TheUninvitedGuest Posted September 10, 2012 Share Posted September 10, 2012 I know that a modding community may not (on the whole) be into this kind of thing, however I would like to gauge your opinions: Do you think there would be much interest in a project to create a collection of decent quality, lore friendly fanfiction for the elder scrolls universe ? I'm not always a fan of fanfiction, but have been known to flick through some in the past. When well thought out and written it can be entertainingand additive to a community. The concept was for a site with an interactive timeline where people could zoom in and out and select a time period. They would then have a time in which their story was set and their story would enter Alpha stage. Next they would put up a short description of their story, detailing any pre-existing Lore characters and/or events they intended to use in their plots. At this point a story would enter Beta stage and chapters could be added. Beta stage stories could be subscribed too and reviewed by users. Once a story is complete it can be marked as published. It would then be added to the library from where books can be downloaded in a range of formats or sent to a kindle etc... If a story receives a sufficient (fairly small) number of upvotes then it would be submitted to mods/editors who would add it to the official site timeline having checked that the story did not conflict semantically or factually with lore and/or already added content. The main timeline stories could also be downloaded as a collection by selecting either the whole thing or any subset there-of. Users would be asked to be: - Respectful of Bethesda Lore. Not just by not conflicting with it, but also by not inserting too many *monumental* events in places where there is no mention of that kind of thing. There are enough large events poorly detailed by existing lore to provide ample room for a great many creative stories. - Mindful of pre-accepted site-cannon. Whilst under no compunction to adopt site canon, it would be encouraged. In an attempt to try and assure basic quality you could: - Have a system whereby a story may be put on pause for 2 months. At the end of this time, if there is a further month of inactivity then the story would be public and could be 'claimed' by another author who could continue it. The same would apply for the month if the story was not "paused". - Have style guidelines Content discovery could be through: - A monthly Zine containing first chapters from some favourite stories of mods/editiorial staff. Further features such as multiple distinct timelines could be added if one timeline became saturated. -------- So ... I know its a pretty in depth concept with a niche audience and the possibility of falling flat on its face .... but what does anyone think ? If there is decent interest I would happily build the system :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruff Posted September 11, 2012 Share Posted September 11, 2012 This is the best idea I have ever seen here! Absolutely brilliant! To be honest, I seldom read the books I encounter in-game. But this could be much more enjoyble experience. Please don't give up on this well designed project if it doesn't attract followers immediately. This could be a huge success in a few years :) Seems also like you have exactly the right qualifications for doing this. Not sure yet how or how much I can help, but this sounds really fun! Anyone else? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheUninvitedGuest Posted September 11, 2012 Author Share Posted September 11, 2012 I'm glad you like the idea! As far as help is concerned I'm not entirely sure what would be required at this stage. I think the first thing to do would be to find a couple of interested mods and maybe someone to help out on the editorial side. If I see some more interest here I will buy a domain, put up a flash page and repost a similar thread to a few more sites in an attempt to gather support. Once that was done I think it would be a good idea to have the site enter a closed beta stage where people start building up some initial content and testing out the mechanics. So basically:Beta testersMods/Editorial Staff I might be able to financially re-imburse a small team of mods and editorial staff a little bit for their time (obviously augmented by perhaps running ads on the site / user donations further down the line) if we found people with the right attitude / credentials. Anyhow - spread the idea :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cthuloot Posted September 11, 2012 Share Posted September 11, 2012 I personally wouldn't mind writing a bit. I kind of enjoy it. However, as you said there are a lot of vague areas in the lore, which makes me reluctant. I'm afraid of writing something then getting shouted apart for breaking lore by accident! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheUninvitedGuest Posted September 11, 2012 Author Share Posted September 11, 2012 I personally wouldn't mind writing a bit. I kind of enjoy it. However, as you said there are a lot of vague areas in the lore, which makes me reluctant. I'm afraid of writing something then getting shouted apart for breaking lore by accident! I agree - the potential for flaming by lore fanatics is high. However I do think we can avoid that issue - here is why: - People will be perfectly at liberty to write lore-breaking stories if they should want to. In fact I am warming more and more to the idea of being able to add further timelines to the website. The main timeline would be as lore friendly as possible, but that does not mean people can't create entire series of collaborations based around slightly different timelines. They would just be downloadable as separate collections and/or books. - People would publish concepts and descriptions at the "Alpha" stage. There could be a spoiler functionality where users could post any major events that they planned to include. This would not be visible by default and users would have to go into their settings and enable the viewing of spoiler content in order to see it. This would give dedicated users and editorial staff a chance to point out any unintentional breaches in lore in private to the author. The author is then perfectly at liberty to either modify their plot slightly or continue as they are. - Unlike other fanfiction sites where, rather bizarrely, the focus seems to lie on un-completed stories, the focus of this site would be on completed stories which could be downloaded from a central library. If therefore a user included something lore breaking in a single chapter release during their stories "Beta" stage then readers could point this out and the author would again be at liberty to either edit their chapter or not... - A report system would be heavily encouraged. Authors would be able to hide or disable comments. Constructive and/or Positive comments would be encouraged. Negative and Non Constructive comments would be removed. ----- Obviously even with that it would be impossible to guarantee a complete lack of flaming - but I think it would be worth a shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruff Posted September 11, 2012 Share Posted September 11, 2012 As well as help in avoiding unnecessary lore-breaking (there is already too much lore and major events that needs fleshing-out, no need to add to that), perhaps some voluntary Guardians of Language could assist in correcting the text. Like many Elder Scroll fans, English isn't my first language (its Swedish), and there could be many more contributors if we didn't have to worry too much about making fools of ourselves. BTW I came to think of this project as a kind of "text-ware mod cooperation", with no need for the CK. I can also imagine sub-groups focusing on places like Riverwood, Dawnstar Sanctuary or Elsweyr. Or characters like Cicero, Karliah or some unnoticed helping-hand in Belathor's store in desperate need of a story ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cthuloot Posted September 11, 2012 Share Posted September 11, 2012 Elsweyr... God I wish we were given a LOT more information about that place..... I can't get enough Khajiit in my life, no matter how hard I try. I've got so many mods right now. Whenever I show up the guards just stare wildly at the band of 7 cats that just rolled into town... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheUninvitedGuest Posted September 11, 2012 Author Share Posted September 11, 2012 Elsweyr... God I wish we were given a LOT more information about that place..... I can't get enough Khajiit in my life, no matter how hard I try. I've got so many mods right now. Whenever I show up the guards just stare wildly at the band of 7 cats that just rolled into town... Agreed - on the other hand they might think an old lady had moved into town :P . You're right about back story to select game characters - they would be harder to research from a lore perspective but would provide scope for more short stories as well. Collections of those kind of stories would personally really enhance my immersion in a world. The stories could have a narrow scope or a wide one. If anyone is interested I have registered the name: teschronicles.com for the project. I'm not married to the name, so if anyone has any suggestions please post them. I just felt like commiting myself to the concept somehow haha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wuffser Posted September 11, 2012 Share Posted September 11, 2012 I like this idea. I was sold the moment you mentioned a system that supports completed stories. That is one of the most infuriating thing about most other fanfic sites (I'm looking at you FF.net). Too many good interesting stories cut short, abandoned, and never continued. It happened so often that I stopped reading fanfictions in general fearing that it'll happen again. So I really hope this gets off the ground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enatiomorph Posted September 11, 2012 Share Posted September 11, 2012 There was already a project like this, and everybody abandoned it. Oh, and I have an epic, and I mean professional EPIC, for Elsweyr. Prologue and first 4 chapters already done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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