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[frandroid]

In case any of you *cough*rowan*cough* might be interested... BioWare Hiring Writers by Contest

Comments

[tlf1138.livejournal.com]

I was considering forwarding this info to Rowan. Talk about a dream job. I'm sure they'd be interested in hearing about the crazy man-in-a-monkey-in-Rhodes game that Rowan, Chris et al were working on. Or something else.

Why not send them something, Rowan?

[tlf1138.livejournal.com]

man in a monkey suit. whatever.

I'm sure they'd be interested in hearing about the crazy man-in-a-monkey-in-Rhodes game

[reluctance.livejournal.com]

The text game is such a commercially unviable medium in this day + age (well, a recent report from the author of the 1893 World's Fair Mystery suggests that they can still rack in up to $15k a year, if possessed of the appropriate historical + educational tie-ins) that the first thing out the door in our consideration of a game was, y'know, commercial viability. No one has ever gotten a job walking in to a game company off the street and proclaiming: "You know what the game market is crying out for right now? A pastiche of the works of Thomas Pynchon!"

(Some authors get games a-plenty: Tom Clancy, Michael Crichton, H.P. Lovecraft... even Willy Shakespeare! But where, one asks, are our game adaptations of James Joyce, Virginia Wolf + Gabriel Garcia Marquez?)

Why not send them something, Rowan?

From the website:

BioWare asks for writers to create a Neverwinter Nights module to tell their story using the Aurora Toolset.
We evaluate only the characters, the dialogue, the plot, the non-linear structure, and the flow and pace of the story. To be eligible for this contest, please submit a Neverwinter Nights module that follows these parameters:

* A maximum of four characters. One player character and a maximum of three non-playable characters.
* A maximum of 3500 words in total including dialogue and setting.
* You must tell a complete story in the form of a traditional BioWare side-quest and account for different endings/ multiple resolutions.
* You are only allowed to use one 4x4 area in the Toolset to tell your whole story.
* No combat or special skill use.
* Just use the NWN retail toolset; don’t use any community add-ons.

My task? To find the software (this so-called retail toolset) + hardware needed to put a NeverWinter Nights module together using the Aurora Toolset, and to do so by January 30th. The obstacles before me are steep. I am full of distractions! (To avoid playing games, will I end up writing essays?) I am full of ten-years-defunct notions regarding in-game storytelling.

That said, like any good Marxist I fear that it is the material conditions (the aforementioned hardware/software situation) most effectively at this point interfering with the synthesis of modern gaming with its antithesis, Rowan's perverse enjoyment of Alleycat. As established on the phone, you are invited to help me find a 3D graphics card -- then, once I can /run/ the software, we can establish whether or not I can /use/ it 8)

*cough*rowan*cough* might be interested

[reluctance.livejournal.com]

Sweet. Now all I need to do is get some big iron together capable of running Neverwinter Nights, come up with an interactive story, and axe 90% of it. (Maximum 2500 word count? Yow!) All by Jan 30th? Maybe I can find a local NWN devotee willing to let me log shifts at their gamestation while they're at work.