Posts Tagged ‘book’
Dear Diary: Today I Killed 50 rats, Tomorrow I Will Kill 100 Kobolds
Posted by Jeremy S. in Gaming Thursday, 9 July 2009 13:59 No Comments
Many people, at different forums posted some very amusing responses to my post on writing a book for a free to play game.
Although amusing I was wondering how much of it was from not really seeing how a book could be written from a free-to-play MMORPG.
While it may be true that many F2P MMORPGs have thinner, watered down story lore, in most cases it’s still fairly good.
This also plays into my previous topic of how Runes of Magic told story lore slightly different than other MMORPGs I’ve played(whether RMT or subscriber based).
To diverge off-topic a moment:]
I recalled some nights playing Runes of Magic where I was compelled to go over low level quests. I realized I was spending many hours and many nights without really leveling(more horizontal gameplay?) yet I couldn’t stop. I found a stronger pull to actually read the quest objective text, and hurry back after completion to read more text. It’s more of how RoM has cleverly incorporated good story telling into an old system(I’ll be making another post on how RoM has decieved us all with ingenius developement).
But I digress:
I intended to write the story much in the way anime fans write their fanfriction these days. Back in the day, it’d be fanfaction based off the old pen-and-paper roleplaying games like D&D.
You don’t really write out things that boil down to mechanics. For instance, If I have to do a quest where I kill 10 kobolds and return, I won’t just “write” that.
I cast fireball, wait 3 seconds for it to cast, and kill a kobold, I move on to the second one.
No, I of course would liven it up, it is afterall supposed to be a living “real” world”
I heard a low growl coming from somewhere behind me. I spun around in time to catch a kobold to the throat. I was able to maintain my footing while prying him off. Blood trickled down my neck like beads of sweat in mid summers day. Luckily he didn’t take a pound of flesh with him. Throwing him on the ground gave me the time I needed to concentrate. He barely had time to get up and start for me when I said two of my favorite words in my arsenal frying him into a crispy critter.
Now that may not be as good as it coud be, but gives you an idea of “translating” a game into a story.
Another example:
I had bought a book years ago for D&D. It was only 200 pages and part of a small side-series(about 6 books). If you’ve read any of them, you know they were specifically intended to be “written adventures”.
The written adventures were to paint the picture that the books had been adventures that real people had playing the game, and then took that game they played and wrote a book out of it.
I found a link to one of those books, with a sample chapter in PDF included, so you can have a very good idea of the writing style I’m shooting for with Runes of Magic.
My Runes of Magic Book: Plot Established(EDIT)
Posted by Jeremy S. in Gaming Wednesday, 8 July 2009 21:08 No Comments
I’m still going to use the generic fantasy template I found, but most of the plot will be laid out for me to just “colorize”- so to speak.
I kept thinking of how I should write a story that could involve NPCs, mobs, bosses, and the like in the World of Taborea, and I remembered the Epic Quest Chains.
There are currently 2 Epic Quest Chains in Runes of Magic, that are quite long and take you to every zone. I believe they are designed to continue clear up to level cap, and some spots require groups to complete.
I decided to write the book on the 2nd Chain Quest. Perhaps the first Epic Quest Chain would be more fitting as it was developed first, but I didn’t do the first Epic Quest Chain yet, plus I really enjoyed the Second Chain.
So I also have a title for my book(the title of the Epic Quest Chain).
Runes of Magic: The Seductive Dark Pearl
It has a rather pirate-like sound to it, and if I remember correctly it does end in Ravenfell(where the pirates are).
The first Epic Chain may do as a better first introduction into the World of Taborea, and I may go back to it. But I have a quirky love for out-of-order story telling. Besides, it would still fit correctly in a time-line, if I decided to later right a book on the first Epic Quest Chain.
Now I have:
- Title- Runes of Magic: The Seductive Black Pearl
- Plot- The second Epic Quest Chain in Runes of Magic
- Main Character- Abernacky Anvilslayer
I need to flesh out my main character. I’m following my template’s lead but expanding it a bit by coming up with 2-3 positive qualities, and 1-2 negative qualities.
So far I thought- He starts the story as a low-level Warrior/Mage, with high levels in Armorcraft and Alchemy.
Good Qualities:
- Good Morals: He may grumble like a dwarf a lot, but he usually opts to help people and do the right thing.
- Exceptional Armorcraft as well as a good Alchemist
Bad Qualities:
- Sensitive about his short height
- A bit Anit-Social
I’m open to suggestion. Actually I would love suggestions/advice/help.
Edit:
getbuffed.com’s handy RoM database helped me find the entire chain of quests for the 2nd Epic Quest Line: The Seductive Black Pearl
It goes up to 43 with the last quest saying it requires level 36 to complete.
I will be reading through the whole line and using it as my outline.
My initial thought is an average of 5 pages text per quest(yeilding 215 pages) would be good.
Required Reading: Plato and the Internet
Most young kids that grew up in diapers with a mouse in one hand, in there younger teenage years have shown quite an aversion to reading. Everytime I log on to a game, zone is constantly filled with questions that are so basic that anyone who has played the game long enough knows that the player asking hasn’t read anything. Typically players are nice enough to answer but highly recommend reading the tutorials. Replies are usually various forms of the same answer that may as well be a big clear, concise neon sign saying “I don’t want to read”.
I’m an avid reader. I love it, there’s so many things to be learned by reading, and so many fun imaginary stories to enjoy. I partly blame our academic system, but it’s a number of things, that aren’t the point of this post, so I don’t want to digress too far. Besides I am obviously writing this for a reading audience.
I want to share a book with everyone, that should become required reading for MMO players as well as “Internet Users”.
This book is amazing, interesting, and just plain cool.
You can buy this book for a pittance. You can find it between 1 and 2 dollars($2.00US) and it’s only 80 pages long. It’s hardly heavy reading.
About the Author
Kieron O’Hara is currently research fellow in the Intelligence, Agents and Multimedia Group at the University of Southampton. He co-wrote the script of the computer game Tomb Raider 4: The Last Revelation, and is also the author of the only (as far as he knows) scholarly paper about Carry On Cabby.
Product Description
This book argues that what is important is not what facts you know, but what you know how to do, and that the essential contrast is not between knowledge and belief, but between knowledge and information.
That product description is a bit misleading, if not confusing.
The book compares notes written by Plato, in times gone by, relating to social interactions. Some of these theories Plato wrote sound as though he’s talking about the internet. But it’s not just the connections that are interesting and fun to read about, it’s beyond that. Where he seemingly is talking about the present day world, he goes on to describe how we need to approach and change our thinking about social interactions now that we have new ways of interacting.
Without going too much further into my dry, and boring retelling of the books concepts, it covers areas that I think Internet users and MMORPG players could learn a tremendous amount about how they percieve they are having fun, and how they can change their perceptions.
If you think, like the description says: the importance is between knowledge and information, you can use that information however you want. This book opened my mind to hundreds of ideas relating directly to MMORPG’s: how they work, how to play them better, how to enjoy them more, how to make better ones, etc…
And MMO bloggers need this book as well. It will spark so many topics for you to write about, you may never get writer’s block.
All that’s left for me to say is get this book, get this book, get this book!