MattAtlas' Human Lore Deputy Application - Assuming Direct Control

[MattAtlas]

18 minutes ago, SilverSZ said:

1) Human Lore and Synthetic Lore are tied at the hip in many cases and I'd say there's no interspecies cooperation that occurs on the same level as between these two teams. Almost all of synthetic lore is in some way built off or intertwined with human lore. Even prominent parts of Synthlore that stand on their own still heavily involve humans such as the Trinary Perfection or Konyang.  How do you feel about cooperating with the Synthetic Team in particular? Do you have any ideas of where you would like to use Synthetics within your own writing for human lore or anything you would like to see change or added to Synthetic lore that would also benefit human lore as well?

Cooperating with the synthetic team is a nobrainer, really. Humans and synthetics are intertwined so deeply that they are inseparable. As far as I'm concerned the two teams should work together on most things, since for example a new human planet directly needs synthetic lore added to it as well.

I think, relevant to this application, we could expand on synthetics on Venus especially -- in the entertainment industry and as actors notably, as synthetics have a considerable edge over humans (they can be manufactured to be perfect whereas humans have to undergo extensive plastic surgery or genetic engineering). I think we could, for example, build a certain rivalry between synthetic and organic actors in that regard. Some other interesting ideas are bound to pop up there. Two other things are Venusian Stars Institute owned synthetics (as rejecting actors for not meeting beauty standards is an ugly job, it can often be offloaded to particularly selfish synthetics) and VPPF synthetics, which in my mind would often be assigned to Jintarian patrols more. Intentionally so. Either way, I would like to make Venusian synthetics stand out from the rest and be a fairly interesting and well thought out origin for synthetic players.

I think synthetics are in a good place for the rest of human lore, really. I have nothing I would particularly change regarding them, but I would be more than open on cooperating with the synth team for new additions.

[SilverSZ]

5 hours ago, MattAtlas said:

Snip

Good Answer, Venusians synthetics certainly need an expansion on their current lore. Good Luck with the Application.

[niennab]

Matt has both the level headed-ness and creativity neccessary for the role of human lore deputy. Any questions I might have had have already been covered but I wanted to toss a +1 it's way nonetheless.

[Haydizzle]

I must say I'm glad to see your application this time around. I figured you would have applied when the position last opened up, so I didn't think you would have applied now.

You have good opinions on the lore, and I always enjoy your point of view on things, even when it runs directly counter to my own. Your reasoning is solid and your creativity is very impressive, where I wish I had more of something like that.

Despite my positive views, I must echo Trio's concerns about abrasiveness. While for us, we can sometimes have a laugh over situations and enjoy them together, I know that isn't the case for everyone. The human lore team in particular receives a lot of ire and attention due to holding both sway over the lore and having the most players (due to being the only unwhitelisted race really). This can result definitely in some tense situations.

That aside, everyone has their flaws, and I feel confident this isn't something that will set you back in your endeavors; I've noticed it has been less and less of a problem for you over the years. Your submission for Cael looks wonderful, and your app has my support. Just keep in mind your strengths and weaknesses and you'll do great. Good luck, Matt.

[Lucaken]

Before Caelphon's reply, I would have similarly pointed out your lack of written work, but thankfully this was quickly fixed. Although obviously unrefined, I think the document proves that you do indeed have the writing ability required for the job.

My only other concern is the number of hats you will have to wear if you do become a writer. Others have harped on this fact already, but I'm going to reinforce it as the deputy loremaster - juggling this many positions is no joke, especially when responsibilites overlap. It's not just about managing burnout, it's also about knowing where one position starts and when it ends. I have faith in you both as a friend and a fellow staff member. But you should double-triple-quadriple check with yourself that this amount of responsibility is something you want and can handle.

[Triogenix]

Hi, I'm back with more questions because I'm curious.

1. How do you see the nationalization of megacorporate assets within Sol affecting the political state of the alliance and it's economy?

2. What are your thoughts on megacorporations and the attempts made to make them unique?(I.E, the Heph employees buying into stock, or ZH with their faceplates and rent-a-limb programs)

3. The Alliance and J Federation are beginning to be allies in more than name again, with the Alliance leaning heavily on the Federation for support refitting it's fleets and travel in the wildlands, as the warp gates gifted to the Alliance by the federation and EE. With this said, where would you like see this relationship going in the future?

4. With the phoron scarcity currently ongoing, many Human factions have He3 and warp drives within their borders, or a large amount of phoron(Elyra).  How do you see the scarcity impacting these nations in a meaningful way?

5. In conjunction with the question above, what do you believe the primary impacts of the scarcity should be, for the whole spur?

