[Senko]

I'm just curious if there's a reason we have so many memory imroving options, did someone have an issue with players forgetting things and wanted an excuse to relate them? There's the quality photographic memory, the adept powers Three dimensional memory and eidetic sense memory, the bioware mneumonic enhancer and the geneware hyperthymesia plus who know's how many I've missed and then there's all the ones that affect it indirectly like being able to store memories. Weirdly I couldn't find a cyberware variant to enhance it.

[Magnaric]

To me it seems like a matter of having options for certain  situations. Memory checks don't come up a ton in my game,  but when they do it tends to be in regards to something specific. I won't make them roll for regular stuff, but if they were trying to recall a unique bit of info about a particular corp employee or something, then some of those augmentation or powers would be very useful. I've had a player in my game who's character had Photographic Memory, and he came in VERY handy to the team when they'd give him blueprints, floor plans, or even just a human resources employee file to read.

As for the reason there's so many options, I suspect it came from many a discussion about whether a character could remember details or whether it was meta gaming,  and then wanting various options for different characters from there. That's just my theory though.

[Novocrane]

Weirdly I couldn't find a cyberware variant to enhance it.

Flashback System is nanocybernetics for the Photographic Memory Quality.

[Senko]

Maybe just seems that photographic memory quality or eidetic memory quality would be all you'd need as any character could buy it rather than having geneware, adept powers, qualities, cyberware etc. Maybe its so you can get the memory you want still seems excessive since they all have different effects.

[Novocrane]

There's also a quality for Speed Reading, which Eidetic Sense Memory trumps.

I like to imagine that one day I'll actually play a character with the Vizualizer cyberware; +3 Mnemonic Enhancers, +3 Recall Nanoware, +2 Photographic Memory, +2 Hyperthymesia, maybe you could work in +2 Analytical Mind also. I'd be compelled to take Cereprax and Deepweed, with Narco to maximise their effectiveness. Their superlative memory in combination with the ability to conceive of digital models for 3d printing would ... well, they could make stuff. It's not really that useful on a run until you need a mentat, is it?

Hasn't happened yet.

[Kiirnodel]

My decker has a few of those things. Only was able to start with Mnemonic Enhancers 2, and I didn't opt to add in any of the content added in later books (originally created using only Core Rulebook). He has a Mental Limit of 12 and 18 dice for Memory Tests not counting situational stuff. He knows things.

[farothel]

I often take one of those (also the equivalents in other systems) as I always take detailed notes during the session, which I later re-work into a story of the campaign (it's something I like doing and very useful also for the GM).  That way I have an in-game excuse to go back in my notes and dredge up things that happened a long time ago (both in game and out game).  As they say: revenge is a dish best served cold.

Also what Magnaric said: being able to steal data without the person you stole it from knowing it's stolen can be very useful.

[Xexanoth]

I think these options exist, because people with cybereyes/ears always have the option to record stuff and replay it and therefore ignore most memory test, except for really unexpected ones.
Then again glasses with cameras give the same option so...

[Mirikon]

I think these options exist, because people with cybereyes/ears always have the option to record stuff and replay it and therefore ignore most memory test, except for really unexpected ones.
Then again glasses with cameras give the same option so...

Having a recording means nothing if you forget about the recording, or don't remember why the recording is useful to the current situation to replay it, or forget which recording (or the timestamp if you record everything) you need, or... Well, I could go on, but that's enough for my point.

The memory-improving cyberware is a niche product, at least as it applies to professional criminals who do more running and gunning than anything else. But the Shadowrun world is full of more than just runners. Options that improve memory can be quite useful for a reporter, or a spymaster, or an infiltrator, or a product manager, or an analyst, or a researcher, or... well, again, my point is made. Will your average street sammy ever need it? Probably not. But it is something that can be useful in the world.

[Xexanoth]

Most of the time recordings would be stuff like blueprints,plans, photosof targets, important conversations, spied on conversations etc... which means you have a general idea of where you have to look if you need to recall something and most likely named them something to make them easily identifable, which voids most of the "common" memory test that a runner would require(and you said yourself, common runner most likely won't need it, and this is one of the reasons for it). 
I fully agree that it doesn't always help you, especially if you never thought it would be important and never bothered to record it,  just like most qualities simply give you bonus dice and not just instant: you remember this.

But even then a memory test for "in which conversation did i hear someone mention this name x so i can replay the conversation and remember it" is a lot easier then a plain "what was x name again?".

In conclusion everyone should just record everything... because that way the corps who go through our stuff have no chance of finding anything usefull in all the trash they're getting ....i think i might have gone a little off topic here 

[Senko]

I'm now thinking of microsofts terms and conditions for windows 10, paraphrased because I don't remember it word for word (I failed my check ) but its basically "We have the right to go into your private emails and folders if we have reason to believe you are breaking the law, receiving spam or if it will benefit our corporation. We also have the right to do this if we think you might be going to break the law, receive spam or we'll get something worthwhile out of it."  Basically  by using that program you sign away you rights to privacy to microsoft if they think you might be about to receive spam from someone they can have a good rummage through your pesronal communications and private folders.

[Slipperychicken]

If everyone records everything, then my speed-reading decker with 14 dice in memory is going to have a lot of fun with that.

Also, does photographic memory actually provide any benefit over just having a boatload of memory dice? As written, it just gives two extra.

[farothel]

If everyone records everything, then my speed-reading decker with 14 dice in memory is going to have a lot of fun with that.

Also, does photographic memory actually provide any benefit over just having a boatload of memory dice? As written, it just gives two extra.

At our table we generally did it the following way:
-if the character has time to memorise the thing he wants to memorise, he will recall it without dice roll (provided the player doesn't abuse this by having his character try to memorise the entire enceclopedia britannica or something similar)
-if the character tries to memorise something while under stress (in a fight, getting a face at night at a glance,...) then we go for the 2 dice extra on the test.