Who writes Ages?

cedward1 · **Joined:** Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:41 am **Posts:** 140

If I understand things correctly, Open Source makes Age Writing by us explorers an official thing. This being the case, what is the IC explanation for us to be able to write Ages? Were visitors able to write Ages all along? Did the DRC posess knowledge of the Art, and now they are letting us know? Or when we write Ages, are they supposed to have been written by the D'ni and simply discovered by us?

Zenoc2 · **Joined:** Wed Jan 19, 2011 12:19 am **Posts:** 49

As I understand it, the IC explanation for explorer-written Ages actually relies on explorers doing exactly what the DRC didn't want them to do, that is to say, "exploring beyond their barriers" and discovering the methods that the D'ni actually used (which, OOC, means messing around with creating Ages, which we are allowed to talk about here, and exploring them, using methods which we're not allowed to talk about here

). Many people have been doing this for a while, as you can see over on the Guild of Writers' forum. That's just my understanding, though. With the release of CWE and MOSS, we now have a legitimate way to test and explore fan-written Ages.

Back to the canon discussion, other fan-made Ages can be "discovered" around D'ni, in the form of Linking Books. Previously unopened parts of the Cavern count, too.

PaladinOfKaos · **Joined:** Thu Aug 03, 2006 10:55 pm **Posts:** 625

Some fan ages are parts of the D'ni cavern, others are ostensibly D'ni-created ages. Still others are created by fans who have writen IC stories around deciphering the language used to write linking books. The GoW recognizes all of those (and whatever else you can think up) as perfectly legitimate IC story.

That being said, RAWA has posted (and I don't have the link currently) some guidelines for fan age story. It would probably be best to start there.

Nalates · **Posted:** Sat Apr 16, 2011 9:25 am

Often the IC story in Uru was some reflection of RL events. Financing by GameTap had IC counter parts.

Since the cavern was old and current day explorers have found it, just consider what would be likely to happen. People would study and figure out link books. Figuring out age creation books is related to learning Blender and building an age. We are learning to build ages in RL. Will Cyan reflect that in story someday? We don’t know.

Because Cyan was controlling the environment no one every showed up in cavern with a laptop. Since fans now have the ability to create story and in-world objects we are likely to see some modern day stuff in the ages made by fans. I think Dot has a laptop in an age in one of the private alcugs shards. While it is unlikely in Cyan areas, the existing parts of the game as we know it today, it has happened in fan ages.

Cyan has stated they want their areas and their story left alone, so they can resume their story some day. But, does moving beyond finding books to writing them break that request? I don’t think so. I think that part of the story has yet to be written.

Because Cyan never got to where they had to deal with fan created ages while they were writing story, they have never made it clear what they think about fans making ages, in an IC way. But, they had people making trips to the surface and keeping up with then current baseball games. So, they made it clear we are current day explorers in an old Cavern.

Some people think that if modern day people could build ages the RL world would have to change to reflect that. Since that is not going to happen then it should not be possible for us to make newly created ages IC. We would be limited to finding old D’ni books and ages. Others think otherwise, me for one. RL seldom reflects what fantasies are happening virtual worlds and that doesn’t spoil the game’s immersion for me. We’ll have to see how Cyan crosses that bridge. So, will someone develop the story and Cyan adopt it at some point? We don’t know.

We will most certainly find more linking books. Someone will find a book somewhere and we’ll have a new age. They will likely get to make up the story about their book, where it was found and how.

kaelisebonrai · **Joined:** Sun Jan 20, 2008 2:14 pm **Posts:** 902

We've already, as individuals developed IC explainations for how we as explorers have begun to Write Ages...

The generally accepted general info regarding this can be found on this page of this forum topic in the gow forums.

http://forum.guildofwriters.com/viewtop ... =60#p42314

Sadly, the IC site's progress has stalled, while we've been busy with other things, but, that's generally the IC storyline many of us have adopted, and is generally the "accepted" IC story.

If that story was changed, and that change was forced on us, I think you'll find a great deal of protesting going on, making the "Message Redacted" protest pale in comparison.

these are individual stories owned by each storyteller, We have figured out the language, found books of instruction, found ink, and Blank Books, written our first Ages, restored areas of D'ni. We have done many things.

Please, for the love of all that is holy, do NOT invalidate all we have achieved.

Tweek · **Joined:** Tue May 09, 2006 12:11 am **Posts:** 2632

It is simply down to the author.

Some people talk about Ages they've found and restored. Others (like myself) have been in the cavern for 8 years and have been studying the Art to the point where they've started writing themselves.

Which has become the generally accepted theory as to how we are Writing Ages.

Nalates is correct about the parables between Age building and learning Blender. Some people do use those as marker points in terms of learning the Art and translate that into an IC aspect (i.e., the development log on the linked page).

