More Than Books - Publishing Formats & Options

It would be unreasonable for any group to actively regulate the sheer volume of written player content that is going to end up being published in-game. The council would never be able to keep up.

What there might be is a way to report books that Portalarium deems inappropriate but as far as I'm aware that process is yet to be determined.

That said, it is not likely the council's job to censor content beyond the rules Portalarium puts forth. Which should be mainly common sense stuff that they wouldn't allow in the forums and maintaining a sense of consistency for official material that you would see in Single Player Offline mode. The latter may not even apply to in-game published content.

 

I think the council is for only official canon stories of the game. Anyone can write what they want and publish what they want.

In UO no matter how hard I tried EA would not make my stories official Ultima background stories.

 

I would like to add sea serpent and kraken skin to the list for my Siren stories.

 

Along the lines of the original OP idea, I think it would be neat if we could 'whisper' some short simple story to a player vendor or even NPC about some story we have heard in the game, and then they could repeat that back to others. Perhaps they would have some type of buffer to accept this text, keep it for a day or two, and then erase it, so they could accept their next whisper to pass on to others when asked. It could be really cool. The trouble is the possibility of exploits and crassness.

 

Just had a new idea!

Publishing codes! These might be placed on the title page.. say in the lower corner and may look something like this..

<genre><publisher ID><book ID>_<Print Number>

The addition of a print number would automatically make books with a low number collectable.

The main purpose of a code is an addition to lore. It would be a way for scholars and librarians to keep track books without having to take up a lot of space.

 

So would the print number reflect like... the time the novel was written? For example if you wrote the first novel your print number would be "1"??

The other thing that does kinda worry me is if theres censorship in the books! Grr.... im anti censorship. But im guessing that if book publishing has a significant influence on how the game runs.. theres going to be some cleaning. Now... I can see how you wouldn't want some book with a modern era theme in it sitting in a main library in the game or circulating all over the world and all that. Or if you wrote a hardcore sexually themed novel like 50 shades or something and decided to mass produce that and pack all the libraries all over the game world with it. It would mess up the setting of the game much like customizable housing did. I think giving players the ability to put their creativity into this game is good, but you probably should limit it enough so that it doesn't totally break the setting. I actually think customizable housing would be a good thing to have in this game, so long as theres collaboration with devs and the player whose customizing or building their home in a way that doesnt break setting or look ugly. ok ok ok back to the topic of books.
There should probably be publishable books that involve using <genre><publisher ID><book ID>_<Print Number> for those seasoned writers or players who specialise in being authors for the game. Hopefully these books would increase the RP and Questing/lore experience of the game by 100 fold! I remember lord british wanting my team to find the wizard of oz for him in ultima 6 and all. Perhaps new quests would pop up based on what an experienced author publishes. But to maintain the feeling of freedom, there should be books that dont have the "special stamp" and ok from dev's or anything. I think you should have books much like they were in UO that have a title and author line and you can just type into. These books were pretty much useless, sometimes people used them to leave notes and stuff, or to advertise their store by dropping by the bank(better to just drop a rune to the store actually...) and to organize their vendors. So I feel these books should exist in the game, but kept for more private use. You could put them in your home, your bank, in chests, you can lay them around town, scatter them a bit, but you cant stock main libraries or anything with them. Theres no special stamp on them indicating they are quest or story/setting and dev approved and allowed in the main libraries.
I think this will allow players to have some freedom. So if they want to write excessively violent, or sexually charged books, or modern era themed books they could put it in their own home. Or they could throw it on the ground at the bank. A player might come by, pick it up, read it, and it will elicit a reaction. Basically the player would be trolling in that case. A little player to player troll in game is fun sometimes. Im guessing so long as they dont scatter and litter profane material ALL OVER THE PLACE theres no big deal. What good is banning a player for dropping one profane scroll or something on the ground for a few giggles anyways? I have fun finding these books by the bank once in awhile. Sometimes ill talk to others at the bank thru them and stuff. Its mildly amusing.

 

You certainly can write and self-publish within the parameters established by Portalarium. (I would imagine that graphic descriptions of sex, violence, and obscene language would obviously not be tolerated.) The Council is tasked with overseeing "official" lore - i.e. what you might expect to find in the public library or the monastery archives. I would imagine if I were a New Britannian, I would find it rather disconcerting (and certainly immersion breaking) to find a book about something like Tales from 21st Century Earth or My Wild Adventures in the Amazon in the public library

 

You realize that was asked, answered and clarified like weeks ago?

