EVE Fiction

I'm going to get hatemail for this post, but I'm prepared for the onslaught...

Reading the last few years of fiction posts, there appears to be a running theme related to people's response to:

a) Fiction which contradicts The Lore
b) Fiction which supports The Lore

And I wished to voice my concern, and hopefully propose a loophole that appeases everyone, whether you have pitched your tent in camp a or camp b.

I do fully understand why there is The Lore, but feel that too many people have a fear of not wishing to either submit Fiction to the Community, or worse than this, do not begin or finish a work of fiction, due to the ammount of research required to appease The Lore.

This needs to end.

I offer a flexible loophole that is simplistic and allows the writer the freedom of expression without the need to become Neo in the Matrix and dodge bullets.

Each one of the prospective writers of fiction has a character inside of New Eden, and it is this character that makes the post with the fiction in it, or, creates a blog or otherwise, where they upload/submit their piece of fiction.

As a result; The Loophole is this: The character who submits the piece of fiction is a writer within New Eden, therefore is submitting fiction as penned by their character, not themselves.

Therefore, the piece of fiction submitted by your character is unrestrained completely, as it is the imagination of your character, not the person who owns the account that has the character.

I'm going to be as honest as I can here; it sickens me to think there are thousands of potential writers within this game, who dread the thought of submitting fiction - and having such a stringent set of parameters to contend with in addition to this, is so utterly counter-productive that I feel we, as the community, are missing out on tons of great stories as a result.

To be clear: I agree that EVE Online as a game is better off with The Lore in place, and I applaud CCP for what they have done, and continue to do, to support it. However, as we are not CCP, anything we write does not need to conform to the same constraints, because we cannot and do not write The Lore.

If someone wishes to write something to conform 'perfectly' to The Lore, you will have the exact same amount of respect that I would give to someone who uses The Loophole described within this post.

Comments please...

AK

All made worse by the contradictions apparent in The Lore. It bugs me when I find what is already written is sometimes ignored, and new 'official' material in the form of money-making novels becomes the new canon.

In-game we are told the word Ammatar was first used by the Gallente to describe the Nefantar collaborators choosing to live in the Amarrian Empire. No problem, until a poorly researched novel is released, announcing that it was the Amarrian Emperor who first coined the phrase Ammatar.

Someone dropped a b*llock. Because the novel can't be changed (and it's earning money), we have to live with both explanations. When I challenged this in Evelopedia I was told by a moderator both are to be considered canon rather than denounce the novel and stick with what was written nearly a decade ago.

It seems it does not matter what YOU think is canon, or what has been written before, because at any moment it can be changed by CCP themselves through the production of a badly researched novel. I feel sorry for anyone whose game has been affected by any such changes.

To overcome any contradictions and c*ck-ups I follow one rule: I use what I can see or read in-game. There's still loads of room to use the AlleyKat Loophole without breaking The Lore. If my character says she saw a giant space jellyfish out the starboard window, then that's what she said. Your character is quite free to denounce mine as a nutter and suggest that it was actually the port window. However, don't try telling me one line in a novel changes what we all know to be established history.

...there's another, far simpler answer: Simply state that you do not know all the lore, or that you've taken some artistic liberties with the lore and understand that this doesn't perfectly match what has been published. At that point, you've cleared yourself of all strict dedication to the Prime Fiction, and the only thing that people should criticize you on is the writing itself.

Keep in mind, if you're using this as an excuse to bring in something completely out of place in the EVE universe, like introducing shapeshifting dinosaur capsuleers as characters (unfortunately not a totally random example...) then people may still criticize you for not sticking to the universe.

This says it all.



100% agree. As to your loophole I have thought that for many years but I also don't think you need to use that all the time.

History is about who wrote it and so can be both right and wrong at the same time. The classic line is history is writen by the winner is actually not always true. The best "story" wins out.

Take the example of Richard III. Only a few people know the true details of his two year reign. Instead most people know the hunchback evil character created by shakespeare because it is the better story. in a thousand years which will be the true history.

Lore is over such a huge span of time that mistakes, misquote and downright lies can exist without fear of destroying the Lore. More importantly Lore is flexiable and can be stretched more then an olympic weightlifter's shorts. If it doesn't fit, don't make the story fit the Lore but come up with a way to tweak the Lore to fit the story.