Korath wrote:
> What you need if you are creating a world that is open to anyone to
> contribute, but you have specific guidelines on what can be considered
> "official" material for the world, is to have a Setting license, and a
> logo (and Trademark) very much like the D20STL, and the D20 logo. In
> this license for the setting, you set down the guidelines on how you
> allow compatible materials for the setting, and then only those
> materials that comply with the license can use the logo, and thus be
> considered compatible with the setting. One of your restrictions to
> using the license could be that it has to go through "Quality Control"
> with the Trademark Owner, before it can use the logo.
>
> If someone then wanted to modify, and distribute materials that appear
> under the Setting license but did not care about using the Setting logo
> to signify that it was for the setting, he doesn't have to bother with
> the setting license.
This seems like a nice application of the open gaming concept.
There are numerous problems though...
Maggie wrote:
> The one problem I
> have with it is that I can't see how it could be modified to
> allow for more
> community interaction _before_ an idea becomes official.
This is a problem easily solved. Using discussion forums and voting booths,
mailing lists, chat boxes and versioning systems, it should be easy enough
to work out a way.
FA, have a public folder where everyone can submit a document.
After doing so, he can ask for help/ideas/corrections/comments
from the community (be it via e-mail or via some kind of board
or something else). These people add their input to the
document. When the discussion settles down, the author
incorporates comments and suggestions, and then either re-submits
it or moves it forward to the 'waiting-for-approval-folder'.
The community can then decide to accept the document, send
it back to 'submission status', or totally reject it. If an
author did not follow the right path before requesting
approval, the document is easily send back to the submission
folder.
<snip>
> But how does it start and who makes up the guidelines? I guess
> that would
> change from project to project.
Most often, projects are born in the mind of one person, who
works out the basic ideas, writes up a 'world framework', then
releases this out into the community. If the community likes
the world, the project gets more members and becomes bigger.
You'd naturally assume for the original author to set up the
rules and guidelines of the setting, to indicate what is and
what is not open to discussion (as Korath suggests).
The danger here is that (people will feel that) the entire
community is working on a world that is only allowed to take
shape as said founders allows.
The same happens when you have a 'quality control group'.
People will feel like "Hey, I worked long and hard on this
and everyone says it is way cool, and now quality control
rejects it! This is so not cool, this project stinks."
sooner or later.
The answer then, is to make every part of the process open
(and when that is not possible, at least democratic). Set up
a draft for a world, release it under OGL, then have the
community work on it until a consensus if reached. If the
community is split between opinions, have guidelines in place
for the route to be followed. Make the guidelines open to
discussion at any time, releasing them as open content.
The best project structure, IMHO, is one that is as democratic
as possible. Have the community draft guidelines for a voting
process, and have the community decide whether a work deserves
to become official.
The issue here is to have capable managers that basically do
nothing but facilitate the voting process, monitor discussions,
and try to find solutions to incorporate the wishes of the
minorities into the project in a way that everyone can agree
with.
The key here is openness. Run the project on a voting system
that is developed under an open source license (so the community
can change what they don't like). Develop the world for an
open gaming system. Make the community, and all positions
within that community, open to all.
The problem is fairness. If someone works for 2 years on a world,
there's a good chance he feels he has more to say over it than
some unknown nobody who has barely read half of the available
material. If Forgotten Realms was an open world project, chances
are Ed Greenwood would not like it if a community that never
even saw the undermountain boxed set decided that cities with
dungeons are old-fashioned, and thus that Waterdeep should be
without a dungeon from that point forward.
So, how do you implement some kind of 'ownership'? If there is
a MUD around this open world, and my character becomes king of
the world, I don't want the community to kill him off because
they don't like him. He's *my* character, after all.
Another problem, indeed, is continuity. You cannot simply change
a published world radically, when there are thousands of people
that are still very fond of the old way.
A solution might be to have two kinds of official material:
- the Core, which contains static information on a world that is
not open to general discussion once finalised (like, "how many
moons exist?" "What's the name of this continent?" "Who is the
most powerful deity?", "How does money look like and work?"),
unless perhaps a significant majority agrees with the changes.
- the Accessories, which detail information that can change from
time to time (characters advance in levels, (small) kingdoms get
overtrown), which are changed more easily (simple majority, perhaps).
Another thing I just imagined while typing this e-mail (which
is becoming quite long), is to allow changes to "official"
material only by advancing the world timeline. i.e. we're not
just going to say "that kingdom does not exist anymore", but
rather are going to do a story or adventure detailing the fall
of the kingdom, and the kingdom will only dissapear ten years
later (game time, of course =).
Okay, enough ideas/questions from my side for now. Comments?
LSD
-------------
For more information, please link to www.opengamingfoundation.org
