The Skotos Silence

[JeffCrook]

If anyone is like me, I think the sudden drop-off in the number of posts is a result of breathless waiting for the announcement of the Skotos Seven. Any clue when this might begin to happen?

[Erica]

Not sure Jeff, but I'm with you http://www.skotos.net/ubb/smile.gif

Here, I'll share my cheesecake with you ;P

[Buggy]

Could be, or it could be Labor day weekend. Don't know about anyone else, but I was out of town.

Buggy

[shannon_appel]

Folks,

All the interest in the Skotos Seven StoryBuilder positions is greatly appreciated. It's in excess of our hopes--which is great, because we want to be able to build a community where lots of people can choose to build their own worlds.

We just stopped accepting proposals last Thursday. At this point we have approximately 50 proposals that we're going to have to carefully weigh the pros and cons of. That's going to take a couple of weeks.

Here's my current expectation of upcoming StoryBuilder events:

By 9/15/00: Announcement of most of the Skotos Seven.

By 9/15/00: New opportunities for StoryBuilders--proposals accepted to create games set in Skotos' licensed worlds--Lovecraft Country, Og, and Paranoia.

By 1/31/01: New opportunities for StoryBuilders--Skotos starts accepting new StoryBuilders on a monthly basis.

I'll be updating the StoryBuilder section of the Skotos website in the next week to keep everyone up-to-date on this stuff.

In meantime, our apologies for keeping everyone on pins and needles for a few weeks; we're trying to make the best choices we can for these initial Skotos games.

Shannon
Skotos

[Lady]

Indeed,

I'm with the weirdos who had a holiday weekend that took up all of their time. Ah, but loved the bbq and visiting with the family. Now, back to the grind (work, posting, wondering if I should order that gyro or not when I get off....)

[ChristopherA]

Originally posted by shannon_appel:
We just stopped accepting proposals last Thursday. At this point we have approximately 50 proposals that we're going to have to carefully weigh the pros and cons of. That's going to take a couple of weeks.


Actually, we received a total of 76 proposals, about 15 of which came on the last day (the 31st). As soon as I can get get caught up on my email from over the holiday weekend, I'll start digging in again to review the proposals.

-- Christopher Allen

[LadySilverwolf]

*sigh*.... I was sooo excited in finding this site, especially after I realized I might actually have a chance at building a story/world with a Gaming community.

Then I found the date of closer for accepting Skotos Seven. I felt like I had missed another great opportunity.

However, I read this message and realized that there was 76 proposals sent to Skotos. What will happen to those 'ideas' or proposals when you finally make your selection of seven? Will there ever be a chance to actually maybe add on to this world? Add more StoryBuilders? If so, will you take from the original 76 proposals or will you ask for new ideas?

Granted I realize that this is all based on whether or not the game becomes the rage like 'Everquest' or 'Ultima Online', but I personaly love to write out fantasy ideas and play them out on pen and paper. Is it possible that perhaps you might consider allowing Assistant Story Builders?


*sigh*.... now I REALLY wish I had been able to go to GenCon this year! http://www.skotos.net/ubb/frown.gif

[shannon_appel]

Originally posted by LadySilverwolf:
However, I read this message and realized that there was 76 proposals sent to Skotos. What will happen to those 'ideas' or proposals when you finally make your selection of seven? Will there ever be a chance to actually maybe add on to this world? Add more StoryBuilders? If so, will you take from the original 76 proposals or will you ask for new ideas?


There will *definitely* be the opportunity for additional people to become StoryBuilders at Skotos. It's an important part of the Skotos paradigm: That StoryPlayers can enjoy interesting, immersive worlds *AND* that StoryBuilders can create worlds from their imagination.

In January, we're going to start adding new StoryBuilders at a rate of a couple a month. We may be making some selections from our initial 75+ proposals, because there are *SO* many more good worlds than we can use in our Skotos 7. However, we'll be encouraging new proposals as well.

Then, this summer, we'll be offering StoryBuilder capabilities to everyone.

