Raising a point mentioned in another thread - how and on what basis are the decisions on order of release made?

Eric J. Heckathorn
ericjh@stargate.net

>Raising a point mentioned in another thread - how and on what basis
>are the decisions on order of release made?

For most series, it's simple order.

For UF, it's a slightly trickier game that goes something like this:

- OK... this story is complete, but it's set after several that aren't. Does it contain anything that wouldn't make any sense without the context of the incomplete stories set before it? If so, it'll have to wait until the pieces that will establsh it are complete.

- Additionally, does it contain anything that would spoil any less complete story set before it, if it were to come out before the other?

For example, the first piece of Symphony of the Sword to be completed was actually Interlude at Bancroft Tower in D Minor, but it's set in March of 2405, three months after Wounded Rose ends, and depends heavily on character interactions to be set up in Wounded Rose and Christmas Rose - so it has to wait until they're both out before it can be released.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

> - OK... this story is complete, but it's set after several that
>aren't. Does it contain anything that wouldn't make any sense without
>the context of the incomplete stories set before it? If so, it'll
>have to wait until the pieces that will establsh it are complete.
>
> - Additionally, does it contain anything that would spoil any
>less complete story set before it, if it were to come out before the
>other?

Would this ever set up a situation where several stories might get released at the same time, or would you try to spread them out a bit?

Eric J. Heckathorn
ericjh@stargate.net

>Would this ever set up a situation where several stories might get
>released at the same time, or would you try to spread them out a bit?

In a situation like that - which I may well have, when I reach the middle of the Symphony - I'd probably leave a couple three days between releases, to give people time to read. The first season of NXE was like that; I had the whole season done before I started releasing it, and then put out one episode a week for the next nine weeks.

With the current moderation system on rec.arts.anime.creative, that means they'd all come out on USENET the same day anyway, but that's the way it'd work for the website, anyway.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

>
>With the current moderation system on rec.arts.anime.creative, that
>means they'd all come out on USENET the same day anyway, but
>that's the way it'd work for the website, anyway.
>

As of this evening (which was the last time I checked), Wounded Rose still hadn't made it onto RAAC.

I'm honestly not quite sure why I bother with RAAC anymore. The few other anime fanfic authors I routinely read (such as Ed Becerra and Bert Van Vliet) also have websites... but that's a question for another day.

Eric J. Heckathorn
ericjh@stargate.net

>I'm honestly not quite sure why I bother with RAAC anymore. The few
>other anime fanfic authors I routinely read (such as Ed Becerra and
>Bert Van Vliet) also have websites... but that's a question for
>another day.

Probably for the same reason I periodically sift through various and sundry fanfiction archives and newsgroups, to see if I can find another new author to read. Not counting good personal friends, the only online fic I read at this point is EPU, Ewen "Blackbird" Cluney's stuff, and Eliot Lefebvre's stuff. But it's hard finding the wheat among the chaff in most sites and newsgroups; that's why I gave up altogether on X-Files fanfic, since it was so hard to find good fanfic just by random choice. (My roommates, OTOH, actually admin an XF fanfic archive, so they occasionally shoot me stuff to check out. Not very often, though, since most of the good XF authors left a season or two ago, after the last *really* good ep, "Hollywood A.D." in mid-seven.)

I have found some decent *stories* to read, but I haven't found a consistently good author beyond the ones I mentioned above, plus a few others whom I'm good personal friends with, and one or two who I don't read anymore not because they're not good anymore, but because I don't have the time, or I've lost interest in what they're writing.

-- Sean --

http://www.thebrokenlink.org The Broken Link 4.0 is live!
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." -- Albert Einstein
"It's not easy being green." -- Kermit the Frog

>I'm honestly not quite sure why I bother with RAAC anymore. The few
>other anime fanfic authors I routinely read (such as Ed Becerra and
>Bert Van Vliet) also have websites... but that's a question for
>another day.

I posted the newest Chessmen ep (Incarna II: Walking Through Golgotha for the curious-about-the-title) the Wednesday before A-kon. As of last night, it wasn't up yet.

It may be Time To Mail The Moderators. They almost lost the LAST one, too...

