militarily far superior, are often hostile and sometimes friendly, have not-infrequent contact with humanity, and in most instances their existence is known to the general public.

7. Psionic powers exist and there are many people capable of reading and controlling minds, but no widespread safeguards exist.

8. There is a small but very real possibility that one may have a mutant child who will develop some major paranormal ability.

9. The laws of physics are bent and broken routinely, up to and including time travel, creating matter from nothingness, resurrecting the dead, skyscraper sized monsters stomping around, altering reality, etc.

10. It's possible for a human to train themselves to near-superhuman levels and compete with superhumans in combat.

 

No, none of these is the most unbelievable to me. To me, the most unbelievable trope is:

A. That none of the above has much actual impact or effect on the life/lifestyle/day to day existence of the average human being, even those in paranormal-rich environments.

 

Questions:

For those who consider this trope necessary or useful, why is it so, and to what extent?

For those who have fully or partially discarded this trope, how has doing so altered society in your campaign setting?

 

I'll post my own answers and speculations later, but I just had this on my mind today, and wanted to get a lively discussion going.

 

I think the trope is necessary to maintain a positive/upbeat campaign view. If humans are basically constantly at war, or forced to cower in their homes to avoid uberbeings or even deal with being victimized by them a few times a year as the next super conqueror comes along and enslaves whole populations, it ceases being fantasy and becomes very dark, gritty almost Hobbesian stuff where man's lot is pain and there is a large dose of "humans are basically evil" since even the well intentioned tend to do more harm than good.

[assault]

Re: The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

 

The key problem with all this stuff is: continuity.

 

To put it simply, before the 1960s, none of this stuff was a problem, because superbeings were extremely rare. Basically, every superhero lived in a mostly separate universe, with only loose connections to those occupied by other characters published by the same company.

 

The most connected characters were probably the JSA in the Golden Age, and Batman and Superman in the pages of World's Finest. Even these mostly functioned in their own little worlds.

 

Furthermore, even within a particular character's world, "continuity" was fluid. In particular, a lot of Superman stories from the early 50s were ignored, and many of their plots reused(!), in the late 50s. His continuity, in effect, was rebooted. (This was related to Mort Weisinger receiving full editorial control over the character.)

 

It has to be admitted, though, that even this limited continuity was subject to many of the issues raised in this thread. Partly, this was dealt with as being something looming in the future. Remember, this period was the beginning of the "Space Age". In Superman's continuity, humanity was, indeed, on the brink of expanding into space under their own steam. Everyone was content for Superman to only play a hands-off role in that.

 

In Batman's continuity, to the extent that it was separate from Superman's, none of this was an issue. (Batman was, however, involved in a lot of Science Fiction-y plots at the time. These ended when his continuity was rebooted in 1964.)

 

The degree to which these factors applied also varied in other characters' continuities.

 

The problem really didn't emerge until Marvel made a big deal of having a single consistent continuity. Even there it wasn't a problem at first, but eventually the accumulated weight of characters and events, and the emergence of fandom, made the situation too difficult to ignore.

 

My instincts are to go back to the early DC model. It's amusing to try to write huge backstories for a game universe, but it rarely serves much useful purpose. On the other hand, once multiple PCs exist, the setting would tend to look more like something like early Marvel, or the early days of the JLA. That's fine by me. Things won't necessarily collapse under the weight of their own logic that way.

[megaplayboy]

Re: The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

 

 

It might if it appeared in isolation. But if it appeared along with Warren Worthington, Storm and Doc Samson, how is one to tell the "genuine" manifestations from the people who are just vaguely reminiscent of the divine?

 

 

 

 

Starting in the 15th century cultures all over Earth started becoming aware of the existence of a more technologically advanced "alien" culture. How many of them were notably changed simply by knowing that Europe existed?

 

 

I think the average low-information citizen, especially one with deep religious beliefs, is going to have a definite reaction to winged men flying around saving lives and doing good deeds.

 

I'd say those cultures were changed quite a bit. Some of them opened themselves up to trade, in order to advance their own societies, and some of them became more hostile and xenophobic.

[Vondy]

Re: The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

 

 

 

I think the average low-information citizen, especially one with deep religious beliefs, is going to have a definite reaction to winged men flying around saving lives and doing good deeds.

 

I'd say those cultures were changed quite a bit. Some of them opened themselves up to trade, in order to advance their own societies, and some of them became more hostile and xenophobic.

