Note: This document is not up to date.
Hello story writers!
Like Thamus has done for the MMO Forum as an Introduction in this thread, the Story Team wants to invite you to participate and give you some guidelines about how to contribute to this very exciting part of our MMO development.
We will use the same links, applications, and forums as the rest of the MMO team, but our tasks will have a different focus. Our number one focus will be generate creative story-based content for the potential use in our MMORPG. We want ideas about RPG plots and quests, cultural enrichment, canon or non-canon characters, dialogue, and imaginative solutions to create an alternative storyline that launches after Book 1.
Before you consider helping, please read the Almanach Thread to learn more about our game's structure, and then please read the Quest Document to learn how our quests are organized into an act-structure and how questing advances the player's ever-widening knowledge and role in the game!
Note:The application process is currently suspended!
Application Process -- Anyone can help the story writing team!
For the time being, we will be working on 3 levels of involvement.
Level 1 - Commenter: Anyone (builder or guest) can post and respond to forum threads with ideas or questions for the story team. Anyone can leave comments on our documents with suggestions or editing comments.
Level 2 - Story Team Member: Requires an application. Has access to edit documents and should be actively generating ideas and content, formatting them into shareable documents and discussing ideas with other story team members and moderators.
Level 3 - Story Team Moderator: Select members chosen from Level 2 by current moderators who have shown commitment and leadership among the story team. Have an expanded role in moderating forums, permissions to tools and documents, and lead meetings, organize events, and promote the work of the story team.
Terminology:
In order to get everyone on the same page we need to establish a common language. Here are some explanations for terms you might not know what they stand for.
Tips for Potential Writers:
Immerse yourself! This includes both the original books and supporting materials, the HBO show, other genres of fiction and non-fiction, other video games and MMORPGs, etc. The more broad experience you have, the more experience you can offer to the team! This includes immersing yourself in the what the builders are creating. Visit their builds, ask them questions, imagine their work as the backdrop of the drama we are creating!
Be open and creative! We are a team of collaborators -- for writers, this can be hard because we seek a certain "ownership" over what we write. But this team will have a very flexible structure. What you create may or may not be used as the game is developed. Put your best work forward, work collaboratively, accept and leave feedback with humility, use the ideas of others whenever possible -- all while maintaining the "vision" laid out in the Almanach and Quest Writing Documents.
Be ambitious but not exclusive! We love big ideas! We want loads of big ideas! Consider yourself as a team that is completely self-directed -- you can work on whatever you want! Ask for permission or advice, but don't wait around for a moderator or another team member to start working on something. Chances are that an ambitious project or list of new ideas or generated content will be gladly accepted! But, don't work in isolation or work exclusively on one idea without anyone else being involved. We hope to build off the ideas of others, not forging dozens of "original" and disjointed paths.
Be clear and concise! You could go on and on and on about the intricacies of your story, quest, or character. But since the game is still in development, all of those details will probably be worked out later, changed, adapted, or completely irrelevant. We want you to be specific and creative, but clearly laying out your idea in its simplest form will help us develop it more efficiently as team, instead of being bogged down in details and paragraphs of text.
Dig deep! Ask questions! Be inquisitive! If you want to learn more, feel free to ask! If you want to explore a new idea, ask for input, research ideas, record your discoveries and share them. There are untold wonders waiting in GRRM's books that we can flesh out as a team, but we need to hunt those ideas down, imagine how they could be expanded, and refine them into something amazing! So dig deep into the books and your own imagination!
Hello story writers!
Like Thamus has done for the MMO Forum as an Introduction in this thread, the Story Team wants to invite you to participate and give you some guidelines about how to contribute to this very exciting part of our MMO development.
We will use the same links, applications, and forums as the rest of the MMO team, but our tasks will have a different focus. Our number one focus will be generate creative story-based content for the potential use in our MMORPG. We want ideas about RPG plots and quests, cultural enrichment, canon or non-canon characters, dialogue, and imaginative solutions to create an alternative storyline that launches after Book 1.
Before you consider helping, please read the Almanach Thread to learn more about our game's structure, and then please read the Quest Document to learn how our quests are organized into an act-structure and how questing advances the player's ever-widening knowledge and role in the game!
Note:The application process is currently suspended!
Application Process -- Anyone can help the story writing team!
For the time being, we will be working on 3 levels of involvement.
Level 1 - Commenter: Anyone (builder or guest) can post and respond to forum threads with ideas or questions for the story team. Anyone can leave comments on our documents with suggestions or editing comments.
Level 2 - Story Team Member: Requires an application. Has access to edit documents and should be actively generating ideas and content, formatting them into shareable documents and discussing ideas with other story team members and moderators.
Level 3 - Story Team Moderator: Select members chosen from Level 2 by current moderators who have shown commitment and leadership among the story team. Have an expanded role in moderating forums, permissions to tools and documents, and lead meetings, organize events, and promote the work of the story team.
Terminology:
In order to get everyone on the same page we need to establish a common language. Here are some explanations for terms you might not know what they stand for.
