Discussion for "Guild Of Writers"

Todoni · **Joined:** Tue Aug 22, 2006 4:36 am **Posts:** 763

Ich spreche ein kleines bischen Deutsch.. :oops:

Aber ich kann Sitzungen am Samstag oder Sonntag mich sorgen.

I could really only do German with a dictionary next to me, so forums would be better for me anyway. (Or I could take a chat log and decipher it later.)

Does bring up a valid point though....how can we encourage participation for others in other lands and time zones?

(Reminds me ...here in the USA, usually if I ask someone 'what timezone are you in', if they answer 'what do you mean?', then I know they are in Eastern time! LOL!)

Old Wolle · **Joined:** Tue Sep 05, 2006 8:57 pm **Posts:** 22

I think, the best timezone is the caverntime. This time is all around the world the same and I know, when it is 8am caverntime, for me is 4pm realtime.

Also I mean, that the first language we talk is english.
I can read and write english not so fast like german, sometimes I must ask "Leo" für some words, but I understand it and I can write in english (I hope so).

One people of our team can't understand english and one has problem with it.
But this 2 people works a lot in blender and have no interests for stay a lot of time in forums.
When they have questions, the other member of the team can translate it over teamspeak.

The only (little) problem I see, is the time for meetings. But when they start until 3pm caverntime, I don't see problems.

Wolle

MattyQ · **Joined:** Thu Apr 19, 2007 9:17 pm **Posts:** 9

Maybe if we were to alternate times for meetings (for example, a meeting at UK time, then one at US time, etc. etc.). That way there will never be a group of people who are constantly excluded. I would also remind that chatlogs are a great thing, and it would be nice to provide those for people who had missed meetings (another good reason to find a space for ourselves, so we can post logs, etc.).

katreeny · **Joined:** Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:36 pm **Posts:** 145

So - how do I join?

I'm an author (not quite professional yet - but I do have a few published stories), I can design Ages with stories behind them and I'm slowly learning enough of Blender to be able to build Ages - I hope! (I have zero artistic ability :lol:

)

Oh, yeah, and all this happens around a day job in software quality assurance, and at the moment, trying to get a novel in publishable shape.

Katreeny

Ushgarak · **Posted:** Mon Aug 06, 2007 11:05 pm

Just registering my interest. I'm very interested in the Guild concept in general- seeing it as the possible saviour of the whole franchise if it turns out well- and both from an IC and OOC perspective I'm very interested in writing. My background is in amateur writing and quite intense role-play design; all amateur though I run several pretty sizeable on-line games on a significantly large on-line forum and I would very much want to turn whatever creative talent I can offer towards this area.

Unfortunately my programming experience is appalling- much as I know a lot about computers my mind just is not set up for that kind of stuff. Even when creating text adventures I prefer ADRIFT to Inform- not for one moment that I do not recognise Inform's many strengths, I just find the coding a bit hostile to the way I like to think, even with Inform 7.

However I do have some good friends, who also have an interest in Myst, who have 3d modelling experience and who I have worked with before to, for example, create some nifty 3d maps for RP games. Obviously this is a whole different class and scale of work but it's some contribution in that area at least. And in general I'd like to think about theoretical age creation and puzzle design.

Next time there is a meeting that is reasonable for UK hours I'd be interested in listening in- although (and absolutely no offence to all the amazing efforts that some of you are making in this area) I do feel the more info we get from Cyan the more comfortable I will be.

Robert The Rebuilder · **Posted:** Tue Aug 07, 2007 4:13 pm

I would be interested in a Guild of Writers meeting as well. Unfortunately, I'll be out on vacation until next Wednesday. But I think there's a pressing need to get people in cavern discussing ideas as soon as possible.

J'anim Paedet · **Joined:** Mon Aug 28, 2006 11:34 pm **Posts:** 40

Yes, a meeting sounds like a grand idea right about now! I'm very interested in participating in such an event; I've been making Ages for offline Uru ever since the tools came out several years ago, and I'd really like to get back to it!

Multiple meetings sound like a good idea, especially during the early stages as so much needs talking through.
For the foreseeable future I'll be right here, and I'd love to contribute what I can to the meetings and further discussions.

