I've been thinking, I may hve been unfair, but I still see huge problems.
I don't want to speak for the stewards, but I think you're looking at this from a perspective focusing on profit. I don't think that's how they are looking at this. If they were looking for money, they wouldn't have used the CC licensing model. I believe this project is more of a community project to see if a user built world might actually work rather than a business they expect to make money with.
I'm sure they won't throw away any profits, but I seriously doubt they'll make enough money from this project over the next few years to even break even with the hosting and server costs. If they do make a few bucks, then it might get spent over some drinks or a dinner.
I see this as more of a project concept and a test. It hasn't really been done before and there's a huge chance that it might fail. But you'd need to define fail and succeed. If profit is the measurement of success, then I'll wager right now that the project will probably fail. If community adoption and a growing and evolving world is the measurement, then there's a chance it might succeed.
I agree that there's a lot that needs to be done with Gallidon to give it more life. And that it's much easier to writers to just invent their own interesting and cool world to write their stories. The difference here is the community and licensing model. Personally, I'd like to see the magic system flushed out a bit more just so it's easier for me to understand and write about it. I'd like to see a bit more in the what you can do and what you can't do in Gallidon, so I know the world barriers. I do think that they are just trying to build a foundation that the writers will add the life and interesting things to.
Richard, I am not sure what you are writing about. Your first commets are on the setting and how out of date that setting is. Not sure you understand how things work but most things you have mentioned are not new but are based on work done by authors in the golden age. Howard, Moorcock, Dunsany, etc. Most of the anime or Japanese fantasy I have seen or read is based on older material (i.e. Hidden Fortress=Star Wars, Kurosawa adapting Shakespeare early japanese legend and most of the Spagetthi westerns). Conan and the rest are classic fantasy and as demonstrated by the online game still a viable setting for adventure. There is still today fantasy stories being written that do not have elves dwarves or nonhuman characters. New stuff such as the Sharing Knife stories or the Black Company stories but settings with no dwarves or elves and a limited magic system. So when you say that the setting is not one others would find appealing I think you are restaqting your orginal position ...you are not the target audience. This setting and this experiment is not for everyone. If it is not for you ...then move on, start your own setting or rethink what you want from this website. The website should not change with everyone who wants it to change it should be consistent so those who are the target audience feel comfortable playing in the setting.
I agree with Shurijo in that many things need to be explained to better write stories. This though I hope will come in time as new things are written and the Stewards explain more through their stories and posts.
As for profit, this is all new so why should we worry about profit. As artists we should only be concerned with the setting and the story not if the guys running it are making bank or not.
"As for profit, this is all new so why should we worry about profit. As artists we should only be concerned with the setting and the story not if the guys running it are making bank or not."
But the stewards expect the site to be profitable. That was the intention as it was explained to me, that the site would not only be profitable but generate income for the people who contributed to it, not immediatly of course, but eventually.
But if it's just the private playground of a handful of the stewards friends, then it'll never be profitable and will fail to fulfill its purpose as it was explained to me origionally.
The stewards state under What is Gallidon? that this is not a vanity site and that it's intended to be profitable. I'd be curious to know if the stewards are more interested in creating a profitable collaborative creative community, than they are in pushing the Gallidon world.
I'd like to know if several months down the road, Gallidon remains a ghosttown, with little or no contributions from anyone outside of friends and family of the stewards and no profit at all, will they close up shop and assume that the business model of the profitable collaborative creative whatsit is just not a profitable model, or will they be willing to consider that maybe the model still has potential and Gallidon is the problem. And if so, will there be any money and desire left to try again with a different setting.
It is the hope of the Stewards that RoG eventually become self-sustaining. As we have tried to make clear in our answers to your multiple posts, we have no plans to abandon Runes of Gallidon, open the site to an anything-goes environment or restart with another fantasy world from scratch.
I just have to jump in here...you seem awfully bent on RoG's profitability yet takes multiple opportunities to slam it's content. If you are so concerned with the success of this venture then contribute content, talk it up with your friends, and be supportive. Revel in everything that's good about it and deal with the aspects you don't like.
Frankly, your tone suggests animosity and a desire to see this site fail. If I'm wrong, I heartily apologize for implying the worst. If I'm right, then move on, man. Maybe RoG just isn't your cup of tea.
I know this post is old, and probably gets glanced over, but it hit a spot in me that needed to comment.
First off: if you see something lacking or grinding in RoG, it is my understanding that you can create something, as long as it in itself doesn't tear the world apart.
Second: when you feel it lacking that flare, or essence you have noticed, again, create something. Each artist who will contribute will have their own style, their own vision, that is the point of RoG. It reminds me much of "Sanctuary." I had hoped to throw something like this together, but having stumbled upon RoG, I need not to.
