Kermit's Deputy Lore Master Application

[kermit]

Ckey/BYOND Username: Sadkermit

Position Being Applied For: Deputy Lore Master

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

Past Experiences/Knowledge: I've been on the diona lore team for ~9 months.

Examples of Past Work:

• The Kir'gul Expansion via lore canonisation app.
• The Narrows Expansion
• The EUM -> Hieroaetheria Overhaul - system & environment
• Dionae Befungiment - genetics & mimicry
• The Hieroaetherian Herald and its Cetus Broadcaster lore.
• Hieroaetherian Entertainment

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

Besides any ideas or perspectives I've accrued over the years, I like to think that I'm pretty easy to work with, in the sense that I'm approachable and good at two-way communication – both listening and presenting. Shutting people off from providing input or being over-eager with my own suggestions isn't something I endeavour to do, especially within the lore team – there's always a middle ground to be found. I don't struggle putting my foot down either, when it comes to it: arguing a point across, getting something done, dealing with the tricky person in or out of the staff team.

Wacky or bold ideas are also commonplace for me. I welcome fun suggestions that keep things fresh for both writers and players. Some ideas are too much, but at least get ideas rolling; some ideas get whittled down into something feasible. Different factions and groups in lore should be distinct and offer something new; too many groups harping on the same notes isn't ideal, imo.

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.

Not in a professional setting or within any of the Aurora's staff teams.

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

I haven't directly interacted with you yet; most of my prior interactions with lore administration were with Lavilla as deputy. My only thoughts on you stem from catching the odd discussion and seeing your project outlines, all of which I have believed are sound and reasonable.

I know Lavilla's departure shook things up and saw a number of plans suddenly dropped. So, starting off, I'd like to pick up what was dropped to get the balls rolling again while you focus on leading your ongoing Phoron Scarcity rework. The Phoron Scarcity rework itself is one I was happy to see – the scarcity has always seemed a little absent imo – so I'd love to help where asked on that too.

I also like to think I'm familiar with and knowledgeable across the board of species lore, though I am getting out of date in some places. Lending a hand and being a point of communication between species lore and LTA is something I can assist with. Skrell Lore is already down a deputy and Diona Lore will lose one if I was to be accepted as DLM, so my focus will be aiding those two teams until new deputies are found – conveniently, both are the species I'm most confident in helping.

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

I haven't as much experience managing teams compared to some other applicants. I think the species teams are pretty self-managing imo – the whip is rarely cracked from what I've seen over this year. Worth pointing out.

As for my writing, I can be a bit of a stickler for what makes sense technically, as well as ensuring things remain consistent. It takes a little reflection for me to remember to suspend disbelief, usually after a little too much time trying to justify everything technically. I wouldn't say it's a large obstacle; I tend to realise when I'm being too stubborn.

Then on writing again, much like others I typically work in bursts of creativity or energy. Burst, short break, burst, short break, burst. I do stay present even when not working on projects though, whether lending feedback or contributing to discussions, so I don't entirely become absent for extended periods.

And further touched on below, wiki editing/formatting skills. I've not been on the lore team long enough or been a wiki maintainer to figure everything out about that.

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

I'd like to see corporate lore continue to get pushed centrepiece again, likely bouncing off the reworked and reemphasised scarcity. I believe the conflict between megacorporations has largely been sidelined as an after-thought – intra-SCC conflict, in particular. I'd like to see what can be done there to see these themes return to the limelight a little. I think a lot of lore arcs gravitate towards conflicts between states – that's what we see in most irl media – when I'd like to see more arcs portray the declining setting of a corporate-controlled Spur that's been starved of the rocket fuel that's shot its development upwards. An idea would be reworking corporate benefits lore; for a corporate dystopia setting, there's a lot of 'Here's free health insurance '. 