Abguy · **Joined:** Wed Sep 20, 2006 6:07 pm **Posts:** 15

I have some experiance with 3D work and would like to offer my help to make this thing a reality. I believe that the future of gaming is going to be custom content. But we have an opportunity to make something that could turn a few heads, in order to do that we will all have to raise ourselves to a pretty high standard. Artists and visionarys of all sorts will probably be needed. I usually like to work alone, but I feel that working together might be more rewarding for everyone.

You have my support and if you need my skill Im not far away.

ghaelen · **Posted:** Thu Aug 09, 2007 3:44 pm

Tiran wrote:

Personally I see us as a group of artists and developers which aren't interested in power and politics until someone is trying to diminish our freedom.

Tiran, you are now one of my best friends

"Don't be squeltching my creativity, maan!" I know a few more people who will very happily leap into your multiverse and help move it along. I've seen a post or two about a guild of StoryTellers, and of course, every age has it's "story."

There will be numerous outlets and needs for creative writers of all kinds -- telling the backstory, front story, (storytellers) talking about the story (the Messengers, maybe), writing in the characters, etc.

I'll stop before my brain explodes, but I really like what you are saying.

Montgomery · **Posted:** Thu Aug 09, 2007 5:00 pm

Would somebody representing the Writers be willing to be a speaker at one or both of the All-Guild Meetings, on 8-20? Or at lease be there to represent the interests of the Writers? Please let me know so I can put you on the schedule.

The Noble Robot · **Joined:** Fri Nov 10, 2006 5:34 am **Posts:** 769

I'm really interested in becoming an active member of this guild. Tiran has developed a pretty fair structure, IMO, and I think we all know who the Guild Masters are going to be, so I don't think there'll be a lot of in-fighting off the bat (unlike some other Guilds, which lack a well-established membership/cheerleading squad).

My only suggestion, but one I feel really strongly about, would be to eliminate the "Guild Cadet" caste. It's demeaning and not actually very useful.

There should be one barrier to "Guilds(hu)man" status, building a single age which is approved by the guild. That's it. It gets too complicated after that.

I'd also like to aggressively (:wink:) offer my services as a web developer and designer for the GoW when the need arrises. I can learn any CMS system in under an hour, and can code for php and java. Let me know.

Ushgarak · **Posted:** Thu Aug 09, 2007 6:24 pm

I do hope there becomes a good definition of what the GoW actually does. Some of this talk of things like different Guilds providing stories for the Ages etc. would seem to reduce the GoW to being mere engineers making other people's ideas become solid. That's really not what I thought was in mind; they should be the imaginers of worlds as well as the creators.

What I read of the ideas that the H'Uru crowd and so on had put forth had the idea that EVERYTHING needed to create an Age would be in the hands of the Writers, which is what interested me and how it should be, I feel.

Montgomery · **Posted:** Thu Aug 09, 2007 7:02 pm

Ushgarak wrote:

I do hope there becomes a good definition of what the GoW actually does. Some of this talk of things like different Guilds providing stories for the Ages etc. would seem to reduce the GoW to being mere engineers making other people's ideas become solid. That's really not what I thought was in mind; they should be the imaginers of worlds as well as the creators.

What I read of the ideas that the H'Uru crowd and so on had put forth had the idea that EVERYTHING needed to create an Age would be in the hands of the Writers, which is what interested me and how it should be, I feel.

Let me give you an example of the kind of division of labor I'm suggesting.

For a couple of years now there has been a group of people, lead by a young man from Brazil, creating a stand-alone game set in the Myst universe. This group has gotten specific approval from Cyan to design and release their game provided they do not charge for it. I happen to be on the design team, as a writer. There is a tremendous amount of backstory, character development, in-game journals, etc., all developed by the development team.

