MxO: The Player-Run Storyline

Personally, I believe LESIG was a good idea... it was just executed poorly.

It's natural to have problems like the ones we've seen with LESIG, in the past.  The real issues arise when those problems aren't addressed and handled in a timely manner.  Or at all.

psilody wrote:

Further, I have to agree with others who have noted that you will not get much agreement on what else the story SHOULD be. This thread alone shows how little concensus there is. Besides that, have any of you ever seen an old Dilbert strip where a team tries to make a sentence by commitee? They can't even agree on the word "the". Stories by commitee are DOOMED to suck, that is just my opinion, but show me an example otherwise. Having people "vote" on the story would just become an ego trip/power struggle/general tear up the community kind of deal.

So, yeah, guess I'm saying I'll pass on having a player run "Official" story. IF someone gets brought in to fill Rare's role, and IF the ideas they have are in some way approved by the Bro's, that will be the new official story to me. Otherwise, I consider it done.

I was talking with someone the other night and while we didn't come to the exact consensus as this, we agreed we were both going to primarily focus on our respective factions' in-house storylines. I think I'd rather focus on the universe at this point, but that's just me. If there were some kind of commitee of players, I think it would only work by having one player in charge of the main story and then having a player from each org focus on how to execute it for their respective orgs. But the problem would be avoiding the ego-tripping and power-plays that seem to go on here...

Heck, as Void half-jokingly said to me the other night, we should just have him and Fenshire write the story from here on.

psilody wrote:

Personally, I think the "Official" story should be left well enough alone. Its clear that some people didn't like it, including the author of this topic, but Rare did make it clear that the Bro's approved the basic storyline we have been playing, and were going to play up through the planned Chapter 14. As far as I'm concerned, that approval is the closest thing to an official story that we have.

Agreed. Plus, if you have read Rare's summary of 14, it seems that it has a very conclusive feeling, and doesn't really lead into much more, meaning that anything beyond that point can be added.

monkeymanx8 wrote:

ZaneZavin wrote:

The story will continue regardless of whether there is an official outlet. This is our world (players) and we will continue to interact with it.

I feel that the first step to our future is to create an Mxo Story Bible. A one stop location that details everything that got us to this point and is debated until it is reasonable. We should decide what we chose to accept before we move along. I believe Cloudwolf and his summaries should be incorporated and clearly Othinn's logs (no pun intended) can be consulted.

I was thinking the same thing. We need to have an official record from 1.1 to 12.1, with summaries as intricate as possible.

Rarebit's Summaries (Chapter's 1-10)

Outlaw54's Organization Lists (Updated to Chapter 12.1)

ZippyTheSquirrel's Character Guide (Updated to Chapter 12.1)

Rarebit's Outline (Chapter's 7-14)

Rarebit's Story and Event Plans (Chapters 5.2-12.1)

Condense!!!

Phrack wrote:

Personally, I believe LESIG was a good idea... it was just executed poorly.

It's natural to have problems like the ones we've seen with LESIG, in the past.  The real issues arise when those problems aren't addressed and handled in a timely manner.  Or at all.

Don't get me wrong, I think LESIG was a great idea, and given the fact that SOE gave this game no budget for continuing the LET, it was the only way that we could have continued to have LE's. I think its a testament to how much the Matrix Story means to people, that PLAYERS who were PAYING TO PLAY THE GAME actually volunteered to do this for free. Its both amazing, and also quite sad really. (And, even more so, I think this applies to A:B. That wasn't even official, but people put MAJOR time and effort into it, and it was a bang up event.)

However, I think the problems with LESIG in the past were a result of two things: human nature, and the difficulty in firing people who aren't employees to begin with. I have to assume that virtually everyone who worked in LESIG had their own ideas about the story, and it must have been pretty heady to be able to say "yeah, im part of the official Matrix story." I don't see that stopping, or being a thing of the past.

Furthermore, LESIG always had an "Official" leader to keep things in check. I think there has to be SOME kind of Arbiter, someone who has the authority to say, "yes, this fits", or "no it doesn't". We can go round and round on whether Rare did this well, I think he did, and at the very least, I doubt someone could do it better. He was also an employee, and authorized, at least indirectly, by the Stories originators to fill this role. Trying to plug a player into that role would just be a disaster. I see SO MANY talented people here, it would be tremendously arbitrary to pick one out to be the "Official" story leader. Even a vote would only lead to divisions.

So, personally, I am going to put my own efforts into devloping side-stories based on the Matrix Concept. Whether anyone considers them "official" will be largely irrelevant, and I like it that way.

Masonna wrote:

While I agree with what Phrack has proposed, I also agree with the idea of waiting to see what SOE does with us.

Sad thought it makes me to say it, I don't think they'll do anything with us. They never wanted us, they never had any interest in us and they sucked the resources out of the limited amounts Rarebit and Virrago et al had. We are, so far as SOE are concerned, the festering boil on the arse of the DC franchise. I think we'll continue to fester for a random amount of time, then blink out of existence. I would add though, that I'd be the most delighted bloke ever to be proved wrong, if this didn't happen. I'd be even more delighted if someone could show me I was already wrong NOW.

deimoslvov wrote:

Basically, that just means chaos. This game needs an official storyteller, it's the core principle of the RP and ADND games.

The thought of things being player driven has concerned me for some time. What form would that take? Eventually, wouldn't we just end up with some incoherant anarchy that made about as much sense and had as much coherance as a Bjork song?

I think we need a figure (or preferably, figures) in officialdom to be presiding over any player group to make things work properly. I think the really good thing about player involvement is that we could have the tags back. (Tiny things please tiny minds, eh?)