I sometimes feel there's a lack of cohesion between planets and species which could be improved. As an example, the species arc process typically only involves the running species team, so the involvement of other species tends not to occur unless another team butts in – from what I have seen. I'd like to see the LTA try to at least get every species team arc drafting an article that references an ongoing species arc to have everything seem more connected. 

On the wiki side of things, some pages are just unintuitive or waaaaaaaaay too long. There's a lot of information that can't be used ingame, there's a lot of purple prose (I'm probably guilty of this on diona pages) and, as Desven mentioned on his app, those fucking dropdowns you can't Ctrl+F in – it's routine for me to open every dropdown THEN search for what I'm after. I haven't the wiki experience to lay out some grand plan for solving my grievances there, but I would really like to after learning the way…

6) Where do you think lore is lacking currently?

Mundanities and the technical side of life in the Spur is also something I'd like to focus on. So much of our conversations irl revolve around media, new tech (at home, at work), interesting hobbies, sports, corporate/state news, etc.. A lot has been done about this already, but I'd like to look at what we have across the board and make sure everything is adequately touched upon where it can be. Currently, the forum news networks are only used for major developments, so I'd like to see some day-to-day articles; on the LTA side of things, just bland corporate development news or very short article arcs on sporting tournaments.

Adding onto the above, the Relay should be used as a tool for lore efforts – Vaurca and Skrell Lore have already started on this with the Hivenet/Srom channels. I had avoided using the Relay up until last month out of personal principle/dislike tbh, but it is a lore outlet that's as accessible as forum news articles and one that is not only accessible to players but engageable by players. On the LTA side of things, I'd propose megacorporate/notable figure–run Chirper accounts that exist to submit corporate/state communiques – it adds to the sense that these corporations are alive and doing things, instead of stagnant behemoths. The same can be achieved by species lore, but with the main home state of a species or a head of state.

Environmentally diverse planets are something that I find we're lacking; for a sci-fi setting that's a lack of sci-fi planetary/system settings. A lot of planets are Earth analogues or monobiome temperature/arid planets, we rarely see variances in star types or gravity that may impact a planet's culture, and similar. I think a side-effect this has is it leads to cultures on planets having to mimic differences in cultures on Earth – if we aren't changing the features of a planet, we can only change the people on it, most easily done by saying X group colonised the planet and brought their culture with them. I would definitely be hesitant to touch the planets we have now, as to change a planet itself would be to change the culture that resides upon it – that would need to be a carefully weighed decision. However, should any new planet be created by any lore team, I would really encourage that they've something that sets them apart from bases touched a dozen times now. 

I think there is also room to bring more than just phoron into the fantastical side of lore. Bluespace has only been touched upon from a travel perspective, but could present another interesting avenue lore and the Horizon can go down: bluespace exploration, very loose definitions on uses and limitations. Anomalies are represented mechanically but otherwise aren't touched upon in lore much; both sides of the equation can be reworked into something more substantial for lore. I think NanoTrasen and Biesel would be great to pivot into being centres for bluespace/anomalies lore, as we've seen how desperate planets/corporations are to solve the scarcity (Violet Dawn's the obvious one), they may look for more unconventional sources of phoron/an unlikely alternative.

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

UTC+1, typically available from the early afternoon and staying up to catch those on the other side of the globe though <3

Additional Comments:

o.o

[Caelphon]

Kermit has been extremely helpful during their tenure as Dionae Deputy. They wrote beautifully, and I still recall my first glimpse into that ability when I read their Skrell Whitelist Application. I have no doubt they will succeed in any role on the Lore Team. Them being a moderator and able to do coding is an added benefit. This application has my support.

[GeneralCamo]

A while ago, you came to me with a concern on a PR I made. You specifically opposed the inclusion of real world drug references in the game, and desired a canonization app to change this in the lore as well. This was eventually overruled by developers and the original authors of the lore.

As lore deputy however, you have a hand in approving lore and maintaining existing lore. What is your current opinion on the inclusion of real world references in the lore, and by extension, the game? Do you see yourself changing any existing lore?