Recently the idea was suggested that this game be promoted within Uru, and so Subterranean Restorations, (essentially a group of writers and artists who are running an on-going fan-based storyline in Uru) have added it to their storyline. What that means is they will be promoting the game by letting out little bits of the backstory as they "discover" it, the IC characters will talk about it and post about it on the IC forums, and the book itself has actually become a topic as it has been stolen by looters. But SR is not adding in any way to the backstory or development of the game itself. However, for SR to do what it does requires a team of storyline writers, script writers, actors, cartographers (to provide maps and drawings of the areas SR has access to), 2d and 3d artists (to create images of artifacts or screenshots of the Ages they have access to), audio mixers (for podcast segments, interviews, etc), and on and on. It is something like SR that I would like to see formed -- and the Guild of Ideas or the Guild of Artists, or Storytellers or Fiction Writers or Authors or whatever they eventually call themselves, would be a perfect group to handle this kind of collaborative project. PR and promotion. And who knows, maybe they will come up wth a killer story that requires the creation of a particular Age that they might request the Writers to build-to-order. But their function would not be to create backstory for the Writers (unless, of course, a Writer wanted the assistance of this group of creative artists to help them out).

D'ya see? Nobody is trying to take a bite out of anyone else's pie. But there are clearly two distinct groups of creative people here, and there is enormous potential for them to cooperate.

Tiran · **Posted:** Thu Aug 09, 2007 7:04 pm

The Noble Robot wrote:

I'm really interested in becoming an active member of this guild. Tiran has developed a pretty fair structure, IMO, and I think we all know who the Guild Masters are going to be, so I don't think there'll be a lot of in-fighting off the bat (unlike some other Guilds, which lack a well-established membership/cheerleading squad).

Don't count on me

I'm not interested in politics and long discussions about nothing. I see my role as a technical advisor, mentor and administrator for the infrastructure but not as a politician.

The Noble Robot wrote:

My only suggestion, but one I feel really strongly about, would be to eliminate the "Guild Cadet" caste. It's demeaning and not actually very useful.

There should be one barrier to "Guilds(hu)man" status, building a single age which is approved by the guild. That's it. It gets too complicated after that.

A member that has played a major part in developing an age, tool or assets for ages (textures, objects) will become a guilds(wo)man. Here in Europe especially in the German speaking areas we had something called "journeyman" since the medieval ages. A journeyman travels from master to master and town to town over some time to learn the arts of his guild from different people. A guild cadet is going to have a similar position. He may join one more multiple groups to learn different techniques until he feels that he has mastered the art. He shows his work and letters of recommendation to his fellow guild members.

Again the status of Guild Cadet is more an OOC status to show that a person likes to learn the techniques but doesn't feel quite good enough to call himself (or herself) a guild man.

The Noble Robot wrote:

I'd also like to aggressively (:wink:) offer my services as a web developer and designer for the GoW when the need arrises. I can learn any CMS system in under an hour, and can code for php and java. Let me know.

I'll try to reduce the PHP part as much as possible. I don't like PHP for various and good reasons. There is no way around a PHP based board since Python based boards are not ready yet. I'm going to post a list of ideas later. Thx for the offer

Tiran · **Posted:** Thu Aug 09, 2007 7:27 pm

Montgomery wrote:

Let me give you an example of the kind of division of labor I'm suggesting.

For a couple of years now there has been a group of people, lead by a young man from Brazil, creating a stand-alone game set in the Myst universe. This group has gotten specific approval from Cyan to design and release their game provided they do not charge for it. I happen to be on the design team, as a writer. There is a tremendous amount of backstory, character development, in-game journals, etc., all developed by the development team.
[...]
But their function would not be to create backstory for the Writers (unless, of course, a Writer wanted the assistance of this group of creative artists to help them out).

I've heard some rumors about a game that might be the game you are working on. It sounds very terrific.

I don't see a contradiction between the goals of the GoW and your goal. The GoW wants to provide an infrastructure to create ages. You have a large and well written storyline for ages. The GoW needs people to provide stories and background for ages. You have story and background ... Do you see my point?

Join the GoW to have some people implementing YOUR STORY in 3d!

We have given some thoughts to write a NDA for the GoW. The NDA won't be mandatory to join the GoW but it is going to be a requirement to get involved in certain projects like your project. You surely don't want age developers to tell everybody about your story line, do you?

Discussion for "Guild Of Writers"

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