--
Geoff Depew - Mephron
"Big O! Showtime!"

And here I thought the recent Deafening Silence on RAAC was because my usenet server was flakey... Truthfully, Usenet is a slowly dieing realm on the Net thanks to the sheer number of rapidly insreacing chuckleheads. I'm not particularly surprised that a lot of the old haunts have begun to break down and drift apart.

Berk Watkins
Student of Quantum Bogodynamics...

>And here I thought the recent Deafening Silence on RAAC was because my
>usenet server was flakey...

The posting delays on RAAC now are nothing to the months I'd sometimes get behind in the times just prior to my stepping down. I just got burnt out handling the increase volume, and my life got busier, and I just used to look at the queue, sigh, and do something else. Which is why I stopped down as moderator, I didn't have the drive to deal with it anymore.

I did feel somewhat better when Brian took over and the work I used to to alone was taken over by a team, and they felt overloaded. :-) Gave me a little perspective on the amount of traffic I'd been shuffling around.

-MegaZone, megazone@megazone.org
Personal Homepage http://www.megazone.org/
Eyrie Productions FanFic http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
See what I'm selling on eBay

True, very true... And goodness knows what kind of tripe they're getting that's entirely off topic, bogging them all down.

Berk Watkins
Student of Quantum Bogodynamics...

>And here I thought the recent Deafening Silence on RAAC was because my
>usenet server was flakey... Truthfully, Usenet is a slowly dieing
>realm on the Net thanks to the sheer number of rapidly insreacing
>chuckleheads. I'm not particularly surprised that a lot of the old
>haunts have begun to break down and drift apart.

Yeah, the signal to noise ratio in certain areas of USENet is increasing in noise's favor. There are still a few places where the signal is rather high (rec.games.video.classic is one of them). It will be a sad day once USENet is taken over by complete peckerheads.

Reverend Hammer

>
>>
>>With the current moderation system on rec.arts.anime.creative, that
>>means they'd all come out on USENET the same day anyway, but
>>that's the way it'd work for the website, anyway.
>>
>
>As of this evening (which was the last time I checked), Wounded Rose
>still hadn't made it onto RAAC.
>
>I'm honestly not quite sure why I bother with RAAC anymore. The few
>other anime fanfic authors I routinely read (such as Ed Becerra and
>Bert Van Vliet) also have websites... but that's a question for
>another day.
>

Hence I've got a long list of sites I spend a day or so checking through every month. On the other hand, the FFML Mini-Archive and Fanfiction.net are 'updated' every day.

And when was the last time Mr Van Vliet posted anything?

drakensisthered

>
>And when was the last time Mr Van Vliet posted anything?
>

If you want to see what he has done of Zone #11 so far, go here:

http://www.bgcrisis.com/zone_update.html

Eric J. Heckathorn
ericjh@stargate.net

>And when was the last time Mr Van Vliet posted anything?

well, a little while ago I asked him when the next part of Bubblegum Zone would be finished. He answered that real life was getting in the way a lot, but he would try and take the time to update his page. But nothing happened since then.
I'm dying to read the next part of BGZ.

Benjamin Brill
who lives near one of the (former) largest cities of the world and is still as far away from civilisation as Tatooine.

>
>>And when was the last time Mr Van Vliet posted anything?
>
>well, a little while ago I asked him when the next part of Bubblegum
>Zone would be finished. He answered that real life was getting in the
>way a lot, but he would try and take the time to update his page. But
>nothing happened since then.
>I'm dying to read the next part of BGZ.
>

That got me interested .
A few minutes after reading those comments about Mr Van Vliet's
works I decided to investigate . I followed the link in one of the
messages and zoomed in on the BGZ archives .
...downloading...
...downloading...
I started reading .
I got interested .
I read until my eyes turned water and my body screamed for sleep.
Then I read some more .
Here I am now , sleep deprived , writing what has to be written.
FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE , the least you could have done was warning
potential readers that that stuff is so good .
I mean I'm pretty used to having long nights over Eyrie stuff
but BGZ's at least as addictive .
And furthermore ....
(snore...snore...snore)

-this is Griever's subconciousness writing .
Griever is temporarily out of order due to extreme fanfic
consumption and is not expected to wake up for at least
a day or two . -

-Griever
(snore...snore...snore)

>Here I am now , sleep deprived , writing what has to be written.
>FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE , the least you could have done was warning
>potential readers that that stuff is so good .
>I mean I'm pretty used to having long nights over Eyrie stuff
>but BGZ's at least as addictive .

