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EVE Fiction

 
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One voice for the resumption of official stories

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Duvida
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#1 - 2011-11-26 01:51:37 UTC
I truly enjoy the fiction that was produced by EVE folks. Most of it was great, with a few 'misses', but really, a great way to fill in the universe's background. I wouldn't expect the every week/2 weeks that seemed to be the norm before, but maybe once in a month or so? Even less if it allows for really well developed literature.

I believe the dropping of the stories was a result of the process that was turning CCP away from the game and its players. A removal of perceived 'waste' in the area of creativity. I'd like to see that outlet returned in some form. Some players are also really good writers, and if a process could be developed that allowed their stories to be reviewed by CCP and posted as official literature, that'd be a plus as well.

Orbit safe!
Jowen Datloran
Science and Trade Institute
Caldari State
#2 - 2011-11-26 10:37:21 UTC
Chronicles appears to be written for DUST 514 now. Same universe, different game.

Mr. Science & Trade Institute, EVE Online Lorebook 

Jack Carrigan
Order of the Shadow
#3 - 2011-11-26 10:51:24 UTC
Well, what I see needing to be done here, is more people need to volunteer to write in-game news. I mean, we used to have regular news stories from each empire, and for the game on a regular basis, and now? Looks like the brakes have been kicked on, and nothing is being done.

NEED MOAR FICTION!

I am the One who exists in Shadow. I am the Devil your parents warned you about.

||CEO: Order of the Shadow||Executor: The Revenant Order||Creator: Bowhead||
Esna Pitoojee
Societas Imperialis Sceptri Coronaeque
Khimi Harar
#4 - 2011-11-27 00:10:25 UTC
Something to remember is that even when player volunteers write a fiction piece, it falls to the Devs responsible for fiction and storyline to approve these articles - generally to avoid players accidentally contradicting past information, or accidentally writing in a small point in an article that may contradict an upcoming plotline, etc... In the past, this "Dev-check" was one of the bottlenecks of the ISD service - the Dev responsible for checking articles also had other duties to deal with, and checking an article wouldn't be as simple as just reading through it and going "yep, k, publish this."

At current, I believe there are 3 Devs working on storyline-related stuff: Abraxas, Dropbear, and Headfirst (CCP feel free to correct me if I'm missing people; I apologize if I am). Not only does this place an extraordinary stress on those 3 devs as people to balance writing their own fiction and Chronicles, supervising the new fiction in the Evelopedia (much of which is volunteer-written and would need to be "Dev-checked"), and running live events (at least for the latter two), but now that the 20% cuts offed the Game Content team I believe much of their former duties are now being picked up by the Storyline team as well. Obviously this makes it a bit hard to ask them to start Dev-checking player news stories as well.

Hence, I don't think we'll be seeing the return of regular news articles and stories at least until the Evelopedia project is done, but quite possibly not until CCP is in a position to re-hire someone to lighten the load on the existing storyline team.



(Note - the above is pure speculation based on offhand comments by devs, stories from former devs, and extrapolation/logical reasoning.)
Vallek Arkonnis
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#5 - 2011-11-27 18:07:27 UTC
Esna Pitoojee wrote:
Something to remember is that even when player volunteers write a fiction piece, it falls to the Devs responsible for fiction and storyline to approve these articles - generally to avoid players accidentally contradicting past information, or accidentally writing in a small point in an article that may contradict an upcoming plotline, etc...


I remember reading an announcement a while back when the chrons ceased that they were going to go through all of the lore, in and out of game, and edit it so it's all coherent. As in if something happened in a particular system you would see remains of the battle, or if an agent was mentioned at a certain station you could actually go see that agent in-game, etc. They were also going to overhaul the lore database on Evewiki so that it all cross-referenced correctly.

In lieu of all that, what you say is quite possible; with what's on their plate, adding to it trying to make sure it doesn't contradict past information when they're not done with the information itself would be a lot more work.
David Forge
GameOn Inc.
#6 - 2011-11-27 18:15:34 UTC
If I'm not mistaken CCP Abraxis and Co. (most responsible for writing chronicles) are currently focusing integrating the lore experience into the game in a way besides just chronicles. I imagine that means via live events with people like CCP Dropbear. This new task is the reason for the lack of chronicles in the past few months.
Esna Pitoojee
Societas Imperialis Sceptri Coronaeque
Khimi Harar
#7 - 2011-11-28 02:14:19 UTC
Exactly my point... at this time, they've busy with:

- Overhauling EVElopedia to include much more in the way of "minor lore" tidbits and background information.
- Overhauling existing lore to close contradictions and gaps.
- Writing Dust514-related fiction.
- Writing any new item descriptions that involve lore; see the new tier 3 BC descriptions.
- Overhauling EVElopedia/ingame interaction.
- Running live events (Arek'jaalan, Sansha-storyline stuff, whatever plottings that recent CCP incursion was for...)

