FluffyGhost - Deputy Loremaster Application

[Fluffy]

Ckey/BYOND Username: FluffyGhost

Position Being Applied For: Deputy Loremaster

Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page?: Yes

Past Experiences/Knowledge: Ontop of what already outlined in my coder application, I have now about two years of development experience on this server, one of which in official capacity as a developer

 

1) What do you believe you can bring to the team as Deputy Loremaster.

I believe I can bring a perspective, and the ability needed to help bring things to fruition and keep the ball rolling, so to say
As I am not particularly involved (or have been involved) with any specific lore department, I think I can also bring a neutral point of view since I'm not committed to neither any particular course of lore development nor any particular lore department, they all stand equal ground, and I believe it to be a good thing to have someone with this perspective

 

2) Do you have any experience managing a Team? The duties of a Deputy Loremaster often revolve around being a Project Lead, not necessarily just writing.

I was the technical head of the first Altis Life Italia (an ArmA 3 server back to when ArmA 3 was still in alpha), I worked in various companies whose primary business was consulting in IT projects, I have overseen projects of different sizes across the various companies I worked for

 

3) Your thoughts on me as a loremaster, and how best you think you can assist me.

I believe you're a good loremaster, in particular, I appreciate the planned development of the phoron scarcity from something that technically exists but seems to never truly matter for the ship to something that will both exist and be tangible
The times I have approached you for a chat, you have always striked me as open to a rational conversation or to simply have fun

I think I can assist you by providing a different perspective, someone to bounce ideas with, a technical eye that can guesstimate the technical effort needed to bring things from pen to life for arcs/events/mechanics
Together, I believe we can push the boundaries of what our server can achieve, and strenghtening the cross integrational nature of the technical/written aspects of it

 

4) What do you believe are your biggest drawbacks, both as a writer and as an applicant for this position?

I recognize that my English writing isn't always good, particularly when I'm tired, and I’m actively working on improving that
I also tend to approach problems with a very analytical mindset, which can sometimes lead to getting caught up in the details of a dissertation
If I already formed an opinion on something, it can need some more convincing than the average person to change my position, as I tend to place an high bar to switching (admittedly this could also be a positive depending on the specifics - you don't want to sink 300 man hours into something that will then be scrapped if you can realize it won't work as you think in advance and avoid it, for example)

 

5) In a brief summary, explain the direction you'd wish to see the Lore Team take in regards to Aurora Lore.

We have a large amount of lore that tends to not really matter much in day to day gameplay, I would like to see it becoming relevant and played on not only during an arc or in some rare moments, but throughout the game
This is something that is starting already with the phoron scarcity, as above, and I wish to then expand it afterwards: Corporations rivarly and internal quabblings, inter and intra planetary rivalries that affect the SCC/our ship and the characters from said planets in a tangible level, and so on

I would also like to see a more open doors policy towards the community as a whole, so they can give their contributions to the server; I would like character decisions to also matter more and have more visible consequences on the setting - not necessarily ingame character decisions, I think they should also be able to do things off camera and submit them to be canonicized and influence, however tinly, things.
If you write a 10 pages story about how the ship helped some specific Unathi clan during the months we've been here in Moghes, assuming all is good with what you wrote and we accept it, expect maybe an article mentioning it, the lord of that tribe to remember us fondly when we're back to Moghes, perhaps to receive a gift as a custom item from said tribe - that kind of things (This is just an example off the top of my head)

I think we should also increase our accessibility, so that new players can (relatively) quickly hop in and be able to play while absorbing the rest of the lore - the upfront investment needed to even test out and see if you like to play here is too high and I think it turns more than a few people away before they can even get hooked in; I would like for it to feel organic

I would likewise like to see the various planets, and cultures in said planets, feel more diverse from each other

I likewise would also like for some (possibly irrelevant) topic to be highly specific, so that characters can choose to engage with the specificity too in their RP avenues - This won't be many topic for obvious reasons, but I believe that in the right quantity, it gives another avenue that we don't currently have much

 

6) Where do you think lore is lacking currently?

Currently, I believe our lore is rich in detail but sometimes fails to translate into being engaging ingame - we have some lore that does it pretty well (eg. Tajara, Dominia) but on average we're a bit lacking in this department; our lore is one of the pillars that make the game fun to play, at times however it can feel like it exists for its own sake, rather than to support the game; My goal is to make most of our lore not just something to read about or something that you mention rarely , but something to live and play, and that generally people would love to engage and be engaged with, across the board

 

7) Lastly, what timezone are you normally awake during?