[MattAtlas]

21 hours ago, Triogenix said:

Hi, I'm back with more questions because I'm curious.

1. How do you see the nationalization of megacorporate assets within Sol affecting the political state of the alliance and it's economy?

2. What are your thoughts on megacorporations and the attempts made to make them unique?(I.E, the Heph employees buying into stock, or ZH with their faceplates and rent-a-limb programs)

3. The Alliance and J Federation are beginning to be allies in more than name again, with the Alliance leaning heavily on the Federation for support refitting it's fleets and travel in the wildlands, as the warp gates gifted to the Alliance by the federation and EE. With this said, where would you like see this relationship going in the future?

4. With the phoron scarcity currently ongoing, many Human factions have He3 and warp drives within their borders, or a large amount of phoron(Elyra).  How do you see the scarcity impacting these nations in a meaningful way?

5. In conjunction with the question above, what do you believe the primary impacts of the scarcity should be, for the whole spur?

1. Nationalization of megacorporate assets is not something that should be taken lightly in a megacorporate-dominated setting. The big thing to remember is that corporations essentially run the Spur-wide economy and the glass house of intergalactic economy is basically half-managed by them. A structure like that is inherently fragile and Sol nationalizing a fairly large amount of corporate assets in its space should ring some fairly big alarm bells for the galaxy, but also for its inhabitants. First and foremost, this action basically guarantees Biesel's hostility towards Sol, while it might be seen by some governments as amiable at most. Secondly, for Solarian citizens, the cessation of many corporate assembly chains essentially means that for a good amount of time, certain goods that require corporate expertise (think heavy machinery operation or assembly lines) are going to skyrocket in price for a while as retooling takes place and facilities are emptied out of their managers and re-staffed by SCA-appointed personnel. Sol's economy would take a sizeable hit, in my opinion, although I am no economist. It should reasonably rebound once the SCA really gets going, however. This action does allow Sol a good amount of control over its own economy as well, and makes it independent in SOME sectors -- this is more than Biesel has.
2. The only company we currently have that arguably has a soul is Idris. Everything else falls short of having a defined personality simply because they don't have a powerful enough theme for players to latch onto. Idris succeeds because it has a strong, immediately-visible personality: sleazy bankers that just want money is something that's easy to co-opt and make a character out of. Everything else is niche or simply not well-advertised enough, or too hard to latch onto (Zeng-Hu's augment business is not only just not elaborated upon, it also hard-locks out a significant amount of characters, you have to make a really weird character to go along with ZH's theme, hence why most people just avoid this corp). In general, corporations need more of the flair that Idris has, but that's a major project on its own.
3. Jargon needs its power scale checked, ideally through some sort of internal crisis à-la-KOTW. It is absolutely impossible for me to consider any sort of formal Jargon-Alliance relationship simply because that would mean the 2 most powerful entities in the Spur entering a formal alliance, which has INSANE repercussions for the Spur's political landscape. This kind of alliance would make our lore much worse as it'd essentially make both Sol and Jargon completely untouchable. Other than that, it should be a primarily trade or services-based relationship for the time being, with Jargon supporting Sol's current government and not messing about in the wildlands if not to benefit Sol to some degree. I'd like to see more Sol-Jargon cooperation hinted at in the tech/science fields, as well.
4. The importance of bluespace gates (which are phoron-powered) is an often overlooked aspect, despite being a major one. Bluespace gates shutting down would essentially mean basically almost every single civilian/transport ship network shutting down as they can't use bluespace travel otherwise. This is a major issue that all governments would realistically be looking at -- imagine all cargo ships and airplanes ceasing to function overnight. That'd be a colossal deal, one which is not really ever hinted at or even pointed out in-lore. That's the biggest impact I can think of -- otherwise, I'd say shortage of pharmaceuticals and a looming power generation crisis are the bigger ones. A lot of inspiration can be taken from the 2000s energy crisis in this regard.
5. Focusing on effects on characters, travel costs would spike up a lot; the same goes with import costs and all kinds of related things. What we can show off articles-wise would probably involve interviews of normal people in Biesel/Sol/the CoC from a diverse pool of planets. Essentially, these interviews would contain the average persons' grievances caused by the phoron shortage (as mentioned before, import costs, travel costs, fuel costs, ...) which can be made visible through the wiki (ideally in a Phoron Shortage page or something) and thus utilized by characters in-game for storytelling or background purposes. On an even higher level, thus speaking about governments, reason follows that governments would grow more desperate for phoron as time goes on (see my point about bluespace gates, the entire galaxy is quite literally on a timer to complete and utter economic explosion) and this should be reflected.

[The7thLain]

I have decided to appoint you as the next human lore deputy. Congratulations! You will receive details shortly in discord.