 

Your statement presupposes those cultures have views of angels and divinity that are analogous to those that emerged in christian europe, which is where I start to disagree with you. While most westerners, inlcuding modern secular westerners, from christian cultures (or historically christian cultures) have a general conception of these things that play into your point of view, those conceptions are unique to christian laity or those so disenfranchized from their own non-christian mother cultures that they don't know the difference. They don't necessarily play into the understandings of educated christians dating back at least to Thomas Aquinas [who quoted Miamanodies on these issues, incidentally]; or the other Abrahamic faiths, let alone the worlds other faiths and cultures.

 

Another thing to consider is the staggering difference in literacy - both in the vernacular and holy languages - between christian, islamic, and Jewish laity prior to the enlightenment era. Europe stunned the world with its ascendency after 1500 or so and deserves accolades for its impressive quauntitative and technological leaps, but prior to that it was filled with [and I overstate somwhat to make a point] illiterate barbarians with a strange notion of things. I don't know enough about Islam to speak for their point of view in these matters, but I can prove textually that by the period of the early psalms and prophets Judaism conceived of angels as being the product of vision and prophecy and not in any way conceived of as physical beings - and some of the language in the pentateuch surrounding angles has an allegorical character as well, which supports the notion it was always so. This doesn't take into account the writings from the talmudic era where the notion of allegory in all of hebrew scripture is discussed ad infinitum, or the medieval period onward.

 

And, Jewish cultural and religious literacy - let alone hebrew literacy - was very high throughout the middle ages, so the average devoutly religious layman was, even if "information-low" and only familiar with scriptural commentaries [either through reading them or being preached to from them], was indoctrinated into a point of view very different than his christian neighbors. I bring this up to counter the notion that the average low-information religious layman was coming from a similiar place or would make similiar assumptions about these things. In fact, its the advent of the modern era that has seen a significant decline in Jewish literacy, spurred on by the massive toll the holocaust took among religious Jewry. It was disproportionate and impacted the devoutly religious because they tended to remain clustered together. For the past sixty years, Jewish literacy has been significantly lower than it was in the middle ages. But, the culturally illiterate in our era tend to be assimilated (or assimilating), anyways.

 

Basically, I'm suggesting that your point of view - and this is an observation and not a criticism - is a projection of your own cultural assumptions about these matters onto other cultures [and faiths] and that your assumptions about how these cultures would react to the emergence of physical facsimiles of angelic beings may be incorrect. Their vast wholly temporal power may not be as persuasive on non-christian liaity as you think - the quantitative seeing is believing mind-set is a product of the enlightenment and science, not the historical continuity of biblical faith, and the nature of the manisfestation you gave as a postulate is unique to the weltenshuuang of chistian laity and not those faiths who believe in angels en toto. I do not comment on non-abrahamic faiths that have similiar imagery (Divas for instance), because I am not competent to do so.

 

Essentially, and this is my entire point: I find the assumption that the sudden emergence of such beings where they never existed before would automatically result in "us heathens" ( ) accepting that the cosmological order of things had suddenly and inexplicably changed to a medieival christological vision wholly alien to our own divergent comprehension of such things suspect at best. It could happen, I suppose, but having the relatively uncommon perspective of one who has lived on two sides of this cultural [and linguistic] fence I know from experience and study that there is a greater cultural, theological, philosophical, historical, and emotional gulf between the Judeo and Christian in Judeo-Christian than most westerners would ordinarily surmise.

 

Personally, I try not to assume too much about cultures I haven't directly experienced for myself, let alone been a participant in, would perceive such events. Its a sticky-wicket at best.

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

 

(See his post above for details).

 

I'd rep you Von D-Man, but it seems I must spread some around before I may. Could someone get this guy?

 

It is a common trope, especially in popular media that religious belief equals a lack of critical reasoning and a vulnerability to any authority figure who claims divine inspiration. Bull.

 

It is also widely understood within most Christian sects that angels do not, in fact, have wings. They are, by most biblical accounts, indistinguishable from ordinary humans unless they are manifesting some supernatural ability. In the story of Sodom and Gomorra, for example, the angels who visited Lot to warn him of impending doom had the appearasnce of comely/handsome men. Nobody mistook them for heavenly agents until they struck blind the crowd of men who wanted to "know" them.

 

I doubt there would be a significant upturn in church attendance just because some guy with wings claims to be an avenging angel. Rather, I suspect that any sort of claim to divinity or divine origin would be met with more than a little skepticism. "Angel of light, huh? Let's see some credentials."

[Susano]

Re: The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

 

I will point out that several cultures do have winged humans in their... ahhh... let's just call it folklore and mythology. Most of them are considered divine agents of some sort, except for those who are considered fantastical races of men from the fringes of the known world (old Chinese atlases are good for this).

