FCAL Proposal Announced at GoMe

[Eleri]

2. Using guidelines provided by Cyan, the FCA panel, working within the remit of the GoMa Submissions Department under the leadership of its Guildmaster, will review the applications and make sure that nothing in the application conflicts with other Ages, or Cyan and Fan storylines, etc., and will approve or deny FCA requests.

I think it would help immensely if we could see Cyan's guidelines for the FCA's approval/denial decisions as soon as possible. I bet that these have not been released yet, and so it would be great if the community could help form these guidelines.

It may be that we'll not see the all the cards Cyan is holding, with regards to how they choose, cause they have all those shiny legal bits and bobs to look at. But I think a dialogue (in the sense of people openly sharing ideas, rather than a debate.) in the community about what we see as guildelines for both the pre-writing FCA process, and the approval of a finished Age would be a good thing.

It seems to me, from wandering through various forii, that most peoples objection to FCC is that it'll be crap. Now, you and I and most everyone else knows that's BS, and there's some immensely talented people amoung us, who will build ages that will take our breath away. But, there is also the concept of "maintaining the integrity of the Mythos", that is, there is an as yet unidentified, but palpable, level of quality (covering both the level of technical design, and the *sense* of the place) that most people expect from Uru.

Now that concept, I think, isn't as limiting as it might sound. I think it leaves open the door for many styles of Ages, the beautiful, and the downright weird. We don't need showers of genitalia, al la SL, cause we can stretch beyond that.

[andylegate]

:cringes:

Er......sorry, but I believe Nyn got just a bit upset over things. Ahem.

We'll get her calmed down (all though it's understandable why she's upset), and send her to Zephyr Cove for some "me" time to relax.

remember the old say: "a woman scorned........"

[boblishman]

/me passes a large dangerous looking object to Nynaveve ... then whispers "go and do us all a favour ... and finish the job off" ...

...............

[Frisky Badger]

Here Nyn, have a cookie; it'll make you feel better.

What? Don't be ridiculous; that's not a pill, it's a...er...um...Junior Mint. Yeah, that's it! A Junior Mint!

[Nynaveve]

ROFL

I knew that was coming. Time for my meds again.

[Tsar Hoikas]

Errr...

Now I'm usually the crazy one here, so I demand this insanity stop! That's my job, and if I can't make people mad, then what use am I?

And I will affirm Andy's statement about the private forum here for Cyan dicussion. In fact, I was the one who originally created it from the instructions of "Private forum with Main Councilors, Chogon, and X, Y, Z from the GoMa."

[Dot]

I think it would help immensely if we could see Cyan's guidelines for the FCA's approval/denial decisions as soon as possible. I bet that these have not been released yet, and so it would be great if the community could help form these guidelines.

It may be that we'll not see the all the cards Cyan is holding, with regards to how they choose, cause they have all those shiny legal bits and bobs to look at. But I think a dialogue (in the sense of people openly sharing ideas, rather than a debate.) in the community about what we see as guildelines for both the pre-writing FCA process, and the approval of a finished Age would be a good thing.

To be honest, none of us have seen the guidelines yet. They will need to come from Cyan, and everyone there is extremely busy (as you can imagine). At a guess these will be straightforward.

If it helps, here's the draft list we (GoW/GoMa teams) came up for the initial FCA application form. The FCA panel would use this information to check against Cyan's guidelines:

An FCAL application for Ages must include:
* Age name (and preferred 4-letter short form)
* brief description of what the Age is about
* brief storyline for the Age
* intended use
* any other information that the FCA panel might need to know

An FCAL application for other content must include:
* the content's name
* a brief description of the content's appearance and purpose
* storyline if applicable
* its intended use
* any other information that the FCA panel might need to know

The press release was a precis of a summary I prepared for the others from many pages of discussion; it excluded various notes and expansions because press releases need to be short and to the point. It might be helpful to post the entire summary 'as is' so that all of us can build on the previous debate.

It seems to me, from wandering through various forii, that most peoples objection to FCC is that it'll be crap. Now, you and I and most everyone else knows that's BS, and there's some immensely talented people among us, who will build ages that will take our breath away. But, there is also the concept of "maintaining the integrity of the Mythos", that is, there is an as yet unidentified, but palpable, level of quality (covering both the level of technical design, and the *sense* of the place) that most people expect from Uru.

Sorry, but the FCA process really does need to focus solely on the technical and IP aspects, not on 'quality', however that may be defined. In the end, explorers themselves will define and recognise quality, simply by revisiting the ages they see as 'good' and ignoring those they see as 'poor' after an initial visit. But that way, everyone's efforts would have a place, and no group of explorers is exalted as 'judge' over others -- something that is anathema to us.

[Deledrius]

Sorry, but the FCA process really does need to focus solely on the technical and IP aspects, not on 'quality', however that may be defined. In the end, explorers themselves will define and recognise quality, simply by revisiting the ages they see as 'good' and ignoring those they see as 'poor' after an initial visit. But that way, everyone's efforts would have a place, and no group of explorers is exalted as 'judge' over others -- something that is anathema to us.

I agree with this. It was something that was discussed at least as far back as 2005 when most of the UCC really started picking up. The compromise solution that seemed to fit best is one that allows community ratings on content and its quality. Of course, this works fine in a ULM (or similar) setup, where it's a directory of content the user can choose to download, or not. It highly depends on how the UCC will be represented in-game. The best solution is one that allows both popular content to rise to the top, but doesn't ignore the long tail of small or "lesser" Ages that while not necessarily as professional may contain novel ideas or astounding quality in one area at the expense of others.

The key point is that a solution needs to address two issues: (A) A way to mark content generally regarded as passing a certain criteria of quality (however formal or informal) while (B) not discriminating or censoring (within reason) works that don't meet the criteria in (A).

It seems to me, from wandering through various forii

Btw, the correct plural of forum is fora.

[pappou]

Well, the veil of secrecy is gradually lifting.
Now, if we can insert a bit of democracy into the choice of panel members, that might make the playing field at least look a bit level.
And speaking of the way it looks, I call it as it seems from outside the secret veil.
What's your excuse?

[Erik]

Regarding quality...

I guess there'll be a lot of Ages coming in MORE, some big, some small, some simple, some complex, some with Cyan quality, some with lesser quality, etc., etc. How will that many Ages be available in MORE? I heard talk about Ages in the Nexus, but I also heard people say they would like some sort of Library, as that's much cooler. Most people think all Ages should come into the game regardless of quality, and to let the general community judge them.
So here's an idea... What if the limited space in the (or an) Library is only for those Ages of higher quality? The general community would be able to vote what Ages deserve to be in the Library, and the rest of the Age will be available from a Nexus system. The Library could be extended if the amount of Ages becomes higher, so that a fixed percentage of the total amount of Ages is represented in the Library.
That way, we can still have a nice Library (I think it's nearly impossible to have a Library which could house all the Ages), and yet all Ages can be visited. And from an explorer's point of view it may be good to have some small distinction regarding quality. If you were an explorer, not associated with any guild, I think you would also appreciate it if there was an easy way to find the 'better' Ages, as opposed to linking to dozens of small rooms (which may still be interesting to guild members), before you find a "Teledahn"-like Age. This may also give the non-guild-associated explorer more appreciation for the hard work Writers do.
(I want to emphasise again that if there would be such a vote system, the whole community should be able to vote, not just the Maintainers. It's important that everyone is represented with such decisions and this way no one can get angry at the Maintainers)

Anyway, just some random thoughts from me