Scattered Thoughts on Scattered Worlds

My early night last night did me a world of good. You know, I set out this morning to smash through my previous per day post count. And, well, as soon as I push the button here, I will (The rest are in the queue waiting for some finishing touches before they go live - just assume for everything I've posted here there's a lot I've written that's waiting for me to be okay with it before you see it, you'll probably be right more often than not.). That’s ten posts plus my nightly wrap-up. I make no guarantees of their quality. The scary thing, to me anyways, is that the more I write the easier it gets. Each post I write I have at least one other idea for a post or a comment or a story somewhere that just drives me to write it out. I mean, I posted a lot today but I wasn’t even trying all that hard so a high score of 11 in a day is easily beatable one day, I think. Just maybe not tomorrow.

Talking with all these construction people, roofers, and contractors is driving me more crazy than I am already. Each one has their own agenda – get hired – and is a bigger expert in their chosen field than I’ll ever be. So they talk to me about things I have some idea about but no real clue what they actually mean. I’m just glad I’d been researching linguistics a bit before the holidays. I know not much of it’s made its way onto the blog but I have this pet theory that people can talk to each other in their own language even when speaking the same exact one. To explain it I’m going to need to understand just how exactly information gets transmitted and translated by people so I wouldn’t exactly hold your breath. But, I’d be trying to explain it to prove that people need to listen to each other better so they can understand. And, well, I think I’m doing a much better job of that with these people than I would have without my research so even though I haven’t produced much from it, I’ve still benefited. Unexpected dividends from previously sunk costs and all that.

This Free Ryzom thing’s got me thinking. Makes me wonder if some smart company down the line might not consider building something like that into the game itself - giving away some of the ownership of their game in return for the monthly fees paid and time spent playing so that the game eventually winds up being actually owned, in part if not whole, by the people playing. The ultimate gold sink, if you will. As a way of extending the life of a game it could work quite well, I think, especially if you have a small but dedicated userbase.

Speaking of unexpected dividends, I’m not done with my NaNo just yet. I’m sticking with my plan of leaving my manuscript laying flat for a few weeks – probably until after the holidays – but that doesn’t mean I can’t be writing something else. So, I’m in pre-production for a sequel, of sorts, to Clans of the Highborn: A Tale of WoE (Yeah, I really need to work on the name. I’ve had dozens and none of them feel just right. Maybe when I actually finish the thing…) using not the same characters but the same world that I’ve created. Different plot, different players playing the same game. It should cut down on the amount of research and preplanning I’ll have to do. So I’m going to be fleshing out ClotH even more in the coming days and weeks especially as I think this novel’s going to concentrate on the high-end PvE side of things. Since I concentrated on the high-end PvP side of things in the last one – as that’s the part of these games that I usually enjoy the most – there’s a lot of idea space left for me to still explore. So expect some things from me about that process, I’ll wager.

Auto Assault Update: Heading off to play it in just a bit.

Outlook: Gunning for the new high score.

[1] - Fifteen minutes.