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

 

I will point out that several cultures do have winged humans in their... ahhh... let's just call it folklore and mythology. Most of them are considered divine agents of some sort' date=' except for those who are considered fantastical races of men from the fringes of the known world (old Chinese atlases are good for this).[/quote']

 

I still stand by my assertion that most people (not all, I'm not stupid ) would greet claims of divinity or divine origin with healthy skepticism.

[nexus]

Re: The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

 

It is also widely understood within most Christian sects that angels do not, in fact, have wings.

 

Are you talking about among the clergy of those sects or the lay people? I think and have experienced that many people of Christian faith do associate a "winged human, especially with a halo" with the concept of angel. There is a allot of misunderstanding and interpretation among Christians, just like any other sect. Not everyone has deep understanding of their own religion, odd as that might seem. I do think a being that looked like a divine figure would win popularity among the masses while the clergy would be dubious at best.

[nexus]

Re: The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

 

Yes' date=' supers in Godlike exert their will over reality. Which is why one super can stop another super's power in some situations.[/quote']

 

Thanks, much appreciated.

[Vondy]

Re: The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

 

 

It is also widely understood within most Christian sects that angels do not, in fact, have wings. They are, by most biblical accounts, indistinguishable from ordinary humans unless they are manifesting some supernatural ability. In the story of Sodom and Gomorra, for example, the angels who visited Lot to warn him of impending doom had the appearasnce of comely/handsome men. Nobody mistook them for heavenly agents until they struck blind the crowd of men who wanted to "know" them.

 

I doubt there would be a significant upturn in church attendance just because some guy with wings claims to be an avenging angel. Rather, I suspect that any sort of claim to divinity or divine origin would be met with more than a little skepticism. "Angel of light, huh? Let's see some credentials."

 

Interestingly, you cited one of the few instances of angels in the bible that seems to give them concrete form that someone other than a prophet or saintly individual seems to see (the sodomites). The whole winged angel idea comes into play with the visions of the prophets and the cherubs on the arc. When they appear to men they appear as men, and often the language in hebrew is such that they could be the product of a vision rather than an actual manifestation of some sort. Some of the same language is used when abraham and lot see the angels, but the sodomites see them, too. What's interesting is that in hebrew the language of that case is somewhat more difficult than in translation. In hebrew it says they stretched out their hands and the men were struck blind - and the sentence structure is odd. As such, it can be rendered two ways in english: 1) they stretched out their hands and struck the men down [themselves], or 2) they stretched out their hands and the men were struck blind [by God]. The same language is used by Moses at the splitting of the sea. God tells Moses "stretch out your hand and I will split..."

[Susano]

Re: The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

 

I still stand by my assertion that most people (not all' date=' I'm not [i']stupid[/i] ) would greet claims of divinity or divine origin with healthy skepticism.

 

That wasn't what I saw saying. I was simply making an addendum to Von D-Man's post.

[Vondy]

Re: The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

 

Are you talking about among the clergy of those sects or the lay people? I think and have experienced that many people of Christian faith do associate a "winged human' date=' especially with a halo" with the concept of angel. There is a allot of misunderstanding and interpretation among Christians, just like any other sect. Not everyone has deep understanding of their own religion, odd as that might seem. I do think a being that looked like a divine figure would win popularity among the masses while the clergy would be dubious at best.[/quote']

 

The question here is what impact does the iconography of christianity have in relation to its actual teachings on the subject? I assume a lot, which is one reason iconography is verboten in Judaism outside the singular case of the Ark, but educated christian laymen - and some christian sects push education more than others - have been exposed to Thomas Aquinas' view, which has shaped most christian dogma on the subject since the enlightenment (even if they don't know the view is that of Aquinus). I have met a lot of Christians, however, who have formed their views based on inconography alone, and this seems doubly true of cultural christians who are not dedicated to their faith. The problem is, that's entirely anectdotal, and forming an accurate impression without a massive survey on the subject is very difficult. As for looking "angelic" for PR purposes it probably wouldn't hurt.

[megaplayboy]

Re: The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

 

Your statement presupposes those cultures have views of angels and divinity that are analogous to those that emerged in christian europe' date=' which is where I start to disagree with you. While most westerners, inlcuding modern secular westerners, from christian cultures (or historically christian cultures) have a general conception of these things that play into your point of view, those conceptions [i']are unique to christian laity[/i] or those so disenfranchized from their own non-christian mother cultures that they don't know the difference. They don't necessarily play into the understandings of educated christians dating back at least to Thomas Aquinas [who quoted Miamanodies on these issues, incidentally]; or the other Abrahamic faiths, let alone the worlds other faiths and cultures.

