Idea: Backstory Contest

[J'Kla]

First presumption there does green always mean go?

[BAD]

Sounds great! Just one question about format. Should this be:

a) 2nd person - describing the player's optimum recommended path through an age and the experiences and revelations experienced e.g. ... You turn the corner and rising in front of you is a massive obelisk. You notice a small door in the side...

b) 1st person - describing the (OOC) writer's experiences as he/she travels through an age. e.g. ...I ran around the corner but stopped short when I caught sight of the massive obelisk in front of me...

c) 3rd person - describing the past of an age and the circumstances surrounding its writing and/or events which took place there. e.g. ..."This obelisk will mark the center of my new age" thought Atrus as he scribbled madly on the candlelit paper before him...

d) Journal entries for one of the above e.g. ...21 April 1990 : I have just discovered a new age, the distinguishing feature being a massive obelisk in the center. Will investigate tomorrow...

...or something entirely different? I've never written a backstory before, and so I don't know what to expect. Still, I'd love to try my hand, and I think a lot of other people would like a chance like this to write for commentary in a 'safe' environment.

I don't think we should limit the style of the back story for this first contest. I think it is awesome that you detailed the four basic ways to experience an age. I think it would be interesting to see how some people approach it with one way or multiple ways.

[Trylon]

Wow, a lot of posts all of a sudden, let me get ack to you on this, after I get some time to read them all through

[Theremin]

I don't think we should limit the style of the back story for this first contest. I think it is awesome that you detailed the four basic ways to experience an age. I think it would be interesting to see how some people approach it with one way or multiple ways.

I would agree in not putting too many specific restrictions on writers, I think, however, by just saying "write a story about an age", we would sort of be defeating the original idea of the contest.

Exploring the age and solving the puzzles is what we as explorers do when we visit the age. The backstory lends credibility to the age and its purpose. Why do I have to find my way into the sealed building? Why are these pictures here? Who are/were the inhabitants of this age? Much of the backstory may be revealed in journals (such as in the Myst library) but knowing the entire story isn't always a requisite to solving the age.

I would suggest the contest be modeled as a journal discovered within an "existing" age. Rand briefly talks about the creation process here.

[BAD]

I don't see how leaving the style of the ages story open defeats the purpose of this contest. I believe the purpose is to promote story creation and attract writers to the group. The contest will show that the GOW cares about back story and the actual writing of writing ages.

If your worried that people will be put off to the contest because that writing the story will reveal secrets about the age, we could always have the stories submitted to the judges only, and only those who wish could have their stories publicly posted.

[Trylon]

I'm okay with any style, as long as the backstory of the age is core. The only style I wouldn't like is 2nd person "guild through the age" style, since it could deteriorate to a walkthrough pretty easily.

[Jojon]

If anything, the writers should be free of, not bound to, the constraints of knowing that the work is going to be used for a game. Plots contructed around a puzzle often turn out... forced, shall we say? Sources of inspiration is good -- having to come up with excuses accomodating every bit of wierd architecture may not be. :7

Some exchanges back and forth between writer and..err.. writer, with adaptations on both ends, here and there should hopefully work out to result in something that works as a whole, rather than having one part there mostly as support to another.

[BAD]

Plots contructed around a puzzle often turn out... forced, shall we say?

Yes I notice that at times too. In many adventure games you read about a puzzle being discovered or built and there doesn't seem to be a reason for the puzzle being there. That annoys me to no end in games.

The worst is when you spend 30 minutes trying to solve a puzzle, and it opens a box, and there is nothing in there but a slip of paper for a clue to another puzzle. What!? Did someone else already ransack the place? Did this person have NOTHING of value?! Why did they leave this paper in here? Were they afraid it would be stolen?!

**Breathing heavy**

Sorry went on a bit of a rant there.........

[J'Kla]

Don't rant BAD it's a vindictive puzzle setter even Rowling used one like that in the Potter books.

[Trylon]

I think Bad ranted against misuse of it