kyres1 deputy loremaster application

[kyres1]

A quick (two day) double take and a discussion with a friend had me thinking on some things. Mostly about the efficacy of attempting sorts of large, sweeping reforms; most of which weren't entirely referred to in the thread, as opposed to a myriad of other responsibilities the role might have. Some thought into that had me on internal tangents about what I'd miss out on if I simply shied away from work that wasn't even mandatory for my purview.

TL;DR, I figured my previous post of

On 03/08/2023 at 03:55, kyres1 said:

but undergoing team-wide reforms is a different story; one that chips away at reputation and exhausts one very quickly.

kind of ignores the fact that there's still an immense amount to do besides team-wide reforms. Moreover, the fact that, seeing as the team even exists, obviously we aren't in absolute instantaneous need of these reforms...

Obviously, if this workload was as monolithic as it sounded still at first impressions, I'd still be having second thoughts as the message would lead you to believe. But this realization of workload is something of a double-take on that, for the better, I believe.

So, I pinged @Caelphon and asked to re-open the application. I'll have @Flpfs and @Triogenix's questions sorted today.

[GeneralCamo]

I think the ability to step back and consider that you might not be right for a job, is commendable. Even if you reconsidered, the fact you were willing to consider the idea that you should be hands off shows in my eyes that you would be a good lore deputy.

I'm going to give you a +1.

[NewOriginalSchwann]

I fundamentally disagree with your vision for the lore team and our setting's future, and I do not support your application. You have been the DLM more than any other person on the server, and it would be better to give others the chance to fill the position.

[Sycmos]

I have no doubt in my mind that Kyres' passion for the community and related work ethic to add content is virtually unmatched - to the point at times I even feel concerned about them burning out. The contributions that they've made in recent memory (not considering their current projects) make for grocery receipt levels of content. I feel that we would be several steps backward from where we are now as a server without their time and effort, something that we all have limited amounts of and yet choose to offer to our community free of charge. While I feel that we do need to make a better effort to include new faces among our staff, I can't go without respecting their merits.

That being said, I have one question:

1. What would you like to see more of from our lore? What kind of writing? What do you think our current body of work lacks?

[Alberyk]

Kyres can not access the forums so I am posting his reply:

@Triogenix

What defines "engaging players" at this point? Lore development is not exactly a one-and-done ordeal; once you begin making things happen, you need to constantly be there. You need to constantly curate, adjust, update, and feed the players, or they'll very simply get bored with your end of the bargain. In many cases, the game simply picks up the slack; people remain interested by using their own methods of playing the game and running their own characters with no outside help to keep enjoying the server. But in this case, you're effectively shouldering 100% of the player's "fun" on the lore developer. You'd need to be a magician to make this remotely the case, honestly. 

Why do I say that? Well, think of the things you'd need to personally handle to totally "contribute everything" as a writer.

You'd need the ability to host (admin), the ability to develop (any green name role), the interest to write, the knowledge of the lore to manipulate the game without worry, and so on. Suddenly, things become immensely more daunting, and things suddenly erupt far above and beyond what you could typically expect of a writer. It's for this reason I never really try to /just/ write. I try to contribute on as many angles as I can, because we're never going to have enough people who can do more than write. 

Now, even with ALL THAT SAID, I still disagree. I think the long-term effects of KOTW are seen to this day. I think that, if it didn't happen, nothing that is happening right now in Human lore would have, or would be happening to begin with. That sure seems like far-reaching effects to me. You could even say the political debates and factional mayhem still seep into roleplay! Which is the truth, even if I don't really like the focus of politics in general.
 

@Flpfs

Depends. Does it do anything? Can people talk about it, is there a plan to make it matter, will it be seen again, is it unique? Dominia's fencing lore was a pretty great addition because, quite honestly, it's an amazing start for a myriad of background and it can serve a very big purpose in developing lore. You can make two important nobles fence. You can make it happen on the ship. You can fence on the ship. It's not just some fluff entry, it has the ability to be used to great effect, and it has - at least some stuff of tangible relevance - been used before.

