Ever wondered how intrepid journalists manage to find stories that shape the world? How daring a exposé can bring down the mightiest among us?
Well you're out of luck because this is the Discovery Newroom.
This little slice of forum is where you'll look to ask questions, get answers and provide feedback on any of the news articles posted by the News team:
@Teerin - Supreme Commander and genocidal maniac, enjoys larger death tolls and pictures of spiderman.
@Tabris - Editor in Chief and watchful overlord, rumoured to have been at lunch for almost 42 years.
@Croft - Writer and unwitting pawn in this sick, twisted plan to inform people.
Jokes aside, this thread will be your go-to for anything regarding the official news section which will hopefully see consistent updates to keep the community informed and engaged.
I look forward to this. I missed official news to events caused by patches or official events. The worst thing one can get is a vague report like we got when FP11 was nemped. It's definitely a good thing to have more CNS again.
Currently we have articles planned for weekly release up until August, most of which will be highlighting story or faction shifts introduced in the previous patch and a few more hinting at possible future developments. Beyond that the schedule may change to a bi-weekly format depending on how much news and free time is available, though we are kicking around the idea of having community submitted news appear in the CNS but the details are still up in the air at the moment.
There are three broad headlines that the news falls under, G/CNS, Editorial and Business News.
G/CNS or Gallic / Colony News Service articles are intended to be objective in their reports, offering no opinion or bias and focusing on the facts as they are known. These tend to cover "big picture" moments around the sector that effect areas or entire colonies often mentioned in infocards but lack details that the community can use in their characters or factions, such as the Maine supernova.
Editorials on the otherhand are opinion pieces, with these I try to skew the tone depending on the intended source. There are nuggets of truth buried in these stories that shed light on what a particular faction or group is up to, though it's up to the reader to decide what is fact and what is fiction. I try to be careful not to give away too much in these pieces as its quite easy to be caught up in the writing and include things that shouldn't be widely known.
Business News or ΤΩΣO is typically the realm of the admins and (was) used to announce ingame trade events before the event system came into being. Now, under my tyrannical subservience (Hail to the Mighty Editors) the Business News will be used to report, well business news. These may range from stockholders opinions to editorials from business focused news outlets and market analyists. If it's about money you'll read about it here.
That's all for now, next time I'll go into a bit of detail on how the news is made and what makes the news.
Player faction news will be up to those individual groups, like I said the news will only cover changes made by the patches e.g. NPC factions. Think of it as a window into the storyline than details of each player faction.
Hope you folks are enjoying the news pieces so far, though am I disappointed that no one jumped at the Invester Clouseau joke from the Mackinac article. It was a defining moment in my long history of witticisms and terrible puns but alas, such masterpieces are often under appreciated in their time.
Moving along.
So what does make the news?
As I've clarified in an earlier post, these articles are based upon the NPC factions that make up Discovery's (theorically) rich tapestry. This is done for a number of reasons but the chief among them is simply so it doesn't intrude on player factions.
For example: In the Mackinac article I made no mention of Gallia despite OSC's faction page clearly stating it as being a stepping stone into the Kingdom. That's because from a developer point of view OSC and Orbital Spa & Cruise are two separate things. This allows player factions to take their own direction whilst leaving the template (NPC faction) unchanged, the same logic applies here.
The actual topics of the news articles cover a spectrum, some are retroactive like the Maine supernova while others are gentle nudges to the storyline much like the Crete article. Even the editorials can sometimes contain subtle hints to upcoming storylines or previous changes, though much less reliable than the News Service.
Generally speaking, if something changes the status quo of an NPC faction you'll see a news piece about it
Now how is the news made?
Tabris or Teerin give me a single line to turn into a full blown article. No, seriously. This is the specification given for the Gaian article:
"Gaian movement gaining strength beyond House Bretonia (editorial style.) Pro-Gaian news source "
Naturally we discuss the main points in the SLIS chat (stands for: Story, Lore, Infocard, Systems if you're curious) that can be covered and changes that need to be made to each draft. The telltale sign to see if Teerin has slipped something in to the story? The oxford comma.
Once I've got the points, or story milestones as I call them, its time to get writing.
Well not really, first I consider the specs of each article and research as much as I can about them. This involves reading infocards, skimming the forums, visiting the areas ingame, looking through the wiki and asking for info in the SLIS chat. Now moderately informed I start writing, laying out the main points in a rough pattern of Cause, Effect, Conclusion. This gives the article direction and helps to keep what I write from ending up a cluttered mess or a criss-cross of tenses.
After the first draft I step away for awhile and do something else. Either another job or project, house/garden work and usually a coffee with a biscuit (or cookie, depending on your location.) The goal is to completely divert my mind from my previous train of thought so when I come back to it I have to re-read the article to refresh my memory. If I've written it properly I continue on as before, if I haven't I rewrite the section until I'm happy with it. Rinse and repeat.
Depending on the difficulty of the article this can take an afternoon or up to a week, though it's typically three days provided nothing crops up. At the end I'll link it in the chat for everyone to read and give their opinion. Any suggestions or additions are added and the process repeats again until finally being posted for all to see.
Of course I welcome any feedback or questions regarding the news and will try to answer them to the best of my ability. Next time, the importance of tone and language.
Fun fact: The position of the Mackinac I attacked during the article, was the one I suggest last year. Talk about ambivalence.
I do though have one piece of feedback, and more to open up the discussion:
Quote:... As I've clarified in an earlier post, these articles are based upon the NPC factions that make up Discovery's (theorically) rich tapestry. This is done for a number of reasons but the chief among them is simply so it doesn't intrude on player factions.
For example: In the Mackinac article I made no mention of Gallia despite OSC's faction page clearly stating it as being a stepping stone into the Kingdom. That's because from a developer point of view OSC and Orbital Spa & Cruise are two separate things. This allows player factions to take their own direction whilst leaving the template (NPC faction) unchanged, the same logic applies here.
I get that when you have a Player Faction be a subset of the NPC faction. But in cases like [LN], or Order|, where they are the primary faction of the NPC ID and have been for many years, should they not thus in essence be the deciding factor of the direction the aforementioned faction goes? Especially with The Faction Right #2. If an official faction is able to direct the RP of both NPC and Player factions, then should not the Player Factions be consulted/factored in on News? I feel like that is a perk of being an official faction, that you can advance the RP/lore of the NPC faction (an example is requests to change the Rep/lines in both Official and NPC ID's).
Just curious, because I could this looking like Player Factions no longer have any say/control over the direction of the NPC faction. Thoughts/concerns?
(06-21-2017, 08:49 PM)Arioch Wrote: Just curious, because I could this looking like Player Factions no longer have any say/control over the direction of the NPC faction. Thoughts/concerns?
Did they ever? I mean, a lot of factions wise, we skip the rope at the tune of the story devs.
Did they ever? I mean, a lot of factions wise, we skip the rope at the tune of the story devs.
<3
To a degree, I would say so. For instance, if you put in a request to have say mining added to an ID, or the rep changed, or the allowances (techwise) changed due to RP, that is to be changed for both the Official ID and the NPC ID, then yes - the Official factions have some control over the development of the NPC faction they represent.
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