[kermit]

1 hour ago, GeneralCamo said:

[...]

I still think IRL widely misused drugs have no place in our setting: we're a sci-fi setting, we can create lore for more interesting, creative and thematic fantasy drugs; fantastical drugs are easier to disconnect from IRL drug issues people struggle with; pharmacological technology has advanced, there are 'better' alternatives safety-wise/effect-wise/whatever. Medical technology and pharmacological lore is something I'd probably end up looking at as it's something I'm interested in so, I would most likely nuke instances of IRL drugs in our setting and replace them with equivalents that strike the same chord.

Like, as an example of a fantasy drug ingame vs. what could've just been an IRL steroid instead, Red Nightshade is infinitely cooler than and overtly fantastical so as to dettach it from IRL steroids. Why not have overpowered, fantasy drugs that can be given unique, Aurora-grounded lore over trenbolone, heroin, cocaine, etc., which only have weight behind their punch because people have heard of them in a real life context?

Besides drugs, I suppose it depends on what's being referenced. It's impossible to not have facets of our world bleed into Aurora's setting, and inspiration can only come from what already exists. There's taking inspiration, then there's transplanting something from our world to the Aurora setting – IE. certain drugs in-game.

On the topic of making changes, medical tech., pharmacology lore, and misused drugs, Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals lore is something I'd like to propose changes to. Despite the keiretsu structure it has, when we see references to Zeng-Hu in-game it is mostly a reference to Zeng-Hu the Keiretsu, not one of the companies within that business arrangement. I'd personally like to see Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals have a similar lore approach to the PMCG, where there is the overarching Zeng-Hu, but characters typically pick from a regional company that's part of keiretsu. For example, Europa is a Zeng-Hu the Keiretsu stronghold with no mention of a smaller company/companies that make up Europa's Zeng-Hu company base. There could be a Europa Exploration & Biosciences Company! (placeholder name) that has received funding from the overarching Zeng-Hu to establish dominion over Europa, in exchange for Europa E&B Company! (placeholder name) pooling its research with other companeis participating in Zeng-Hu's keiretsu structure. Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals would just be the administrative side that guides these smaller, regional keiretsu megacorps and swoops in to claim the credits for any larger biomedical advancements.

Edited August 27 by kermit

[rrrrrr]

Just to further this line of questioning, since it's a topic near and dear to me: why should certain issues, like drug abuse, be disconnected from reality? What purpose does that serve? Alcohol's in the game; should that be removed and replaced with a more powerful, fantastical analog? (Sorry if these questions sound too harsh!)

[kermit]

The issue is pretty personal to me too – I've had friends go through issues with drugs, I've done presentations on drug misuse – otherwise I would probably gloss over the single mention of cocaine on the wiki + the admittedly small handful of IRL drugs mechanically ingame. At the end of the day, it's a minor issue and I'm not going to lose sleep on it.

37 minutes ago, rrrrrr said:

Alcohol's in the game; should that be removed and replaced with a more powerful, fantastical analog?

Alcohol and nicotine are just too monolithic in our worlds' cultures to remove. Other drugs misused today aren't as omnipresent or engrained in our cultures. It's pretty acceptable to identify as a smoker/nicotine misuser or an alcoholic/alcohol misuser – with things only taking a turn recently – as that's just how our culture is; it isn't as widespread or acceptable, outside of circles specifically for it, to identify as someone and take on the label of an opiod misuser. It's a false equivalency imo, alcohol and nicotine are just different to 'harder drugs', for the better or worse :S

Quote

why should certain issues, like drug abuse, be disconnected from reality? What purpose does that serve?