Nalates · **Posted:** Sat Apr 16, 2011 6:02 pm

Quote:

If that story was changed, and that change was forced on us, I think you'll find a great deal of protesting going on, making the "Message Redacted" protest pale in comparison.

Forced… I don’t see how that is possible. Just as the open source code will branch, just a Superman, Star Trek, and other stories have branched so too will the adventures in the Cavern. Several people at GoW walk their own path and make interesting stories. The people writing stories do not seem to be influenced by what EVERYONE else is doing. People pick and choose what they want to react to and include in their stories. I am using anti-matter power systems brought back from the future to power up D’ni artifacts brought from the past via the Devokan Spheres. The Spheres are used to explain the continual changes that happen to regions in SL and OSGrid. I doubt any of that is going to be adopted by most age makers. I certainly believe no one will ever figure out how to force any story on fans. Smallville has certainly not changed the main Superman story where Louis know Kent is Superman in one and not in the other. This is story. We can pick and choose as it suites our individual taste.

While some want to conform to canon as close as they can, others not so much. Yet others have very little concern about canon. While it would be nice to avoid conflict in stories the chances are we will be dealing with it. There are all sorts of story devices to allow us to resolve conflicts. I remember the scene where Warf was asked about the change in Klingon appearance, “We don’t talk about that.”

That we may find a great deal of protesting should we exercise our freedom to tell stories that disagree with what some number of people at GoW have adopted or declared to be canon… or if Cyan chooses to tell a different story… I think many of us will ignore the protesting and move on with out stories. Also, you write that like there hasn’t been or isn’t lots of protesting going on and like no one has ever ignored a Cyan request or story shift.

Protest is common in our community. I don’t see that it has ever done much beyond generate posts and reveal people’s attitudes and personalities.

Thx Tweet. I forgot that the video camera had a laptop with it. It is ametist and I think D'Lanor that got something built into educational ages, like a working laptop or projector, that allow them to more easily teach classes in Uru.

cedward1 · **Joined:** Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:41 am **Posts:** 140

It seems to me that whatever is canon is up to Cyan. A consensus may be have been reached by a set of fans, but we aren't really the authors of the story. The Rules of Linking make it clear that we can't mess around with the existing story.

Which is what made me curious, since Cyan has officially accepted fan Ages without providing an "official" explanation of how they come into being. I would assume that explorers are bound to discover the secret of Age writing, though I don't know if 8 years is long enough to put the clues together. It would involve not only learning to write fluently in D'ni, but it would involve finding or making the blank books and ink. And what happens when these run out? The DRC would be the first to learn the secrets, I would think. But all that is speculation.

Anyway I suppose it is true that if someone doesn't care about being canon, they can pretty much do whatever they want. I personally think that some amount of compromise will have to be reached in order to allow for stability in the story. Otherwise Uru will cease to exist as an entity and become a set of spin off games. In regards to invalidating all that the GoW has achieved, it would become a moot point. You would just believe whatever you want to believe. There would no longer be a "true" story to invalidate.

But you can't stop someone from playing by their own rules, unless they cross legal boundaries and agreements.

Tweek · **Joined:** Tue May 09, 2006 12:11 am **Posts:** 2632

cedward1 wrote:

It seems to me that whatever is canon is up to Cyan. A consensus may be have been reached by a set of fans, but we aren't really the authors of the story. The Rules of Linking make it clear that we can't mess around with the existing story.

We are the authors of /our/ story. Cyan is the authors of theirs, although the two often intermingle.

So no not all canon is up to Cyan.

This article on inkwell might be of interest: Canon is God, but I'm an Atheist

Nalates · **Posted:** Sun Apr 17, 2011 4:30 am

Tweek has the right idea on canon. Cyan's is Cyan's canon. But fans are not limited to that. I believe those that want to play cooperatively will make some fun story mixes. Other... not so much.

I expect that by the end of this year, or well before, we will have pretty good tools and 3DS and Blender will be able to make usable ages for MOSS and CWE. So, it has taken us 8-9 years to learn how to make ages.

At first we may have found ink and paper and learned to write using those. Perhaps we will make that the hacking phase. Later we would analyze the ink and paper and begin to make our own. Since in RL we are not limited by paper or ink running out there will be some IC explanation for the never ending supply. The unending supply will be the open source era.

I'm not sure the age books have to be written in D'ni. Computer code for Uru is written in assembly, C++ (I think), parts in python which while those are based in English the style, syntax and punctuation are very different. Someone will likely turn the differences into a an interesting IC metaphor.

cedward1 · **Joined:** Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:41 am **Posts:** 140

I am beginning to see how it works now, thanks to your explanations. I suppose as long as we don't contradict Cyan's story we can come up with whatever explanation we want. After all, who's to say that explorers didn't find books and ink, and learn to write Ages? Really, the process could be different for each person as it would likely be in real life.

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