I currently follow the US timezone, more or less

Edited August 20 by Fluffy
forgot a word

[GeneralCamo]

8 hours ago, Fluffy said:

We have a large amount of lore that tends to not really matter much in day to day gameplay, I would like to see it becoming relevant and played on not only during an arc or in some rare moments, but throughout the game

I think at this point, this is a common theme amongst the lore team in general. As an example, do you have a proposal on fixing one or more of these issues?

8 hours ago, Fluffy said:

I would likewise like to see the various planets, and cultures in said planets, feel more diverse from each other

Do you have any examples of a planet and/or culture that isn't quite diverse to your liking?

I'm excited to see what you cook up here.

[Fluffy]

1 minute ago, GeneralCamo said:

I think at this point, this is a common theme amongst the lore team in general. As an example, do you have a proposal on fixing one or more of these issues?

I would love to have a plan for this already, the truth however is that I'm not set on any specific one just yet, particularly because I would need to consult what the different lore departments would like and think about it, as they are the experts in their own domain - I would certainly much need their opinions and inputs on anything, as well as see if Trio even agrees with this idea to begin with, as he's the loremaster

My thought at the moment would probably be something that focuses on things the SCC would be affected and involved with, and that would thus reflect on the ship (directly if possible); the Phoron scarcity rework would be crucial in setting the tone for this, I would however probably like to do something like the availability or lack thereof of goods and possibly even services, eg. some brands of tobacco inflating in price from the vendor or even be unavailable randomly, certain ingredients for the kitchen, things of that nature, are some things I can think of and seems fairly easy to make happen. Larger things require more inputs as above, however I liked the mini-stories concept like the one we ran with the pirates some time ago, and would love to have things like that happening more, perhaps the ship dropping by some planet/system on the travel to the next lore arc to deliver things to help for that mass shortage? Transporting a diplomat from eg. Biesel to Konyang? Casually passing by some emergency with eg. some SCC captain of another ship kidnapped by some pirates that requires the Horizon to stop by? Or perhaps "casually" stumbling upon another SCC ship hailing for emergency that is being boarded by hostiles trying to steal it and the Horizon have to figure out a way to either help the ship not succumb to them, get the ship back, or at least not losing it to the hostiles? They seem to me pretty doable, soulful and relatively easy things to do

 

17 minutes ago, GeneralCamo said:

Do you have any examples of a planet and/or culture that isn't quite diverse to your liking?

I would say right now, the most easy example I can think of would be Konyang, after the IPC virus I would imagine a deeply wounded and extremely divided society (and planetary politic), spanning from those that try to forgive the IPCs ("It wasn't their fault, it was the virus") and move on, all the way to some faction that would made the most staunch Dominian proud ("Abhor the synthetic, disassemble them all"), passing by the various spectrums of the "ifs" and "buts" ("It's not their fault, but we need to make sure it never happens again, implant them with centrally controlled explosive devices / install EMP generators across the planet / we need to develop a positronic antivirus software, just look at the untapped free market this has just induced demand of, and it benefits us too / give them short lived batteries and all recharge stations can be disabled remotely so if they go rampant again we just wait it out until they run out of charge / etc.")

That's not to say that every planet needs to be diverse either, mind you; for some planet, being uniform can be the being different, compared to other planets

[Faye <3]

23 hours ago, Fluffy said:

If I already formed an opinion on something, it can need some more convincing than the average person to change my position,

I can't help but raise this concern. I have seen you act extremely hardheaded and obstinate to the point of frustration on all sides, even with multiple people trying to dissuade you from a viewpoint. As deputy, you're going to be the go-between many, many people from many different teams, as well as having an organizational role for whatever projects lore wants to focus on. What will you do if your tendency towards obstinance prevents progress on such a project, or hampers dialogue between teams?