Because this is a roleplay environment, roleplay environments are typically a form of escapism, and seeing the funny heroin appearance in the warehouse or someone randomly shooting up sucks some people out of it – definitely not most players, maybe not even a significant amount of players, I just know it isn't only me. Now, I never said drug misuse shouldn't/can't be a theme that can be explored on certain planets or ingame though characters, but you don't need explicit, IRL drugs to achieve any of that. You can sensitively touch on themes of drug misuse and allude to IRL instances of drug misuse with a creatively designed analogue that's better fit to the issue you're exploring.

37 minutes ago, rrrrrr said:

(Sorry if these questions sound too harsh!)

you're fine <3

[Lent23]

First, I'd like to say that I like the content of most of your application, and I think you're a strong choice from what I've seen from you, so I kindly brought you some questions! Good luck with your app

3 hours ago, kermit said:

I'd personally like to see Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals have a similar lore approach to the PMCG, where there is the overarching Zeng-Hu, but characters typically pick from a regional company that's part of keiretsu.

I genuinely love this idea. A point was raised recently about the PMCG however, where the PMCG is considered "bloated" for having 13 subcontractors. Are you interested in doing something with the current perceived bloat of the PMCG? How would you prevent a similar situation with the keiretsu? Would you be similarly open to the possibility of subcontractors for the other megacorporations? 

On 26/08/2024 at 11:10, kermit said:

Mundanities and the technical side of life in the Spur is also something I'd like to focus on.

Something that I have a gripe with personally is the amount of irrelevant lore that we have. If it can't be utilized on the server, it feels mostly unimportant to include. This is not to say that all lore off the Horizon/main worlds is useless, but it should have some impact on the Horizon/characters or have the potential to. I would love to see more of the mundane parts of the Spur, but I believe that there is a lot of relevant lore that could be worked/expanded upon. All this to say, are you interested in working on keeping things at least relevant to characters?

On 26/08/2024 at 11:10, kermit said:

intra-SCC conflict

This is something I'd really like to see more of. I feel something starkly underrepresented is the fact that these Megacorporations aren't exactly friends, they're just working together out of convenience. Is there any two megacorporations you'd like to see in conflict in-particular? Would you be interested in multiple corporations teaming up against multiple other corporations? Do you have anything in mind already?

On 26/08/2024 at 11:10, kermit said:

Not in a professional setting or within any of the Aurora's staff teams.

With no experience leading other people, what makes you believe that you are a good candidate for essentially helping manage 20+ people? Why do you want to become DLM, and what do you hope to gain if you get the position?

[kermit]

1 hour ago, Lent23 said:

Are you interested in doing something with the current perceived bloat of the PMCG? How would you prevent a similar situation with the keiretsu?

I don't think so. It's possible to slim down the options of PMCG corporations, but I'm not sure if I'd do that yet tbh – I think we have a good spread of subcontractors, and a good few of them are species-specific ones. We've yet to have diona and skrell specific PMCG subcontractors added though, so maybe down the line it as the PMCG expands it would be more necessary to slim down the non-species specific options. Nexus is the easy option to get rid of if it did come to it, as it's just NT-but-you-have-PMCG-on-your-ID and offers nothing new to the PMCG besides that lol.

The only way ig to prevent bloat when doing the same thing for Zeng-Hu would just be limiting it to one species specific daughter company per species, then no more than a half-dozen that are emblematic of their planet/region of space.

Quote

Would you be similarly open to the possibility of subcontractors for the other megacorporations? 

No. The PMCG and Zeng-Hu are explicitly coalitions/keiretsus of military contractors/megacorporations, where PMCG and Zeng-Hu is just the name of the umbrella that binds them. NT, Idris, Zavodskoi, Orion, Hephaestus are all firmly their own company under one name though, of course, with subsidiary corporations to fill in niches.

2 hours ago, Lent23 said:

Something that I have a gripe with personally is the amount of irrelevant lore that we have. If it can't be utilized on the server, it feels mostly unimportant to include. This is not to say that all lore off the Horizon/main worlds is useless, but it should have some impact on the Horizon/characters or have the potential to. I would love to see more of the mundane parts of the Spur, but I believe that there is a lot of relevant lore that could be worked/expanded upon. All this to say, are you interested in working on keeping things at least relevant to characters?

