Subject: where the kids have seen things that we ain't never seen
From: McDuff (mcduff@iname.com)
Date: Fri Jul 02 1999 - 15:10:59 EEST
I've been having a correspondence with Beregar, and during it I had an idea or two. Firstly, we've missed the M1 deadline, I think you are aware of that!! However, we have taken a chunk out of M2 with the textures, so that can be seen as a plus. If we amalgamate the first 2, or maybe 3, milestones into one big target it might work out a bit better. I dunno, Namhas comments? Secondly, people don't seem to be very active in actually doing descs etc. Beregar says he thinks people were very good at giving ideas, but not at doing structured tasks. So what I was thinking was: We say to people "we are doing this - what do you think. Send all ideas to majik-design by date X. On date X+1, the coders, the "head designers" and some "scribes" get together at a certain time in IRC and discuss al the ideas. If there have been no ideas we just put forward what we think. If someone isn't at this meeting they don't have a say. After this, the "scribes," people who are good at writing in English, will meet deadlines _and who want to do it_ will go away, write everything that has been said, and in the meantime new parts of the worldbook will be posted on majik-design. I am volunteering to be a "scribe," as well as a graphic designer. I am actually an English Literature student so I have no trouble there. This, I feel, should get rid of a lot of problems with people who just don't want to write (especially in English; I appreciate that some designers will have problems expressing their ideas in English if Finnish is their first language), but who have ideas. It will not be the perfect situation, and possibly after a few months we can review and see if it's working. Flaws in the plan can be - no-one will submit anything, the scribes have the last say and people might not agree with everything they write, or I will be the only scribe and have a big stack of work to do. However, the way I see it not many people are submitting stuff now! This way, even if no-one but the 5 or 6 active people in Majik actually do work, results are still achieved. Also, you can't please all the people all the time and if we have the IRC sessions to discuss, then the scribes will go by the consensus of opinion and at least won't write anything uncodable :)). I must say though, that I won't be the only scribe, the same as I won't be the only person doing 3ds models. I'm not getting paid for this (!) so I'm not going to take too much time out of my work or my studies in order to shove Majik onto the track by myself. If no-one else thinks this is a good idea, then we can just shove on with what we have been doing. I also think that it might be an idea to see what all the people who have claimed parts of the worldbook are doing; some appear to have been working on them for a long time! Finally, if you are a god and you don't want to write a desc of your heaven/hell, give me permission to write an appropriate heaven for you. If you just send me your god's name and approximate sphere of influence, then I'll think of something suitable and write it in my dulcet tones :)). I think I said to Beregar, but I'll repeat it to the rest of you, that having various heavens will affect people choosing who to worship - people might want to spend all day drinking beer and carousing with maidens after they die, people might want to "become one with the universe" and people might want to spend years in eternal torment, because some people are like that :)) If there is a range for them to choose from, remembering that there is no real "life after death" in Majik so it won't be a bugger to code, the it will probaby affect their choice, and therefore your divine points!!! If you are writing your own, can you also put in how you get there, eg whether a hole opens beneath you and you fall in, or whether a thousand mezzo-sopranos on horses carry you off to the feast in the sky, or if you have to cross a river which you make from the bones of your slaughtered enemies, so you'd better have killed a lot of people! Any comments, whines, flames, rude words or general inanities, please mail me (or design so that everyone can hear). Namhas, please comment on the ideas, will they work or am I just spouting air? Cheers for listening McDuff
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