"Discovery"

General debates and discussion about the Guild of Writers and Age creation

"Discovery"

Postby Pryftan » Mon Oct 01, 2007 4:34 pm

In thread after thread, I've come upon the question of whether all the Ages we build are supposed to have been written by us, the new Guild of Writers, or if we may say they are discoveries of our own, written by the D'ni Guild of Writers. I figure it might be nice to convalesce all the seperate discussions on this important topic into one place.

Personally, I hope that we will be allowed to build "discovered" Ages. It will be easier to explain IC and allow us to do a lot more with our potential storylines. But it's going to be a rather dicy topic due to copyright issues. I feel like Cyan will allow us to do this, as long as we don't break any obvious rules, in which case they might decide to revoke that right we have. We'll need to be rather careful about what we do if we want to build an Age we claim was written by D'ni.

Of course, the other side to this rather complex issue is that maybe we ought to be sticking completely to our own material.. let the DRC release D'ni Ages, and we'll release new writings. That way we don't step on anybody's toes, but it'll certainly limit our options.

What does everyone think?
.rilvoohee vehrehnehm vokan pam mahnshootahv rub voohee taygahnehm mahtahntahv
User avatar
Pryftan
 
Posts: 312
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:17 pm

Re: "Discovery"

Postby Owehn » Mon Oct 01, 2007 5:15 pm

I would love to be able to introduce Ages that have some D'ni history to them. I think a lot of people would as well, because the rich and deep storyline surrounding the d'ni history provides such an attractive anchor for explorer projects.

However, I don't see Cyan's allowing us to do that as a very practical option. It would have to be checked by Cyan to ensure that it didn't contradict any of the data Cyan has about the d'ni (loads of which, I'm betting, has never been seen by us and exists only in some raw form). This checking could either take place at the beginning of a project, allowing no room for changes to be made to the story during later stages of development, or it could be involved with the entire Age development process, which would require huge amounts of time spent on Cyan's part, or it could take place at the very end of the project's completion, which opens the possibility that a huge amount of work on our part would be wasted.

As far as some IC technical issues go, like "Where did my manmade objects come from?", I really don't think it will be that big of a problem. There are lots of different IC routes to take that don't involve the d'ni. For example, "A civilization used to exist here but they vanished long ago; these are their structures", "I engaged a team of skilled contractors to secretly build these objects", or even "I wrote the essential pieces into the Age so that they could snap together easily" would do fine, and in my opinion provides even more room for creativity. You might even say it makes attributing your Age to the d'ni a cop-out!

But anyway, it may still be possible for a few Age-building groups to get special permission by Cyan to use or distribute information about the d'ni, by both agreeing not to depart from an initial check on the storyline and submitting to a final approval specifically geared toward checking agreement with Cyan's vision. I think, though, that that should wait until Cyan has seen how effective the community is at distributing their own ideas.
User avatar
Owehn
 
Posts: 132
Joined: Sat Sep 29, 2007 8:05 am

Re: "Discovery"

Postby bluewyvern » Mon Oct 01, 2007 9:35 pm

Everything Owehn said. I suspect that when it comes time to create Ages and Cyan actually lays down some guidelines and procedures, "no D'ni Ages" will be one of their explicit requirements, just because of the legal and resource issues, plus the simple fact they probably want to retain creative control.

(Yes, I can write short posts, too!)
Concept, design, storytelling, editorial
KI# 05697413
User avatar
bluewyvern
 
Posts: 80
Joined: Sun Sep 30, 2007 10:57 am

Re: "Discovery"

Postby Jennifer_P » Mon Oct 01, 2007 10:03 pm

One thing to keep in mind is that places can be built by the D'ni without having any history or records attached to them that could mess up Cyan's history/plot. Look at Eder Delin and Tsogahl--no history there. The Pod Ages? Ditto. :)
Jennifer_P
 
Posts: 729
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:54 pm

Re: "Discovery"

Postby Kierra » Mon Oct 01, 2007 11:53 pm

Hm, I was under the impression that Cyan had already declared "no fan-made Ages with D'ni type storylines/artifacts/stuff". Of course, now that I think about it, I can't remember where I heard this...best I can pin it down is "several months ago". *shrug*

After all, the universe is a big place and the D'ni arent the only fish in the sea :D

~Kia
User avatar
Kierra
 
Posts: 371
Joined: Sat Sep 29, 2007 12:05 am
Location: 311 miles West of Cyan. roughly.