(Another opportunity for StoryBuilders: We're going to give you the chance to write games for our licensed products: Og and Lovecraft Country and Paranoia. If you love any of these games, start thinking about them. We'll put some specifics up in the StoryBuilder section of the web site soon.)

We're doing something special with the Skotos Seven by offering an advance against royalties. We want to encourage people to build the earliest games for the Skotos community. However, even if we don't offer more advances in January, the royalties offered will still be exactly the same... so if you make a great game, you'll be rewarded for it.

(And I'm sure that most people will be making worlds for the sheer joy of it. I'm a writer and a StoryTeller and a world builder; seeing something come from nothing and seeing other people enjoy your creation is a real kick.)

Shannon

(And, how are we doing on our selection of the Skotos Seven? It looks like we're going to select the first few this week, then go finish getting Castle Marrach ready for launch, before returning and announcing the rest of the Skotos Seven near the end of the month. Apologies for keeping you all on pins & needles, but we're still a small company and releasing that first game takes a lot of work!)

[Lady]

Now that's very interesting to know. You say that new storybuilders will be added at a rate of two per month until summer when capabilities go public.

Now, one big thing I heard Christopher talk about with the Skotos Seven beyond the advance was the fact that Skotos would offer a great deal of support. They would get the advertising, support, and marketing backing. Would that hold true for those added after the initial Seven?

[shannon_appel]

Originally posted by Lady:

Now, one big thing I heard Christopher talk about with the Skotos Seven beyond the advance was the fact that Skotos would offer a great deal of support. They would get the advertising, support, and marketing backing. Would that hold true for those added after the initial Seven?


Yes & no.

We're going to give the Skotos Seven more direct support than we expect to give later developers. However, we also expect to have considerably better documentation by the time that Summer rolls around and we expect to have an existing community of developers to help provide support.

As for advertising and marketing: if we get a good game from a good writer that is attracting people--even after the Skotos Seven--we're definitely going to try and push that game. We expect the Skotos community to eventually be full of terrific games by freelance designers and we'll want to tell people about them.

Shannon

[shannon_appel]

Originally posted by LadySilverwolf:

I guess I should have asked this to begin with in my first post, but would I be able to submit my idea/world with the current form, or would it be best to wait until January to submit it then? My main interest in this is because I like to write and I think I would really like to be involved in something like this.


I suspect we'll be using the same form in January, or at least a very similar one. Definitely, the questions listed there are very good ones to be thinking about for your world design. If the form is a little different by the time January rolls around, I'm sure you'll be able to use 90% of the work that you did.


I have never really played MUDs or MUSHs before, because some of the ones I have seen were just not very well wrote out, or too confusing, or just too much going on. Will this be one of the requirements for actually becomeing a story builder?

When we're selecting StoryBuilders between now and next Summer we're definitely trying to pick people that we think will build clear, well-written games.

Beginning next Summer, everyone will have the opportunity to become StoryBuilders, but we expect to have community rating systems available, so that Skotos members can tell each other which games they enjoy the most

Shannon

[LadySilverwolf]

Originally posted by shannon_appel:
In January, we're going to start adding new StoryBuilders at a rate of a couple a month. We may be making some selections from our initial 75+ proposals, because there are *SO* many more good worlds than we can use in our Skotos 7. However, we'll be encouraging new proposals as well.


Thanks for letting me know. However, I guess I should have asked this to begin with in my first post, but would I be able to submit my idea/world with the current form, or would it be best to wait until January to submit it then? My main interest in this is because I like to write and I think I would really like to be involved in something like this.

I have never really played MUDs or MUSHs before, because some of the ones I have seen were just not very well wrote out, or too confusing, or just too much going on. Will this be one of the requirements for actually becomeing a story builder?

[ShannonA]

So, where's that Skotos Seven decision?

We're still working on it! It's a very hard decision to make considering the number of high quality proposals that we received.

I'm putting the final touches on a new set of pages for the StoryBuilder section. There will be preliminary information on the Skotos Seven there, as well as info on our next opportunity: designing for our licensed games.

I expect the new StoryBuilder section to go up on Monday.

See you then!

Shannon Appelcline