 

Another thing to consider is the staggering difference in literacy - both in the vernacular and holy languages - between christian, islamic, and Jewish laity prior to the enlightenment era. Europe stunned the world with its ascendency after 1500 or so and deserves accolades for its impressive quauntitative and technological leaps, but prior to that it was filled with [and I overstate somwhat to make a point] illiterate barbarians with a strange notion of things. I don't know enough about Islam to speak for their point of view in these matters, but I can prove textually that by the period of the early psalms and prophets Judaism conceived of angels as being the product of vision and prophecy and not in any way conceived of as physical beings - and some of the language in the pentateuch surrounding angles has an allegorical character as well, which supports the notion it was always so. This doesn't take into account the writings from the talmudic era where the notion of allegory in all of hebrew scripture is discussed ad infinitum, or the medieval period onward.

 

And, Jewish cultural and religious literacy - let alone hebrew literacy - was very high throughout the middle ages, so the average devoutly religious layman was, even if "information-low" and only familiar with scriptural commentaries [either through reading them or being preached to from them], was indoctrinated into a point of view very different than his christian neighbors. I bring this up to counter the notion that the average low-information religious layman was coming from a similiar place or would make similiar assumptions about these things. In fact, its the advent of the modern era that has seen a significant decline in Jewish literacy, spurred on by the massive toll the holocaust took among religious Jewry. It was disproportionate and impacted the devoutly religious because they tended to remain clustered together. For the past sixty years, Jewish literacy has been significantly lower than it was in the middle ages. But, the culturally illiterate in our era tend to be assimilated (or assimilating), anyways.

 

Basically, I'm suggesting that your point of view - and this is an observation and not a criticism - is a projection of your own cultural assumptions about these matters onto other cultures [and faiths] and that your assumptions about how these cultures would react to the emergence of physical facsimiles of angelic beings may be incorrect. Their vast wholly temporal power may not be as persuasive on non-christian liaity as you think - the quantitative seeing is believing mind-set is a product of the enlightenment and science, not the historical continuity of biblical faith, and the nature of the manisfestation you gave as a postulate is unique to the weltenshuuang of chistian laity and not those faiths who believe in angels en toto. I do not comment on non-abrahamic faiths that have similiar imagery (Divas for instance), because I am not competent to do so.

 

Essentially, and this is my entire point: I find the assumption that the sudden emergence of such beings where they never existed before would automatically result in "us heathens" ( ) accepting that the cosmological order of things had suddenly and inexplicably changed to a medieival christological vision wholly alien to our own divergent comprehension of such things suspect at best. It could happen, I suppose, but having the relatively uncommon perspective of one who has lived on two sides of this cultural [and linguistic] fence I know from experience and study that there is a greater cultural, theological, philosophical, historical, and emotional gulf between the Judeo and Christian in Judeo-Christian than most westerners would ordinarily surmise.

 

Personally, I try not to assume too much about cultures I haven't directly experienced for myself, let alone been a participant in, would perceive such events. Its a sticky-wicket at best.

 

 

huh?

 

I was talking about how the average churchgoing-man-in-the-street(the American street) might react to beautiful winged beings fighting evildoers

and perhaps even healing the sick. In the real world we have people believing in faith healing, and that the rapture will come in their lifetime--to say that they might be susceptible to believing in the divine origin of "angels" is just a touch of an understatement, imo. In a setting where there's no one particular "power source" for superpowers, claims of divine empowerment might be equally difficult to prove or disprove.

 

The other part dealt with how society might react to knowledge of the existence of technologically superior races of extraterrestrial beings. I was not commenting on how non-US cultures might respond to the appearance of celestial, immortal, infernal, and quasi-supernatural beings.

[FenrisUlf]

Re: The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

 

I'd rep you Von D-Man, but it seems I must spread some around before I may. Could someone get this guy?

 

 

Got him for you.

 

It is also widely understood within most Christian sects that angels do not' date=' in fact, have wings. They are, by most biblical accounts, indistinguishable from ordinary humans unless they are manifesting some supernatural ability. In the story of Sodom and Gomorra, for example, the angels who visited Lot to warn him of impending doom had the appearasnce of comely/handsome men. Nobody mistook them for heavenly agents until they struck blind the crowd of men who wanted to "know" them.[/quote']

 

Yes, but sometimes the angels didn't look like anything human. They looked like clouds of fire, or terrible beasts, or something that dounds like a black hole, at least to me ("a darkness that consumed all light" was the description).