Re: "Discovery"

Postby Justintime9 » Tue Oct 02, 2007 4:41 am

I just posted a topic here, apposing the veiw that we should build d'ni ages. (u might wanna check that out later) We're the Guild of WRITERS not the DRC! we're sposed to create new ages (as watson said in his speach clearly) the DRC's job is to restore D'ni made ages. we hav no place to meddle in cyan's territory. I'm not trying to be mean, but, we have millions of opportunity, and I don't think we should cross into cyan's territory just because it's the only thing we Can't write :P anyway, check out this: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=57
User avatar
Justintime9
 
Posts: 1188
Joined: Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:37 am

Re: "Discovery"

Postby Pryftan » Tue Oct 02, 2007 7:31 am

Sorry Justin, but I have to disagree strongly. It's one thing to say that maybe we shouldn't build D'ni Ages because we're worried about copyright issues. But we're not "supposed" to be anything but OOC Age Builders, responsible for delivering new content, and the way we explain that IC should be entirely up to us.

As far as I know, Cyan has never expressly forbid us to build D'ni Ages. They've just told us not to put them in a position where they'd be the bad guys for protecting their copyrights.
.rilvoohee vehrehnehm vokan pam mahnshootahv rub voohee taygahnehm mahtahntahv
User avatar
Pryftan
 
Posts: 312
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:17 pm

Re: "Discovery"

Postby Owehn » Tue Oct 02, 2007 8:01 am

Just a handy reference: Greydragon made two important posts in January of last year in this thread.

(By the way, this is not directed at anyone in particular. I just think it would be helpful as this is one of Cyan's only statements on this topic.)
User avatar
Owehn
 
Posts: 132
Joined: Sat Sep 29, 2007 8:05 am

Re: "Discovery"

Postby Pryftan » Tue Oct 02, 2007 8:08 am

I've read those posts a few times in the past, and now I'm starting to think some of this problem comes from different interpretations of what he was saying.

Look at yourselves as new writers who have the chance to write new ages, not ages previously known. Where do you feel like going today? It’s actually really exciting to be able to create the worlds you want. It just gets messy when you start trying to connect it to the story line we know about but you don’t.


I never took that as "You can't make D'ni Ages". Just, don't try to connect it to Cyan's storyline. Don't make your story about one of the kings or Uru characters. But a new discovery is still an Age "not previously known".

Someone posted asking if they'd have to change their Age's storyline. He responded by saying it just gets messy when you try to tie it into the DRC and Cyan's Ages. It really didn't feel to me like he was saying we had to make IC new material, just OOC new material. It felt like he was saying be careful about using Cyan IC stuff, but the "no-no"s were in using Cyan OOC stuff (textures, Age names, etc.)
.rilvoohee vehrehnehm vokan pam mahnshootahv rub voohee taygahnehm mahtahntahv
User avatar
Pryftan
 
Posts: 312
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:17 pm

Re: "Discovery"

Postby Pryftan » Tue Oct 02, 2007 8:15 am

Here's a proposition. Can we get together to form a set of rules for "discovered Ages" that we could then submit to Cyan for approval? That way we'd have a strict code we cold adhere to instead of just wondering what'll bother them and what won't.
.rilvoohee vehrehnehm vokan pam mahnshootahv rub voohee taygahnehm mahtahntahv
User avatar
Pryftan
 
Posts: 312
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:17 pm

Next

Return to General Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests

cron