By mundanities and technical stuff, I hope not to introduce anything that absolutely doesn't matter to characters or cannot be referred in conversations. If it's not something that is mechanically a thing, is not something that can be referred to in day-to-day conversation, or is not grounded in the themes of its surrounding lore, then yeah, I don't think it should be added. I mentioned mundane article arcs and small, official relay outlets, as those can better introduce day-to-day things without needing to tack on a section to the wiki.

Widely relevant lore that has greater stakes in character creation definitely takes precedent, yeah. The less immediately relevant stuff would probs just be reserved for the breathers between larger projects.

2 hours ago, Lent23 said:

Is there any two megacorporations you'd like to see in conflict in-particular? Would you be interested in multiple corporations teaming up against multiple other corporations? Do you have anything in mind already?

Idris is the easiest one to pitch a fight against another megacorporation, they're very two-faced and remain buddy-buddy with the Alliance, so that could be a point of contention between Idris and NT/Biesel, especially with Biesel in its election arc and the Alliance on the uptrend.

I think the SCC having two/three internally conflicting blocs of companies would be very interesting, especially for the ingame atmosphere, though on that scale I imagine we'd be talking a proper lore arc to justify that degree of factionalism within the SCC.

I don't have any strong ideas on my mind yet, it's something I'll be thinking about now though, even if to suggest to another DLM who gets the position.

2 hours ago, Lent23 said:

With no experience leading other people, what makes you believe that you are a good candidate for essentially helping manage 20+ people?

I could be very naive but, from what I have seen while on the team, the species teams are very self-managing and the species lore writers are all great at checking in with their deputies and encouraging work to be done. I would also have the said lore writers to delegate to, really reducing that 20+ people down to 7. I don't think the management load is the biggest strain on being DLM, though I'm sure it can be at some times. And if any harm is done, I can tap out – I won't know until I try.

3 hours ago, Lent23 said:

Why do you want to become DLM, and what do you hope to gain if you get the position?

I've been contributing to Aurora in some way or another for a while now: fixing the odd bug, then creating bugs in Medical PRs, then mentoring via ahelps, and this year with the diona refactors. DLM is just another way to do that, though with broader strokes. It was also very difficult when I did want to apply for a species deputy position a while ago, as I was pretty conflicted between Human Lore (very busy application process with stronger candidates than I at the time), Synthlore (think I missed the application period), Skrellore (which I did apply for and didn't get), and Diona (which I got ofc); as DLM, I can nebulously partake in all of the species lore discussions I like without feeling a little intrusive c:

What do I get out of it? Just the fun experience I guess. I've really fucking enjoyed helping diona lore lately, I was nervous at first because I hadn't spoken to Cael or Boggle much in my time here, but it was so worth it <3 I hope I get something similar out of DLM and interacting with all of the other teams more closely.

[Lmwevil]

I'd like to preface this with the fact that Kermit gets my support, their replies were all rather good. 

I'll fire off some questions: 

What do you think of the current state of offworlders and lack of major space stations/trade hubs? 

What areas of the Spur do you think would be most interesting for an arc? 

With the factionalism of the SCC being made apparent would you be looking for conflict between departments or mostly a background fluff thing? 

If you feel comfortable, what do you feel was your greatest mistake(if any) while working in Lore? 

Finally, would you be open to more personalizing the corporate CEOs. AKA making Aeson do stunts like carving his name into a moon with a giant laser, Miranda being found by tabloids in a stealth shuttle over mars? Or do you think that is the wrong direction?

[kermit]

8 hours ago, Lmwevil said:

What do you think of the current state of offworlders and lack of major space stations/trade hubs? 

