Hello.
During my time in and off of Anarchy Online, I've noticed a very two dimensional look at the world of Rubi-ka. One of the things that somewhat frustrates me is the wipe open space between the conflict between the factions, and story of the shadowlands, and the makeup of the game. I find this somewhat disappointing in a way.
One of the things that draws me to games, especially Sci-fi worlds and the network of structure that make them up, is how the world comes about feeling like an exciting place. There is so much void to draw from, and very little of it is explained. There are some tidbits of knowledge in the explanations of equipment, nanos, and the like. But, I feel that knowledge is a bit under developed.
When I look at the Editors News section, the largest iconic thing to jump out at folks is the conflict, the entire conflict, and nothing but the partisan conflict. I realize its a cold war, that much is pretty certain. But, the competitive mindset within a cold war like it was with America and the USSR was mostly fueled by our frictions that had just as much to do with our national accomplishments as they did our opinions of each other. This I think absolutely needs to change. I know people like myself love the immersion of an illusory world where ideas touch and things feel like you can really get behind them, and connect with them in a meaningful way.
Its these connections that help us identify with our fictional selves in a game setting. In the case of famous movies and book series (Star Wars, Star Trek, Ender's Game, and Dune all come to mind) these are worlds that are open to us to interpret and draw conclusions from.
So, I'd like to see more coverage of this fictional world in more than just the conflict at hand. There have been some attempts in the past by a few people, to find an opening for that sort of thing but I don't think it got enough attention.
Drawing upon real world sources of media to highlight our culture on this rock we call Earth, we have a plethora of base to work with. What would the youtubes or the facebooks of the future be like? What about entertainments? Movie reviews? Futuristic computer art and designing? Lifestyle advertisements? The theoretical techno lingo behind our nano skills? Space Travel? I mean, there's so much left to imagination that you could come up with or contrive new ideas or rehash old ones without much difficulty. So why not?
A couple of years ago, I tried to come up with a piece of fiction not unlike some sort of unofficial resource on the life and behaviour of the Atrox breed. It didn't pan out so well, as I don't have a means to chronicle that sort of thing outside of the forums, so I couldn't control it. But, I've always had it in the back of my mind that it would be invaluable to have some player based interpretations and expressions.
So, I guess my question to folks is what sort of thing would inspire you to see? Would you be interested in fictional segues that are not conflict related? Or more specifically, what would you find entertaining in the realms of Art, Science, and Culture?