Third: the political upheaval is not the only back-drop one needs to work with. It is interesting, and it is politics, just like our world, but that doesn't set anything in stone.
The most fantastic power in an artist's arsenal is the power to create and destroy. And here, as in any personal work, one must use this power responsibly.
Again, sorry to hear your discomfort, but deal with it and help mold RoG. Nothing will be solved nit-picking and complaining; do something.
I don;t think I've been entirly fair to the guys at Gallidon. Their world isn't boring. It has all sorts of diverse cultures, and varied settings, and very exciting things could be done in these settings. And it's an excting time to be a part of Gallidon with all the massive political upheval going on, although I think you could write excitng, interesting stories without the political upheval, but it certainly does add an interesting element to Gallidon. It certainly doesn't dertract from it.
I think all my frustration stems from the fact that I'm not the target audience and I'd really like to be, as I think the concept is very exciting.
I feel like Gallidon is basically the traditional western fantasy setting of things like Conan, or Thieves World, or the early Dungeons and Dragons settings, minus the more fantastic creatures and the non-human influences. I feel like Gallidon's time frame ould've been (in the real world) between 1965-85 I have the distinct impression that's when this world would've been most popular among new struggling writers.
But I didn't grow up with thieves world, or conan really, or even basic dungeons and dragons. I do remember Dragonlance, but that's not Gallidon, that's maybe a generation later than Gallidon, when AD&D was really influencial and Dragons were the rage. Then there were things like Recod of Lodoss Wars which was a Japanese take on things like Dragonlance.
When I read fantasy today, or play Fantasy based games, or watch television or movies, or read graphic novels or whatnot. I see really two things primarily. That Tolkein esque, Ad&D genre that Gallidon in a pre-cursor to still pretty much dominated the mainstream. You see stuff all the time on the shelves with dragons and elves, and heroes with magic swords, and you see the same thing fequently on the sci-fi channel, and you know, sometimes they don't suck. A lot of its mediocre, but I still think there are stories that can be told in that genre that are worth telling (and reading, or watching). And it is certainly popular enough to support something like Gallidon.
The other thing I see though that interests me far more, is these new novels (tv shows, movies, graphic novels, games etc...) that are really pushing the bounds of what a Fantasy world is by interjecting what I feel is largely a japanese inspired notion of the fantastic, and of elligence and innovation that I don;t see coming from the Tolkein esqu world and definitly not from Gallidon.
I've seen worlds of floating islands and flying ships, with unlimited vistas of clear sky and opportunity. I've seen an entire world that revolves around a massive tower that reaches from the sea floor to space, run b technology no longer understood where human-technological hybrids sing to create magic. I've seen whole new non-human racesa nd cultures develop, and new approaches to how they would interact with humanity. I've seen seamless integrations of technology with magic and fantasy. I've seen people prove that high technology can exist in an entirly fantasy world and make it new and interesting.
There's certainly enough excitement and enough authors exploring these new global influences to support Gallidon if it were a part of this world.
But you won't see any of those thigns in Gallidon, because it's a fantasy world setting grounded in an era long before this time. I really think that the stewards wrote Gallidon to be their ideal fantasy world without ever considering that it might not be marketable from a business standpoint because it's not in either the largest segment of fantasy or the fastest growing segment. It's in an older segment that isn't growing and isn't attracting new writers and fans.
I feel like what is really unique about Gallidon is the notion of user owned collaborative content, but the world itself, I've seen hundreds of times before. Wouldn't it be a lot more exciting to be part of the group thts pushing the envelope as far as developing fantast for the next generation, or at least be more profitable to be in the mainstream of fantasy (which doesn't mean you have to write mainstream stories but does mean you have access to the largerst number of customers) instead of being a vanity prodject written for people who want to build a wall between themselves and modern fantasy?
You know, if you succeed as a business, you can have as many vanity worlds as you want later that have nothing to do with modern fatasy, dwarves, technology, etc... hell you can have a whole world of north african horsemen, once you have one working profitable world!
I'm concerned that Gallidon will never get to that point. Your website's profit model does not appear feasable to me based on the segment of the fantasy market you have selected. Have you really done any market research to determine how many fans and authors are in the audience you're actually targeting with Gallidon? Do you know roughly how much money is there, how much profit is taken on a, say, yearly basis? It seems like you have this Field of Dreams mmentality that if you build it, the market will create itself.
Those are my concerns, and I apologize for calling Gallidon "boring". It's not, it's just not my first choice by any means as a setting to write in.