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In Conversation According to Wikipedia, a "story arc" is "an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, video games, and in some cases, films." Q. In the past, the Community Manager was responsible for managing the story arcs (and event) within the game. Will that true of your role for JGE on U.S. shards? A. I imagine that I will absolutely have a hand in implementing live events on the servers as well as helping the story along. It’s very important that our players realize that we’re handing them a tool in which they get to play out their own stories. We have Keith working on a backstory for Jumpgate so by our beta phase, our players will know who the main players are and what has been happening since the Shift. Jumpgate has historically had very strong RP aspects to it and they were created by the people who played the game. Obviously there will be traditional conflicts between the various nations, but we’d like it if the player base creates their own universe within the Space that we’ve created.With that said, I want to make sure that there are special "events" that progress Keith’s story arc. Maybe we’ll do an event when new enemies are introduced to the Skein or perhaps it will be to enhance some of the internal politics between the different factions within the nations. Simply put we are going to ensure that there are plenty of things for our players to do and events to progress the game Q. There was an absolutely great quote from Scorch where he was talking about player influence on the universe. He said: "It’s your story to tell, we are just giving you cool ways to tell it." If players ultimately drive the story, then it would seem that by definition, the stories on each shard would drift apart to some degree. Is that your expectation? Will you be coordinating with your counterpart(s) at CodeMasters to try to keep the various storylines aligned? A. Scorch has this amazing ability to put an entire idea and principle into one great quote! I love that about him. What he said is absolutely true. Players will drive the story. Of course there is the expectation that each server or shard will have their own stories. What we’ll do is create events that help unfold more of the primary story. We have an incredible relationship with CodeMasters and we’re working very hard to make sure that the game is in global sync. We have open communication and are already bouncing ideas off of each other. I couldn’t ask for a better team to work with. We may not keep them all aligned so much as we’ll be working to ensure that all of the servers have the same primary story elements. Q. There were very interesting, very complex, very intertwined, very long-running story arcs in Jumpgate Classic. They involved terrorists, bio-war, murder, corporate espionage and intrigue, equipment production and factional politics/wars – and even incorporated some player-driven story stuff. (References at the end of the article.) Do you plan on doing this kind of "riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma" arcs in JGE? A. This hasn’t been planned out yet so I can’t answer in any detailed way. However, we have a pretty creative team. There will most definitely be crazy arcs with tons of intrigue and craziness.Q. We know that Keith Baker is doing the background writing for JGE. Will he also be involved in story arc development? If so, how will your role and his coordinate? A. We’re so lucky to have Keith on board for this! He will be working on the story arc development and we are in communication. He’s working on fleshing out some major details right now so that we can start making plans for arcs and events. I’m hoping to actually start some pre-beta arcs with the story and the community. I know that I say that I’m excited a lot but really, reading his work is exciting stuff. He is a mastermind and everything that he writes I can’t wait to get my hands on. Now that I’ve put tremendous pressure on him (haha) I can say that the players will really appreciate the end product. It’s good stuff. Q. How would you ideally like to see player-driven story arcs/RPs work in JGE? How do you plan on encouraging them? Do you plan on providing any "official" guidance and/or templates for them? A. I ultimately believe that once the game is finished, it is in the players hands as to how they enjoy it. Unfortunately I’m only one person so I can’t be on all of the servers all of the time, but I have the forums to communicate with them and I’ll make sure that I am there in a supportive role. As I said above, we’ll have events to progress the primary storyline, but my hope is that the players make these servers "their worlds". Q. Many times, players will ask for support of their "independent" arcs. You obviously have to determine which ones you will support and which ones you won’t. How do you a) make such a determination and b) handle the rejection of a request (i.e. do you simply say we can’t get involved at this time or would you see yourself providing additional critique?)A. This is something that we’re going have to work out. We are still really busy developing the game and the story so getting involved in individual player events is an interesting concept but one that is going to stay on the backburner for right now. Q. Lastly, are you interested in entertaining ideas from players for "official" story arcs? If so, how would you want the ideas submitted? A. Until we have the entire story bible from Keith, we’d like for our players to wait on their own stories. This is something that I know that the players want and I want to give this to them. However, we have to wait until we have all of the details on the primary story first. I think that our creative players will agree that it’s best to know what is going on in the grand scheme of things so they can play off of those conflicts and topics. It won’t be a long wait. The latest update is in progress and will be on the website shortly.
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