Topic: A Next Mayor Is... (Read 8520 times)

Detonator · « **Reply #20 on:** February 03, 2009, 08:45:50 PM »

Quote from: Lady Duke on February 03, 2009, 08:41:14 PM

So people want it to be collaborative, but highly selective? That doesn't sound very community-ful.

Well, no, it's not. It sounds like it will be written mainly by a small team with smaller bonus projects outsourced to other talented individuals. A project completely open to the community sounds good, but repeated experience tells me that it would just end up running in place.

Lady Duke · « **Reply #21 on:** February 03, 2009, 08:48:33 PM »

Oh I'm not saying not to run it in a small group of people or that it's a bad idea, but it seems like it's being presented like it's supposed to be for the community, but I don't feel like it really is.

It's more like, take these few and far between and then maybe somebody somewhere down the line who's not as good as other people will be thrown a bone.

That's just how it sounds to me. Please correct me if I'm wrong because I could be completely off base.

jsnlxndrlv · « **Reply #22 on:** February 03, 2009, 09:19:43 PM »

I have this problem where I'm enthusiastic for just about any idea in the planning stage and then completely drop off the face of the earth during the execution. I have historically been supportive of multiplayer fiction, though.

Brentai · « **Reply #23 on:** February 03, 2009, 09:25:23 PM »

Either way, I think Arc just fucked it up by stating his intention before doing it.

Kayma · « **Reply #24 on:** February 03, 2009, 10:40:28 PM »

You guys should totally just do it. Don't think; feel.

Disposable Ninja · « **Reply #25 on:** February 03, 2009, 10:43:18 PM »

The Mayor is incapable of feeling, Kayma. You cannot hug a kitten with a piledriver.

Kayma · « **Reply #26 on:** February 03, 2009, 10:56:34 PM »

And you can't hug children with nuclear arms.

Disposable Ninja · « **Reply #27 on:** February 03, 2009, 11:06:53 PM »

But you can piledrive nuclear arms into children hugging kittens.

Brentai · « **Reply #28 on:** February 03, 2009, 11:15:00 PM »

I do not think you are classified to say what can and cannot be done with a piledriver.

Disposable Ninja · « **Reply #29 on:** February 04, 2009, 12:00:57 AM »

Dude, I wrote my college thesis on the effects of prolonged exposure to piledrivers have on chimpanzees. I concluded that they don't like it.

Arc · « **Reply #30 on:** February 04, 2009, 12:46:18 AM »

Next Step: Reassessing our talent.

Please post or private message your artistic and technological endeavors, hobbies, and skills.

As in, can you write? Draw? Code?

Our central team is to consist of writers and webmasters.

Quote from: Kazz on February 03, 2009, 04:35:19 PM

A collaborative fiction blog, huh.

I remember everybody calling this a terrible idea back when I suggested it.

And then the world exploded.

As with the blog & game, that thread provides insurmountable help by means of experience.

Quote from: Detonator on February 03, 2009, 04:59:11 PM

By The Mayor, are you talking about the failed website or the extremely failed video game idea?

The character, designed during the games production.

JDigital · « **Reply #31 on:** February 04, 2009, 07:51:42 AM »

I've got some experience writing Dungeons & Dragons material, and I've kept a a D&D blog for three years which now draws 600+ subscribers. I'm also a reasonably competent Apache webserver handler, work with Wordpress content management professionally, and have varying competence with PHP, Ruby and Python.

I've run enough sites to ask, what's the purpose of this new project? Money? Fame? Resurrecting an old site for its own sake?

Kazz · « **Reply #32 on:** February 04, 2009, 11:34:56 AM »

I think it's important to realize why The End was successful: one very talented person was in charge of writing everything. In my experience, true collaborative fiction goes one of two ways:

1. Everybody writes about the same characters, causing some characters' behaviors and motivations to vary from author to author and post to post, creating a lot of toe-stepping and foiled intentions.

2. Everybody creates their own characters or subjects and writes exclusively about those, creating a wide narrative that never progresses deeply as no author feels comfortable advancing the timeline, for fear of ruining what someone else had in mind.

I hate to say it, but this sort of things needs a firm structure, or at least a very good understanding of everybody's role and the scope of each writer's responsibility.

If it were up to me, I'd propose a small (no more than three people) writing team for the primary canon (this being influenced by the vote/discussion structure, if it's in place), with other contributors being able to submit side stories, art, music, animation... whatever would be entertaining.

Also, the writers should have a decent idea what the setting is and how far any fantastic elements can go before they begin, so that the story doesn't turn into Lost, which as far as I've heard is now about zombies, time travel, and Hitler.

MadMAxJr · « **Reply #33 on:** February 04, 2009, 12:04:38 PM »

Creative content manufacturing -> editing team -> approval team -> finished content.

Just because Peter Parker submits a fiction story on Mysterio and Sandman taking a villian vacation in Amsterdam doesn't mean Jameson is going to sign off on it. Also why did you replace Mysterio's head with a disco ball? That's not canon Peter!

Bongo Bill · « **Reply #34 on:** February 04, 2009, 06:02:48 PM »

As before: get someone who can manage programmers and I'll donate my effort where it is deemed most useful.

Sharkey · « **Reply #35 on:** February 12, 2009, 09:28:51 PM »

I hate very much to say this, but I agree with Kazz. I think what was done (is being done) with The End has been executed brilliantly, but mostly because it has been the product of a single writer, with the occasional wildcard thrown into the options by the community.

I know there are more than a few writers here who could carry such a thing, and I like the idea of a poll driven CYOA, but I have two questions:

1) Who would be drafted into such a damn thing?

2) How would this be different than, say, MS Paint Adventures?

I think the subsidiary contributions would just naturally follow, but I don't take anything for granted these days.

Ideally it seems that there would be a single fairly brilliant writer putting together the narrative for each choice and everyone else throwing in additional material (illustrations, animations, songs, whatever) in a regular blog kind of format. With something like a "The End Story Posts" sort of section that splices them all together in a coherent way.

Which I think we're all more than up to. It's just a matter of finding someone who not just wants to do it, but who gives such a screaming shit that they can't help but do it.

One person. You're each brilliant on your own, but as far as doing anything as a gestalt, I wouldn't trust you any further than I could kick you. That is, individually I could probably kick you each an impressive distance. All together, I don't think I could manage more than a few inches and a broken, shit covered foot.

Brentai · « **Reply #36 on:** February 12, 2009, 09:43:06 PM »

WRONG AS ALWAYS, YOU MOTHERFUCKER!!!

Koah · « **Reply #37 on:** February 12, 2009, 11:24:39 PM »

Honestly, I started contemplating pestering Arc for some of the stuff pertaining to The Mayor (not this one, the other one), getting my act together for a few brief moments then writing a few introductory paragraphs with "COMMAND?" placed directly underneath them in a suitably ominous fashion before letting things go from there. The main reason I didn't was, as implied, I couldn't think of any way to make it something that wasn't culled from MS Paint Adventures.

Brentai · « **Reply #38 on:** February 12, 2009, 11:45:29 PM »

Quote from: O. Hakubi on February 12, 2009, 11:24:39 PM

The Mayor (not this one, the other one)

Which other one?

Koah · « **Reply #39 on:** February 12, 2009, 11:51:05 PM »

You know the one you're thinking of?

Because it's not that one, it's the other other one.

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Author Topic: A Next Mayor Is... (Read 8520 times)