In Cavern Activities?

[Printehr]

With the Cavern set to be reopened to explorers, it's time we start considering what role the Guild of Caterers will be playing in-game. With the coming of fan-created content, there are virtually unlimited opportunities for us to contribute to in-game immersion.

I'd like to see food appear in the Cavern. Perhaps an in-game Age, where players could gather raw materials for food? Then link back to a workshop or kitchen in D'ni where they could use machines to prepare the ingredients. Next they could lay the prepared ingredients out on a table and build their masterpiece. Finally, we could set up stands in the main City to distribute these meals to Explorers.

Obviously that's all a lot of work, and we'd have to form a partnership with the Writer's Guild to accomplish it all. Any other ideas for contributions the Guild could make In Cavern?

[soniclight]

Jul 10, 2008 21:47:24 GMT -5 Printehr said:

I'd like to see food appear in the Cavern. Perhaps an in-game Age, where players could gather raw materials for food?

*thinks of every in-game fishing side quest and shudders uncontrollably*

Oh god no

Yeah, I was thinking about what we could do for in-game guild related activities and I've really drawn a blank.

Cooking in the virtual world seems like a big turn off. I keep thinking about the Sims when I think about in-game food.

I'm not trying to knock at your ideas mind you, it just seems that our guild isn't quite right for the virtual world. Do you see what I mean?

I was thinking that we might be able to setup a Bevin though (if we're allowed to like in MOUL) as a home base for our guild. Maybe a few t-shirts. And use the game to spread the word and allow users to try something D'ni related without being at the computer. Kind of a "take a break and stretch for a bit and while you're at it, bake up a Chor Bakh".

I'm rambling now...so I'll stop. All I'm saying is that it seems to me that in-game might be harder to work with than the non-virtual world.

*ducks and covers for fear of eggs being pelted at him for the possibly too harsh wording*

[Printehr]

I was thinking more of the pellet making puzzle in Er'cana then fishing side quest, but I agree, we definitely want to avoid the cliche MMORPG feel. So yeah, baking in-game would probably not be good for the game- I'm kind of embarrassed I even suggested it. (It sounded like a good idea at the time...) ;D

I still like the idea of us having an Age though. RAWA's post on the guidelines for user created content (located here) explains what options are available to us.

Essentially, we're free to attribute Ages to the D'ni rather than to ourselves, meaning that IC we've "discovered it" rather than "Wrote it".

On the other hand, we can't present any statement as fact that might contradict something Cyan is in the pipeline; so we can say that we THINK that the Age we've found was once a world belonging to the Guild of Caterers and that'll be ok, but we can't say that it is FOR SURE, in case Cyan later comes out with a list of Guild-owned worlds and, woopsie-daisy, ours isn't on it.

And RAWA also mentioned us being able to create custom neighborhoods, not of the Bevin/Kirel/etc. layout. It would be neat to have a neighborhood of that type, that is clearly Guild of Caterer's based; derelict kitchens and cooking machinery galore. It'd also be neat to have maybe a table out with journals written by us, the "modern" Guild of Caterers, detailing our attempts to recreate the Chor Bakh recipe, culminating in the proper recipe for Explorers to try out at home.

As for whether to go with a separate Age or a custom neighborhood, I see no reason why we couldn't do both; the neighborhood as a place to hang out and relax and socialize, and the Age for formal Guild meetings in-game.

Thoughts? Criticisms? Rampant wide-spread agreement? ;D

[soniclight]

No, don't worry, I was being kind of rude about it (bad day I suppose).

I hadn't thought of an entire age for the guild though. That would be kind of cool, but definitely something to outsource to the Guild of Writers. I am terrible when it comes to making virtual creations (trying to make a Buster Sword in second life resulted in hours of ranting and raving, although there is one thing I might try making if I have the time).

As for the neighborhood, that would be pretty cool to have around. Didn't the guilds have their own guild houses? Or did they have the one primary hall in Ae'gura? If they had their own, I could see us with a neighborhood complete with guild hall

[Printehr]

Yeah, I think we'd start small with a neighborhood, and then later on we could start thinking about an Age.

And my skills with 3D animation are at least as sucky. We'd contact the GoW and have them create the neighborhood for us based on our input. And something for us to consider is the Guild of Fine Artists that's being put together by Tweek. They're still in pre-Guild organizing right now, but when they open their doors they'll be providing a really cool service: providing art, both in-game and out, to whoever wants it, free of charge. I would suggest we brainstorm some ideas for how we want the neighborhood to look, and then take it to them so they can provide us sketches. Then we could give the sketches to the GoW so that they could use it as concept art.

So if we're going to have an in-game neighborhood, what would you like to see in it? (I second the idea for a Guild hall, btw; we'll need a meeting place for Guild get-togethers)

[soniclight]

We should incorporate ryuu's guild seal that she made for us. I have the copy still that we can send to the GoW, and we could have a few strategically placed seals around the neighborhood.

Once we get an age we could have a seal there, liek the Maintainers do.

[Printehr]

I'm not sure if putting a Guild of Caterers seal in the Age violates the "not allowed to explicitly state that it was a Guild of Caterer's Age" rule. We'll have to ask the GoW down the line when we go to make the Age. For the neighborhood, though it should be fine.

What about the layout of the neighborhood? Besides a Guild Hall and some abandoned kitchens, I'd like to see an office for the Grand Master, and maybe a couple of rooms or isolated outdoor areas off from the main area should people want a private spot to meet and chat away from the group. I'm not sure what I want to see for a garden feature yet- something different from your everyday water garden, though. But what other things could we do to keep it from being just a normal neighborhood that's arranged differently?