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Earthtone Coalition vs Forces of Brightness: what was the point?
Monica
Feb 04, 2016 01:38PM
Why was Richard so intent on setting the Earthtone Coalition against the Forces of Brightness? Was it just to keep that location in the game unstable?
I also don't understand why Richard made such a point of setting D-squared and Skeletor (the two T'Rain writers) against each other. (And what was Stephenson's motivation, plotwise, in having him do so?)
I also don't understand why Richard made such a point of setting D-squared and Skeletor (the two T'Rain writers) against each other. (And what was Stephenson's motivation, plotwise, in having him do so?)
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The real crux of the issue was that players were creating factions outside the narrative control of the development studio. It shatters the meticulously crafted fourth wall that makes the game world immersive, consistent, and believable.
Dodge didn't so much set them against each other (intentionally) as create a tension between them by having D-squared come in to rein in some of Skeletor's excesses.
Skraelin saw this as a slight - snobby and condescending. He engineered the Forces of Brightness by leveraging his innate understanding of his market, in a way that threatened to derail the narrative of the game as a sort of vendetta.
Richard doesn't want things running away from the studio's control, and probably has some deep Earthtone sympathies as well. The original palette was part and parcel of the original conception of the world, which was meant to be coherent from the geological formation of the world on up.
Earthtone players were probably the oldest, most loyal, foundational players around. Richard doesn't want to lose them. So he puts a mechanic in place to favor the underdog, while having the creatives write the spontaneous factionalism into the world narrative.
Dodge didn't so much set them against each other (intentionally) as create a tension between them by having D-squared come in to rein in some of Skeletor's excesses.
Skraelin saw this as a slight - snobby and condescending. He engineered the Forces of Brightness by leveraging his innate understanding of his market, in a way that threatened to derail the narrative of the game as a sort of vendetta.
Richard doesn't want things running away from the studio's control, and probably has some deep Earthtone sympathies as well. The original palette was part and parcel of the original conception of the world, which was meant to be coherent from the geological formation of the world on up.
Earthtone players were probably the oldest, most loyal, foundational players around. Richard doesn't want to lose them. So he puts a mechanic in place to favor the underdog, while having the creatives write the spontaneous factionalism into the world narrative.
I know this is a question from a long time ago, but I felt Dan'l didn't answer it fully!
Having just finished the book, my initial thought was the same as Monica's - what was the point of that and why spend so many pages on the WOR and the tension between Skeletor and D-squared?
Dan'l's explanation is good in the sense of explaining what the issues are in the actual book, but don't really attempt to explain why Stephenson included them.
I think Stephenson answers this himself in one of Dodge's ruminations towards the end of the book. Why is Richard still involved with Corporation 9592, why has he not retired? And the answer to that is that he foresees and helps avert disasters that the rest of the company are unaware of and only appreciate after the event.
As Dan'l explains the WOR would/could be one such disaster.
Of course, Stephenson could have explained all this without actually writing so many pages giving an example of issues that Dodge helps to solve. But that might be less satisfying and would certainly not be typical of a Stephenson read!
Having just finished the book, my initial thought was the same as Monica's - what was the point of that and why spend so many pages on the WOR and the tension between Skeletor and D-squared?
Dan'l's explanation is good in the sense of explaining what the issues are in the actual book, but don't really attempt to explain why Stephenson included them.
I think Stephenson answers this himself in one of Dodge's ruminations towards the end of the book. Why is Richard still involved with Corporation 9592, why has he not retired? And the answer to that is that he foresees and helps avert disasters that the rest of the company are unaware of and only appreciate after the event.
As Dan'l explains the WOR would/could be one such disaster.
Of course, Stephenson could have explained all this without actually writing so many pages giving an example of issues that Dodge helps to solve. But that might be less satisfying and would certainly not be typical of a Stephenson read!