I really like off-worlders and the Scarabs have always been up there in my favourite factions. I dooo think off-worlders are in a really shitty spot though, they have been for a while, and I think part of that comes from them being an entirely distinct sub-species of human with their own sub-species page, then factions to justify the sub-species existence. An option would be reducing the mechanical off-worlder subspecies to a 'Microgravity Adaptation Syndrome' Disability option (this has the upside of allowing any species to have gravity adaptation - off-worlder skrell, off-worlder unathi, yay), then there's less of a boot to fill with off-worlder lore, you just pick low gravity adaptation if they're from a background where they've lived on a ship/station for most of their life, such as a Scarab vessel, or a planet with low gravity, such as Hieroaetherian skrell.

I actually hadn't thought of major space stations/trade hubs tbh, there really are none in human space that function as origins lmao, outside of the odd 'there's also an unnamed space habitat here'. I think a large space habitat would be interesting to explore as a proper origin.

8 hours ago, Lmwevil said:

What areas of the Spur do you think would be most interesting for an arc?

Touching base with Assunzione in Light's Edge, then exploring part of the Lemurian Sea for whatever reason. Something new, something strange and a lot of creative ways it could go. I think antags (storytellers by then probably), event-running admins and contributors/devs would have a blast with the setting there too.

I'd also like to refine an interesting idea I had for returning to Tau Ceti to attend to some business in the Romanovich Cloud. It would be cool for an anniversary arc with the Aurora II being a permanent overmap feature. We totally got cheated of a nostalgic time when we only passed through Tau Ceti for 1 week, before any overmap/away site stuff could be done, on our way back from Konyang :c

8 hours ago, Lmwevil said:

With the factionalism of the SCC being made apparent would you be looking for conflict between departments or mostly a background fluff thing? 

It would depend on what the factionalism's over ultimately. Ideally, it would be something that's tangible on the Horizon between departments/contracting companies, though for factionalism to take a grip at the lower employee level it would have to be a pretty divisive issue, thus requiring a hypothetical arc to really explore the problem. Lower stakes stuff could easily be done in the background as fluff or for Command characters to have opinions on, but I doubt would lead to/justify full-blown factionalism in the SCC, just the odd internal conflict.

8 hours ago, Lmwevil said:

If you feel comfortable, what do you feel was your greatest mistake(if any) while working in Lore? 

guh. I don't think I've been on the diona team long enough or in a position to make a really large mistake yet and I've always ensured my work is reviewed by Cael and Boggle so no crap gets through. I'm sure I'll make a large mistake at some point. very lame answer

8 hours ago, Lmwevil said:

Finally, would you be open to more personalizing the corporate CEOs. AKA making Aeson do stunts like carving his name into a moon with a giant laser, Miranda being found by tabloids in a stealth shuttle over mars? Or do you think that is the wrong direction?

Not on the wiki, but stuff like this is what I'd be happy seeing in articles or on proposed megacorporate Chirpers for the relay. Toned down though and a bit more serious; I think over the top, comical stuff just dampens the tone of the setting and detracts from these figures being incredibly powerful CEOs of the top megacorporations.

That said, looking at our irl equivalent(s) for CEOs sat at their Chirper accounts, comical and insane stuff really is what we see.

[MattAtlas]

Hi, Kermit. You may know me as the man behind the shadows, or a head developer. It should be no surprise that I get involved in lore a lot - usually not at the micro level but at the macro level. I - fortunately or unfortunately - have an overarching vision for Aurora that I would like Lore to mostly comply with. As such, I work with Trio as much as I can (quite often, as you'll be able to see if you get accepted) to make sure that whatever the lore team produces is in line with our shared vision.

I do not want these questions to sound too harsh - sorry if they do - but they are quite important.

Firstly, I would not worry too much about you not having leadership experience. This is something that can be taught and I've coached a lot of staff members on this kind of thing at this point - but I really think you are very kind. There will be uncomfortable situations where you'll likely end up having to give someone a very harsh no, or my least favourite - trashing pages' worth of work, for whatever applicable reason. In short, sometimes, you will look like a "bad person". I need to know if you are ready for this.