At the end of this - that's a lot of work for what appears to be 3 people. I hate to be dismissive or pessimistic, but resuming the regular writing of fiction and/or news stories simply isn't likely until some more devs are added to the Storyline department to relieve some of the pressure, and/or some of those major projects are finished.
Duvida
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#8 - 2011-11-28 03:36:01 UTC
That'll be interesting to see the results of.

I just went through 'Theodicy', a long one, and thought it was nicely done.
CCP Abraxas
C C P
C C P Alliance
#9 - 2011-11-28 15:13:21 UTC
People are pretty much on the mark in this thread regarding the shift (and increase) in responsibilities, the various other projects we're working on, reasons we can't easily switch to player efforts/crowdsourcing, and so forth.

There is no plan to start publishing the chronicles on a regular basis again. It is simply not possible to fit all that work in with all the other responsibilities we have.

However, we haven't stopped publishing them entirely. We are just going to do so in more strategic fashion. It makes a lot more sense to us to write, say, a bunch of chronicles around the launch of an expansion, than to publish a single one at a fixed interval when nothing may going on in the launch cycle.

As for that EVElopedia project I've been working on, expect news on that very soon.
Jowen Datloran
Science and Trade Institute
Caldari State
#10 - 2011-11-28 15:29:59 UTC
CCP Abraxas wrote:
As for that EVElopedia project I've been working on, expect news on that very soon.

I am not leaving my chair until you do.

Mr. Science & Trade Institute, EVE Online Lorebook 

Esna Pitoojee
Societas Imperialis Sceptri Coronaeque
Khimi Harar
#11 - 2011-11-28 16:02:56 UTC
Glad to know I'm not just flapping my lips.


On the other hand... somewhat sad to have confirmation that it is that hard on you guys at the moment. Hope things lighten up, even as I wait expectantly for the results of your new project! Big smile
Oreb Wing
Last Rites.
#12 - 2011-11-30 10:04:48 UTC  |  Edited by: Oreb Wing
Hopefully i can wet some lips with some stories i've tried to make lately, in my interest to open/clarify the history or back-ground of New Eden. I hope you guys enjoy. It's not too long and i'll be finished soon. Lol

http://epiphora-orebwing.blogspot.com/2011/11/epiphora.html

(here is the main link i created after finishing the story here on the Fiction Forum)

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=45241&find=unread
Marbuel
Australian Belt Strippers
#13 - 2011-12-01 05:29:10 UTC
I'd be very keen to make contributions to the fictional background of the EVE Universe - add a few more splashes of color to the depth of the complex canvas. I'm constantly surprised by the relative lack of fiction that has come out of this very detailed game, actually.

There's so many aspects that could be explored - hopefully Evelopedia opens up a window for what Esna's talking about - letting players themselves detail the game and then explore it in fiction in a space that can be more readily approved by devs and players alike.
Mirabi Tiane
#14 - 2011-12-02 15:44:16 UTC
Marbuel wrote:
I'm constantly surprised by the relative lack of fiction that has come out of this very detailed game, actually.

Relative to what?
Marbuel
Australian Belt Strippers
#15 - 2011-12-02 21:17:55 UTC
Mirabi Tiane wrote:
Marbuel wrote:
I'm constantly surprised by the relative lack of fiction that has come out of this very detailed game, actually.

Relative to what?


The Star Wars universe, primarily. Having come to EVE from SWG, where there's an enormous amount of material to get involved in outside the game, and considering the brains of the people playing this one and the learning curve they've surmounted, I wonder how it is that we don't see more being generated around the lore that exists.

Dune's another example that comes to mind. Whereas both those universes have started with the lore, generated a public folowing and gone into games, EVE certainly has the potential to reach out to the public consciousness in the reverse....
Duvida
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#16 - 2011-12-07 21:23:16 UTC
I appear to have either posted this thread just in time, or to have touched off a process. 2 stories? Big smile

So as long as I seem to have all this power, I've been looking for a $60k/year job where I can post in the EVE forums sometimes, fly around in space and then post again about this change or that needed change. (Might as well test my luck P )

Anyway, great job on those stories, very much enjoyed them both!