And why would that be disconcerting?

You have fiction in real life, this world cant have total fiction? You attitude is off putting to say the least for my enjoyment of entertainment.

Not everything needs to be so singular; open your mind to creative endeavor.

 

Based on the opening cinematic, it seems that the avatar has come from the modern day world. Given that placement in time, it would seem that the avatar would be able to write about his life in this world while being firmly placed in New Britannia without it breaking 'immersion'. The only reason I can think of off the top of my head for it not being 'immersion' breaking would be if the avatar had his mind wiped because of the portal transport to NB.

 

You do realize that the natives (NPCs) are distrustful of "Outlanders"? You are trying to blend in, not draw undue attention to yourself by talking or writing about people, places, or events they couldn't possibly be aware of...

"Hi! I'm ___________. I just arrived here from 21st century Earth via that lunar rift and I'm here to save all of you from some unknown, powerful menace. What, you don't think I'm up to the task? Here, read this book about some of my adventures on Earth . This proves I have what it takes to be The Avatar!"

Yeah, well so much for roleplaying...

 

But there is the problem right there. You want to role play that, great, no one says everyone has to do so.

I am sure if this happened for reals, there would be plenty of "avatars" who would say, screw blending in, I want to know how to get back to my world!

Again, maybe for single player, sure, but when we are talking online, shared resource space, welcome to the world of opinions and playstyles.

 

Scrolls, Bowen.

Music sheets and illustrations, etc. that you could drag and drop into books would also fit the map idea.

 

hm. what if i want to roleplay someone who is very proud of the fact that i'm from earth? What if i don't want to blend in?

just sayin.

 

Makes sense as long as there are consequences. You could be against Blackthorn in U5 or you could support British in Serpent Isle, but you'd get into a lot of trouble.

I'm assuming any Council of Scribes will be mindful of the consequences and selectively publish material so they won't get in trouble. Any references to the reality on Earth would have to be coded or carefully written.

 

I hope the council of scribes have a more relaxed version of what should or should not be entered into the libraries. If it is full of profanity, and clearly not the type of content that should be in a game that children might play, then remove it. However if somebody writes something that isn't offensive, and it is an interesting story I don't see any reason to object to it even if it seems to make claims that don't line up with SotA.

I don't see why somebody cannot write using names of people's avatars and in game avatars of the developers without their consent. People write books all the time saying whatever they want about anybody without consent as long as it isn't slander.

Just because somebody writes something doesn't mean it has to be true! Somebody can write a book saying Lord British came over to my birthday party and he sang for the kids and then we all rode a magic balloon afterward... and none of that has to be true, the author might suffer from delusions, and none of it happened.

I wrote some stories in there about the Obsidian Order. Will they be rejected because it mentions the Obsidian Order, and makes some claims about them? Or will people read it as if the author might be telling the truth, or the author might be totally insane and not know it?


There doesn't need to be the same level of control over these books as there needs to be over the images being sent in to the CoA. Book writing should be open and free. There should be some true information, and some flat out false information. There should also be fiction books, for the sake of imagination purposes.

 

Is SotA Nazi Germany? Burn all the books that don't line up with our ideology?

Or is this game going to have a council of scribes that believes in freedom of thought, and exploration of knowledge?

EDIT: Is it still politically correct to say anything negative about Nazi Germany, or is that intolerant in this generation?

See how censorship and political correctness can go to far? Some day it might be wrong to say anything. We will be expected to just know your role and shut your mouth!

 

As far as I know, you'll be able to write almost anything you want in the game, the council of scribes is just a distribution system, so of course they'll determine what to distribute.

 

What about writing books on our own? What if I don't like the council of scribes? What if I would like to write my own personal books, and distribute them on the black market. GRAMMAR ERRORS AND ALL.

Is that possible in SotA? If not than this is not realistic.

 

In a world like this, a medium to large guild should have the ability to write any books they want. If the people in authority don't like it then start a guild war. See who wins.

This is an early civilization still. The world just had a major catastophy there's going to be lots of vying for power. Even if there was a one world government controlling the world, it would be weakened by such a cataclysm that groups and city states would be able to rebel.

 

I'm pretty sure you'll be able to do that... though I don't know if the devs have talked about the process of making books.