Edited August 21 by Faye <3

[Fluffy]

28 minutes ago, Faye &lt;3 said:

[snip]

I appreciate your concern about this, I believe an emphasis on thoughtful analysis, even if it can take a bit more time and give some frustration in the moment, is overall positive in the long term; while I recognize that this approach can occasionally be overdone, I prioritize a comprehensive understanding of issues, as I believe that taking a bit more time to get it right is better than rushing to a suboptimal conclusion

I would generally seek additional opinions and discuss the matter at hand in such hypothetical scenario with Trio and eventually with our headstaff to reach a conclusion

I however do not believe it's likely for said scenario to occur, as if I'm engaged to mediate a dialogue between teams, the progress is already hampered and that's what I'm being seeked to provide assistance on, and likely Trio with me to tackle this blocker from the get go; likewise, I do not believe in an hypothetical scenario the time difference would be such that it would constitute a tangible hampering on the overall timeline of the project

Ultimately, I remain committed to make this server the best it can become

[Triogenix]

Hi! Thanks for applying, and my apologies for only now getting to this. I have a few questions/comments about your application.

1) Nearly ever application, or question on it has referenced the amount of lore we have, and it's relevance to the setting, alongside potential issues we currently have regarding both those things. I'd like to know your thoughts on lore that is, as I consider it, one step removed from actually effecting players. As an example of what I mean that I'm currently working on, the macro level economic lore for the orion spur really doesn't matter to individual characters directly; yet at the same time, lore such as that is what dictates the lower level lore that could matter to individual characters. In my experience this link is not always evident, and lore such as this makes up a majority of what people consider "irrelevant" lore.(I might have explained this poorly, but I don't want to go on a massive rant at the same time.)

So should we cut down on the amount of this lore? Split the wiki into "lore pages" and "reference pages?" or whatever other thoughts you may have.

2) Adding on to what Faye mentioned above, there are going to be times where prolonged discussion/debates/arguments are simply not worth the effort from any parties. I understand wanting a comprehensive view/understanding of issues, but a big part of management is picking your battles; deciding what you can cave/budge on and what you can't. Given my past experiences with you, my main concern/fear is that every discussion about a change where there is disagreement would end up being an 8 hour slog fest, and result in team members getting frustrated about any discussion.

With all that said, the question I have is do you think that you are open to reining yourself in, for lack of a better term, when it comes to discussing things, disagreement or not?

3) Somewhat related to the above, one of the more difficult parts of being on the lore team is that we tend to catch a lot of flak, warranted or not, from the player base at large. Some outright hostile, some more passive aggressive. I'm not sure what it's like as a developer, but how do you think you'll react when this inevitably happens? Do you think you'll be able to stay motivated?

4) Lastly, if you get this position, how long do you see yourself being in it?

[GeneralCamo]

So we had a debate on this in the general discord. I'm curious on your thoughts.

 

To what extent should gameplay reflect the lore, and vice versa? Are there any exceptions you can think of to your general opinion on this?

[Fluffy]

7 hours ago, Triogenix said:

1) Nearly ever application, or question on it has referenced the amount of lore we have, and it's relevance to the setting, alongside potential issues we currently have regarding both those things. I'd like to know your thoughts on lore that is, as I consider it, one step removed from actually effecting players. As an example of what I mean that I'm currently working on, the macro level economic lore for the orion spur really doesn't matter to individual characters directly; yet at the same time, lore such as that is what dictates the lower level lore that could matter to individual characters. In my experience this link is not always evident, and lore such as this makes up a majority of what people consider "irrelevant" lore.(I might have explained this poorly, but I don't want to go on a massive rant at the same time.)

So should we cut down on the amount of this lore? Split the wiki into "lore pages" and "reference pages?" or whatever other thoughts you may have.

There will of course be pieces that do not have a direct impact, and are still needed to build other pieces that do

Some level of this is expected and good, eg. in your example the macroeconomic of the spur is needed for the teams to know how to approach the economic side when writing other things; I think for those, it's important to simply mark it as such and try to keep it straight to the point, so whoever reads it know it's more of a "here is a general idea of how resources move across the galaxy, unless you're writing something for us or making a character that do resources trading you probably don't care to read this"

If we're talking of mostly self-enclosed things, eg. picture a "Dorn spent the summer recession in the mountains, possibly with an extramarital affair", I'd mark it with a "tldr Dorn spent some time in his mountain residence for the holidays, tabloids suspect extramarital affair", so the readers can keep an idea of what happened without having to read a pseudo-article on something that most likely won't matter to their characters until much later when Dorn sign the "IPCs aren't people but tools so I definitely didn't had an affair" proposal into law (I'm spitballing an example off the top of my head)

 

8 hours ago, Triogenix said:

2) Adding on to what Faye mentioned above, there are going to be times where prolonged discussion/debates/arguments are simply not worth the effort from any parties. I understand wanting a comprehensive view/understanding of issues, but a big part of management is picking your battles; deciding what you can cave/budge on and what you can't. Given my past experiences with you, my main concern/fear is that every discussion about a change where there is disagreement would end up being an 8 hour slog fest, and result in team members getting frustrated about any discussion.