 

I doubt there would be a significant upturn in church attendance just because some guy with wings claims to be an avenging angel. Rather' date=' I suspect that any sort of claim to divinity or divine origin would be met with more than a little skepticism. "Angel of light, huh? Let's see some credentials."[/quote']

 

That's my opinion too. Especially if said "angel" or deity started up with opinions that contradicted the faith as taught and understood. To take a non-Christian example, if someone saying that he was the Afro-Carribbean deity Ogun started saying that animal sacrifice was no longer required, I doubt that many vodounistas and santeros would immediatly throw their sacrificial knife out with the garbage.

 

Add in criminal or just deceitful metahumans posing as deities, angels, loa or whatever, and anyone doing the "I'm from God! No, really! Just look at my big feathery wings!" would probably be met with considerable suspicion.

[FenrisUlf]

Re: The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

 

I have met a lot of Christians' date=' however, who have formed their views based on inconography alone, and this seems doubly true of cultural christians who are not dedicated to their faith... As for looking "angelic" for PR purposes it probably wouldn't hurt.[/quote']

 

Sadly true, but I think we're drifting rather far from the topic at hand.

[nexus]

Re: The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

 

I think a super that seemed like a divine being could, at the very least, start a cult fairly easily. All manner of goofballs and charlatans have gathered "flocks" that worship them like divine or semi divine beings without having supernatural powers or unusual looks at all.

[FenrisUlf]

Re: The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

 

The other part dealt with how society might react to knowledge of the existence of technologically superior races of extraterrestrial beings.

 

Much might depend on the ability of one of these said exiled/stranded aliens to replicate their technology. Now I get the picture of a caon man running a scheme in world where aliens are known to exist, pretending to be one while he lines up investors for his perpetual motion device or gasoline pill...

[megaplayboy]

Re: The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

 

Much might depend on the ability of one of these said exiled/stranded aliens to replicate their technology. Now I get the picture of a caon man running a scheme in world where aliens are known to exist' date=' pretending to be one while he lines up investors for his perpetual motion device or gasoline pill...[/quote']

 

I think there's a little too much focus on the "technologically superior" part, and not enough on the "alien" part, in terms of which part would trigger a stronger reaction in the average comic book citizen.

[Clonus]

Re: The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

 

 

I think the average low-information citizen, especially one with deep religious beliefs, is going to have a definite reaction to winged men flying around saving lives and doing good deeds.

 

Yes but will that change their day to day lives? Will skeptics stop being skeptical, and will the devout change their routine?

 

 

I'd say those cultures were changed quite a bit. Some of them opened themselves up to trade, in order to advance their own societies, and some of them became more hostile and xenophobic

 

But comic book aliens do not trade with Earth to any significant degree either because they don't have the concept of trade, or because Earth is such a dirthole that the only worth taking from it is superhumans. Note of course that Marvel Universe Americans are in fact more hostile and xenophobic than those of the three dimensional world.

[Balabanto]

Re: The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

 

I just ordered my copy

 

That's almost as bad as what I thought I saw in a Starbucks the other day. It actually read "Elephant Ojinha"

 

I thought, in a moment of blurriness, that it read "Elephant Ninja!"

 

I still have no idea what I was thinking, or why.

[nexus]

Re: The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

 

I'd like to thank you for inspiring my next TMNT character.

[megaplayboy]

Re: The most unbelievable trope in the superhero genre...

 

 

 

 

Yes but will that change their day to day lives? Will skeptics stop being skeptical, and will the devout change their routine?

 

 

 

 

But comic book aliens do not trade with Earth to any significant degree either because they don't have the concept of trade, or because Earth is such a dirthole that the only worth taking from it is superhumans. Note of course that Marvel Universe Americans are in fact more hostile and xenophobic than those of the three dimensional world.

 

I would guess that it would affect some skeptics and some of the devout, at the very least. The skeptics would be presented with physical evidence of the supernatural, and some of them might still attribute a scientific explanation to it, but some would probably be convinced and change their point of view. The devout would likely become even more devout, since their faith was apparently being rewarded with actual "miracles".

 

yeah, that "aliens aren't interested in any kind of trade trope" seems a little ridiculous to me. If we come across a lost tribe in the Amazon that makes elaborate pottery, we're going to find a way to trade for some of it, to take back to our museums. Ditto for some aliens who come into contact with our culture, our art, our music, our tv shows, movies, books, etc. Even if they didn't need oil or uranium or gold, they might be interested in sampling our food, our culture, or even some of our consumer products(clothing fabrics, for example, might be appealing to humanoid aliens, precisely because, for example, silk may not exist on their planet).