Additionally, I think my biggest concern with you as a candidate lies in how little you use OOC channels like Discord. It's very hard for me to gauge your feelings on lore or your thoughts when you really... rarely speak with the community at large, unless I have missed you talking in the Discord for years now. What gives? 

[Triogenix]

Hi! Thanks for applying; I have a few questions/comments regarding this application.

1) Many of the questions here have 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) 

On 26/08/2024 at 11:10, kermit said:

I don't struggle putting my foot down either, when it comes to it: arguing a point across, getting something done, dealing with the tricky person in or out of the staff team.

In regards to this, there is a flipside that is also important, especially for management, and that is knowing when to pick your foot up. Disagreements are pretty common, whether it's between the DLM and LM, amongst headstaff, or with another member of staff, they're a fact of working in a team. And just - being honest, there's constantly times where discussing/arguing/debates over these disagreements are simply detrimental, creating more issues than they solve.

With that said, the question becomes if you think you'll be able to somewhat regularly just agree to disagree, and still meaningfully contribute to a project. Furthermore, what do you think your biggest obstacles would be in accomplishing this?

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

[kermit]

10 hours ago, MattAtlas said:

I do not want these questions to sound too harsh - sorry if they do - but they are quite important.

you're fine, don't apologise <3

9 hours ago, MattAtlas said:

but I really think you are very kind. There will be uncomfortable situations where you'll likely end up having to give someone a very harsh no, or my least favourite - trashing pages' worth of work, for whatever applicable reason. In short, sometimes, you will look like a "bad person". I need to know if you are ready for this.

There's being kind, then there's being kind and a pushover. You can kindly tell someone their work is shit or not in line with a direction; you can kindly tell someone their suggestion isn't going forward regardless of circumstances. Kindness is just the envelope I use to deliver what could be good or bad news and it can be a fooling envelope as – using an example as mod, as that's where we typically interact bc we don't talk much elsewhere – there's been an amusing number of troublemakers mistaking me for a pushover, adminshopping for me, only to get an expedited ban. I come down pretty hard on people when it's warranted, I think. I don't think I have an issue looking like the bad person, and I wouldn't have gone for the position if I didn't think I had the chops.

9 hours ago, MattAtlas said:

Additionally, I think my biggest concern with you as a candidate lies in how little you use OOC channels like Discord. It's very hard for me to gauge your feelings on lore or your thoughts when you really... rarely speak with the community at large, unless I have missed you talking in the Discord for years now. What gives? 

Yeah, this one I understand, I have scarcely used the Discord channels for discussion. I tend to just have discussions in DMs where it's easier to talk nitty-gritties one-on-one; on the forum where it's usually an idea that's already passed round one of discord discussions, where people put all their thoughts into one/two posts, and where I have had many L takes over the years; ingame's deadchat when I catch a discussion while observing, usually in the earlier hours; or in the appropriate staff channel when it's something more easily discussed internally. If I'm pinged on the Discord though, I'll join in.

Given I'm a mod and lore deputy for a specific species, my opinion on non-dionae issues (diona issues rarely come up in the maincord, at least i never catch them) is really not that important/impactful lol, so I don't see a reason to butt in and step out of my lane, as there are better suited people to get involved. If I was to get the DLM position, I imagine this would change as then I have a voice on the matter, not to mention a more readily pinged role.

[kermit]

  

6 hours ago, Triogenix said:

1) Many of the questions here have 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?

Macro-level economic lore wouldn't be something I consider irrelevant, due to the domino effect it probably has on everything else. What I'd consider irrelevant is micro-level fluff that doesn't expand upon themes in it's surrounding lore or absolutely cannot come up as part of an ingame bit. Then there's the occasional irrelevant lore piece in large, prose blocks that can be slimmed down to make them more parseable.