With all that said, the question I have is do you think that you are open to reining yourself in, for lack of a better term, when it comes to discussing things, disagreement or not?

Of course, not every debate is worth having, I think it's however important to understand that the value of a debate isn't only contained in the conclusion

Seeing a debate only as a way to get something is a relatively modern and flawed way to conceptualize it: since we're both 40k fans, and to draw some loose comparison, it would be like reading 40k lore with the only interest of knowing if humanity survives, and getting frustrated while reading the siege of Cadia because it's only a single planet so it doesn't really matter if it stands or not and yet we're reading about it for hours; It would be like playing The Last of Us to know if humanity finds a cure for the virus and be annoyed that Ellie keep talking and slowing you down from reaching the laboratory

A debate is just as much a tool to ensure everyone understand why something is being done (or not done) a certain way, it's a tool to combat bias, it's a tool to ensure everyone can be equally heard, it's a tool to explain and internalize explanations, and so much more

Not every debate is worth the time it takes, and some discussions may not be productive. But the value of debating goes beyond just finding answers; it’s about understanding the reasons, challenging biases, and ensuring all voices are heard, it's time spent on introspection, and so much more than merely answering "ok what we do?", and should be weighted on all those things (and more) too. The ability to debate, to reason, of introspection that it brings, are considered cornerstone qualias of the human experience, from Aristotele to Descartes to Kant; reducing debates to mere decision-making tools doesn’t do them justice; it overlooks their deeper role in fostering understanding and critical thinking

I realize this is more focused on the question's premise itself, but I feel it's important to be cognizant of the differences in assumptions that we make when discoursing; while it might seem time-consuming in the moment, this approach often saves time later by preventing issues from arising due to a lack of clarity or buy-in

That said, I’m always open to refining how we handle these discussions and your concern is totally valid from a practical standpoint, so should I be choosen, I'll make a conscious effort to streamline discussions, use a more structured point by point resolution strategy to gradually progress the debate where useful, and close the debate should it look unlikely that keeping the discussion open will lead to my opinion changing, but I emphasize to be mindful that the evaluation of how worth a debate is factors in a lot of other things besides the outcome of it

Ultimately my goal, here and in other management positions I had both professionally and otherwise, is to foster an environment where decisions are well-understood and well-supported, and where every team member (and user) feels heard; I’m committed to finding the right balance to help us achieve that

 

9 hours ago, Triogenix said:

3) Somewhat related to the above, one of the more difficult parts of being on the lore team is that we tend to catch a lot of flak, warranted or not, from the player base at large. Some outright hostile, some more passive aggressive. I'm not sure what it's like as a developer, but how do you think you'll react when this inevitably happens? Do you think you'll be able to stay motivated?

Devs take flak essentially around the clock, since players are essentially forced to have to interact with what we develop that's expected that they'd have opinions and/or grievances either way on things that are present or absent, how they works, what they do or doesn't do, and so on; it's also more difficult than lore I believe, because it's a live environment with a lot of constrain (technological or otherwise) you have to work with; It can be demotivating at times, but it never stopped me from developing, so I don't think it would in the lore side either

 

9 hours ago, Triogenix said:

4) Lastly, if you get this position, how long do you see yourself being in it?

I don’t join a team with the intention of leaving, so I see myself staying in this position for the long term; as long as I’m enjoying the work, I see myself being in this position for a long time

 

1 hour ago, GeneralCamo said:

To what extent should gameplay reflect the lore, and vice versa? Are there any exceptions you can think of to your general opinion on this?

To a large extent, I'd say; The lore should be engaging as it provides the foundation, the pathos, for why things are happening gameplay wise, while the gameplay is the focus of the game (we're a SS13 server, and a game, for a reason, after all)

But I'd need something more specific think about for this, because non-canon situations are good and ought not to reflect the lore for example, so, It’s a case-by-case evaluation, and the guiding principle should always be: whichever approach makes the game more entertaining. the goal is to maintain a balance where lore enriches the gameplay without unnecessarily constraining it

[Triogenix]

Thank you for your application. However I have decided to go with another applicant. I hope to see you apply to more positions in the future however!