by Inanna » Sun Jan 13, 2008 8:45 pm
My apologies since I am entering the discussion a bit late and most certainly under-informed. I agree that we should show Cyan that we can create ages, even if they are not very complex, and the prison age is a wonderful start. Still it will need a purpose. Is it meant to be a puzzle to be solved or an environment to be explored? Could it serve another function perhaps?
One thing that came up some time ago in a conversation I had with a DRC ResEng over a misbehaving player is that we need a place to send those who do not "play well with others." I know that in one online game those who break the rules wind up in a vast cornfield with a non-functioning tractor and a movie screen that repeatedly plays etiquette films. At the time I thought that sending those who behave badly back to the New Mexico desert, but with no Cleft, no Relto book and no Ki. Instead the player is presented with distantly spaced Burma Shave type ads with helpful hints on how to behave in URU.
So getting back to the prison age concept -- which I find intriguing -- I would like to hear more about the backstory and the purpose of the age. Is it meant to be an actual prison, such as the slave caves of Teledahn and the cell in Gahreesen? Or is it more like the prison ages to which Atrus' sent his sons -- true ages with their own unique attributes, but prisons in that there was no way out for Sirus and Achenar. From what I read above the latter seems to be more the case, an age that has fallen into decay, but does that make it a prison?
I guess I am looking for the creator's definition of "prison" and how it applies to the age. My own writing skills are in character development, back-story and dialog. If I can help, just let me know.
Inanna
To let understanding stop at what cannot be understood is a high attainment.
Those who cannot do it will be destroyed on the lathe of heaven.
Chuang Tse
.