Please comment if you stumble upon a term you are unfamiliar with or needs to be clarified that you can not find on this list! We will update the list accordingly.
____________________________________________
Region - The North, The Vale, Dorne, The Crownlands, The Stormlands, The Iron Islands, Beyond the Wall, The Riverlands, The Reach, The Westerlands
Area - The area of influence of a minor Lord (e.g. the lands controlled by House Bracken), also called Voronoi Area and is defined as either Player Controlled or Public. The Public Area is either defined as Political or Economic.
Family/House - The Lord and her/his entourage.
Landmarks - Game-related infrastructure (such as windmills; woods; villages - not a farmer's house, though) that can be found within an Area. Landmarks are of economic importance (create resources; allow resource gathering; pay taxes; etc.)
NPC - Non Player Character - A character that a player can interact with.
NPC Type - The type of interaction a NPC offers (such as: Quests, Trade, Travel, Fight, etc.)
Quest Line/Arc - Consists of several Quest Units, sometimes organized into groups of units called Acts.
Quest Unit - A Quest that can be any of several Quest Types
Quest Type - Different kinds of Quests (such as: Gather, Fight- or Find- Quests)
Game-Generated Quest - A quest written by the quest team which may be very simple or complex multi-act sequences.
Player-Generated Quest - A contracted quest made between players that has the appearance of a quest and more limited in its scope.
Macro-Quest - A quest containing multiple acts or a series of linked or related quests. Probably region or canon specific and less likely to be recycled or relocated.
Micro-Quest - A quest with a simple goal, less likely to be linked to other quests. More generic and could be recycled or relocated.
____________________________________________
Region - The North, The Vale, Dorne, The Crownlands, The Stormlands, The Iron Islands, Beyond the Wall, The Riverlands, The Reach, The Westerlands
Area - The area of influence of a minor Lord (e.g. the lands controlled by House Bracken), also called Voronoi Area and is defined as either Player Controlled or Public. The Public Area is either defined as Political or Economic.
Family/House - The Lord and her/his entourage.
Landmarks - Game-related infrastructure (such as windmills; woods; villages - not a farmer's house, though) that can be found within an Area. Landmarks are of economic importance (create resources; allow resource gathering; pay taxes; etc.)
NPC - Non Player Character - A character that a player can interact with.
NPC Type - The type of interaction a NPC offers (such as: Quests, Trade, Travel, Fight, etc.)
Quest Line/Arc - Consists of several Quest Units, sometimes organized into groups of units called Acts.
Quest Unit - A Quest that can be any of several Quest Types
Quest Type - Different kinds of Quests (such as: Gather, Fight- or Find- Quests)
Game-Generated Quest - A quest written by the quest team which may be very simple or complex multi-act sequences.
Player-Generated Quest - A contracted quest made between players that has the appearance of a quest and more limited in its scope.
Macro-Quest - A quest containing multiple acts or a series of linked or related quests. Probably region or canon specific and less likely to be recycled or relocated.
Micro-Quest - A quest with a simple goal, less likely to be linked to other quests. More generic and could be recycled or relocated.
Tips for Potential Writers:
Immerse yourself! This includes both the original books and supporting materials, the HBO show, other genres of fiction and non-fiction, other video games and MMORPGs, etc. The more broad experience you have, the more experience you can offer to the team! This includes immersing yourself in the what the builders are creating. Visit their builds, ask them questions, imagine their work as the backdrop of the drama we are creating!
Be open and creative! We are a team of collaborators -- for writers, this can be hard because we seek a certain "ownership" over what we write. But this team will have a very flexible structure. What you create may or may not be used as the game is developed. Put your best work forward, work collaboratively, accept and leave feedback with humility, use the ideas of others whenever possible -- all while maintaining the "vision" laid out in the Almanach and Quest Writing Documents.
Be ambitious but not exclusive! We love big ideas! We want loads of big ideas! Consider yourself as a team that is completely self-directed -- you can work on whatever you want! Ask for permission or advice, but don't wait around for a moderator or another team member to start working on something. Chances are that an ambitious project or list of new ideas or generated content will be gladly accepted! But, don't work in isolation or work exclusively on one idea without anyone else being involved. We hope to build off the ideas of others, not forging dozens of "original" and disjointed paths.
Be clear and concise! You could go on and on and on about the intricacies of your story, quest, or character. But since the game is still in development, all of those details will probably be worked out later, changed, adapted, or completely irrelevant. We want you to be specific and creative, but clearly laying out your idea in its simplest form will help us develop it more efficiently as team, instead of being bogged down in details and paragraphs of text.
Dig deep! Ask questions! Be inquisitive! If you want to learn more, feel free to ask! If you want to explore a new idea, ask for input, research ideas, record your discoveries and share them. There are untold wonders waiting in GRRM's books that we can flesh out as a team, but we need to hunt those ideas down, imagine how they could be expanded, and refine them into something amazing! So dig deep into the books and your own imagination!