Something more sad to me is Crosk. Crosk was a great opportunity to see aspects of our lore that ultimately affect nothing (read : fluff) be turned into something that can be spoken of, at length, in character. It's a normal thing! You can extremely easily justify talking about the latest races, and because of the sheer width of the planet's impact on the scene, you can even more easily justify being involved as a racer; or making up your own races, your own tale, your own interactions. These were things that were compounded by the flavorful execution of the planet, and even if the developer didn't entirely like it, I sure enjoyed the idea. Disclaimer : I still think it's fine that they decided to remove Crosk. It's not my ballpark to judge this decision, but I used this as an example of how to do this sort of "fluff" correctly.
 

@Sycmos

This is the magic question. Writers reasonably hate being asked about directions and management; it's in anybody's nature to avoid the nitty-gritty. But if you ask "what would you want to add?" well, I can go on for years!

Chief among the things I've pushed for are the current iteration of the NBT, as I've said a lot, and it being seen to fruition is our greatest achievement to date as a team. I bring this up because anything I want to add is adjacent or extends, and improves the experience we have with the ideals we planned for.

Specific additions? Here's three I can name off the top of my head.
1. We need a bridge in-game and a total look-over of how to consume the wiki. This means an ingame codex (likely added/managed by myself) and capitalizing on a lot of very old, but very tested (and often failed) techniques; like the short-lived Lore Hub, revitalizing the Chapter Log to be more legible and interesting, so on and so forth. The end goal, and ideal for everyone, is to make our lore as easy to ingest as possible for a new player. Reaching this can involve anything from more integration with mediawiki, or just moving off of mediawiki as a whole.

2. We need to take contribution more seriously and reflect our changes in a way that immediately affects the game. I do mean it when I say that we're pretty much doomed if we try to totally separate the universe from the players' reach on the ship. So, I want player agency to be maximized; I want the Horizon to make effective decisions in a way that we can leave autonomous as much as possible, and allow our reactive moderation to ensure canonicity isn't broken at the end of the day. I want investment in how lore actually permits players to act in the universe. Here's some ideas of how this can be done;

A. Automatic faction behavior (like automatic spawns and responses to certain situations/reports) and "organizations" that can reflect contacts around the Horizon, and be contacted in a similar fashion - and addressed alongside how CCIA handles faxes and communication.

B. Freeing the yoke around administration to portray whatever the hell they want from lore. They're vetted ten times as much just to reach a moderator position; there's not much reason to keep canonical "abuse" from their hands, as long as it can be retroactively examined and scrutinized.

C. Lore should play characters. This isn't an exaggeration or a joke; I think lore developers, and volunteers, should have an obligation to portray long-term characters that have impact on the Horizon's mission, so long as they don't step on each other's toes. This is a very basic activity in team work that makes the dream work. CEOs, for example, are not monolithic deities unable to be reached any longer; if we're so important, this lets us actually reach out to their direct subordinates, or even be contacted by them directly for their own practical purposes. It's boring to see these things out of our reach for eternity. Do you know how quickly a player could find investment by talking to an important lore character over the phone? It would be insanely influential and grip even newer players to the core!

3. Community outreach for special permissions/roles that allow players to contribute to certain goals as their characters. These are like mini-arcs that don't need to have long-lasting major implications. This DID already happen, actually! In 2018, there were a bunch of "CYOA" type events ran by myself and a couple other developers. In these events, you'd fulfill a certain objective in a round, and afterwards be contacted through discord/pager with a prompt of how to proceed. If your character completed X or Y and reached a certain conclusion, the character could be commended, reprimanded, go on an off-station adventure, meet new characters and get tagged along with other players in an unpredictable, unfurling set of events that all loop back to their job station-side. Since it's so minor, we even gave players the option to just totally retcon it. But it was direct involvement; it was developers reaching out, and literally playing into the community. It was kinda magic! This kind of stuff can easily return. They especially don't have to leave the game, for that matter. Creativity rules here.

[Caelphon]

Thank you for your application.

Kyres, you are one of the most involved members of the community. You are a talented artist and a great writer. You also have a phenomenal mind for creating event arcs. Though I have elected another applicant at this stage, I do wish to involve you more in our event arcs, and bring you to the table as someone with as much experience as you do. Thank you for throwing your hat into the ring.