I'm not sure how splitting the wiki into Lore and Reference would go tbh, but I may be imagining something different to what you mean. I think some of the faction main pages can definitely be split into a main page with basic coverage, then have the more fleshed out history/culture/etc pages branched off of them. I think enforcing a factual and formal approach to writing lore pages would cut down on out of place fluff and purple prose, as there's less room for speculation or overly fanciful descriptions to creep in. I hope that answers the question?

6 hours ago, Triogenix said:

In regards to this, there is a flipside that is also important, especially for management, and that is knowing when to pick your foot up. Disagreements are pretty common, whether it's between the DLM and LM, amongst headstaff, or with another member of staff, they're a fact of working in a team. And just - being honest, there's constantly times where discussing/arguing/debates over these disagreements are simply detrimental, creating more issues than they solve.

With that said, the question becomes if you think you'll be able to somewhat regularly just agree to disagree, and still meaningfully contribute to a project. Furthermore, what do you think your biggest obstacles would be in accomplishing this?

If an argument is becoming cyclical, no one's budging, and it's not a decision where it's appropriate for someone to put their foot down and say 'We're doing this', then yeah, I can agree to disagree and continue to get along. Ideally, even rejected ideas can be heavily reworked into the final draft, unless it really is outlandish. I don't think I've had an agree-to-disagree moment in the diona lore team yet, but there was a close one when we were discussing genetic memory that I ended up budging on.

Everyone has applied to the lore team (or made it to a headmin/dev position) because they've brought ideas they genuinely believe are good for the betterment of their team, so there's going to be stubborn clashes and it's important to be respectful/understanding even when disagreeing. Not doing that or repeatedly dragging ideas through the dirt just undermines future team efforts.

I don't think I have too many obstacles to figuring out a good, or at least not bad, conclusion to an argument. I may work less passionately on a project where the final draft is largely different to what I had envisioned, but I will still actively contribute and get by. I may be cyclical and overly stubborn in my own arguments sometimes, I mentioned in the main post being a stickler for what realistically makes sense, but I eventually realise when I'm refusing to budge at the detriment of finding a conclusion for the team to work on.

6 hours ago, Triogenix said:

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

The long haul, barring any irl circumstances or me deciding, after giving the position a go, that it isn't the one for me, at which point I'm not going to occupy the position if someone better suited can.

[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?

Edited August 31 by GeneralCamo

[kermit]

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?

I think the gameplay and mechanics should primarily serve the lore and what's on the wiki, but there's some exceptions where you may want to tweak the lore to fit a new mechanic. Even then, the lore gets changed to accomodate these mechanical changes, so ultimately the gameplay still serves the lore. If lore needs to be changed for a cool new mechanic to be added – usually a large mechanic from a dev-ran project, like something on the scale of the BS Drive that's being worked on – then that can be done as long as the lore consequences aren't sweeping. Likewise, fun mechanics (as we saw with the Leviathan and crew armoury) can be removed if they are tonally dissonant with the setting we're in.

I skimmed through the Discord discussion that was had and it seemed to cover things on a smaller scale. When it comes to balancing ingame mechanics, then that's probably where lore doesn't play as large of a factor. The game is still a game and fun is the goal, if a true representation of a mechanic was completely unfun to play with/against, then it should be toned down in-game. There's a lot of stuff in-lore that also just won't be mechanically added, but they make for good ingame conversations – see: most of the Entertainment lore, the majority isn't reflected in-game mechanically, but gets reflected in-game through character conversations.

I hope that answers the question, it was a pretty broad one.

[Desven]

My question is mainly regarding Vaurca lore. Both the Vaurca and Dionae teams have had other priorities lately, so we haven't really interacted. However, Vaurca lore is always in constant communcation with LTA because Zo'ra and Biesel. What would you like to see develop more between these two factions, and how would you expect us to work together?

[Triogenix]

After long consideration, I have decided to select you as the next deputy loremaster! Congratulations!