Hey, I posted it on my webpage! Isn't that warning enough?
(Admittedly I've already had a very polite complaint about Twisted Path, which I also posted)
And I haven't posted all the stuff I want to up there.
BUT IT IS MY MISSION TO DO SO OH PUNY MORTALS
YES I WILL INFLICT TOTAL SLEEP DEPRIVATION UPON ALL FANFIC READERS
THIS I DECLARE IN THE NAME OF...

(blush) sorry, been watching too much Dual... gotta love Miss Rara... urgh, I see a case of qwertyitis coming on...

snore...

Gryphon wrote:

For most series, it's simple order.

For UF, it's a slightly trickier game that goes something like this:

[snip]

For example, the first piece of Symphony of the Sword to be completed was actually Interlude at Bancroft Tower in D Minor, but it's set in March of 2405, three months after Wounded Rose ends, and depends heavily on character interactions to be set up in Wounded Rose and Christmas Rose - so it has to wait until they're both out before it can be released.

Does this ever cause problems for you because of characters not doing what you planned for them to do (like you mentioned in the An Encounter at Shamrock House metametafic (the only link to that I can find is on the 'What's New' page, by the by; it should have a link under NXE, from the looks of it, but I can't find it there...))? Do you wind up with a fic that was ready to go but, all of a sudden, you have to edit or junk large chunks? Even worse, have you ever posted a fic, then gone to finish a chronologically prior story arc and not been able to get the ducks in a row? Inquiring minds wanna know.

>Gryphon wrote:
>
>For most series, it's simple order.
>
>For UF, it's a slightly trickier game that goes something like
>this:
>
>[snip]
>
>For example, the first piece of Symphony of the Sword to be
>completed was actually Interlude at Bancroft Tower in D Minor,
>but it's set in March of 2405, three months after Wounded Rose
>ends, and depends heavily on character interactions to be set up in
>Wounded Rose and Christmas Rose - so it has to wait
>until they're both out before it can be released.
>
>Does this ever cause problems for you because of characters not doing
>what you planned for them to do
<snip>
>Do you wind up with a fic that was ready to go
>but, all of a sudden, you have to edit or junk large chunks?

I can't speak to the rest of your comment, but I do know that this comes up periodically as he suddenly gets inspired by something else, and then has to take all the stuff that he's working on and edit it.

Sometimes, it's not his fault, either. (Looks at Truss, looks at self, goes off to hide under something...)

-- Juniper
----------------------------------------
"Fac me cocleario vomere!"
-- Onatah, on NE:CiF MUSH

>Does this ever cause problems for you because of characters not doing
>what you planned for them to do (like you mentioned in the An
>Encounter at Shamrock House metametafic (the only link to that I
>can find is on the 'What's New' page, by the by; it should have
>a link under NXE, from the looks of it, but I can't find it
>there...))?

There's a link to it from the NXE:TMP page.

>Do you wind up with a fic that was ready to go
>but, all of a sudden, you have to edit or junk large chunks?

Yes, this happens constantly. It's one of the main costs of doing things out of order.

>Even
>worse, have you ever posted a fic, then gone to finish a
>chronologically prior story arc and not been able to get the ducks in
>a row? Inquiring minds wanna know.

This has also happened, yes. Indeed, occasionally developments in chronologically-earlier stories being written later have caused released segments to stop making complete sense. The only major post-release revision I can think of that I've ever done was to a UF segment, Checkmate, which suddenly became utter nonsense with the release of Twilight 5. (In retrospect, Checkmate is more or less utter nonsense anyway, and should probably just have been scrapped rather than revised, but... )

Cybertron Dreams has this kind of error in it too - several times it mentions Gryphon and Zoner in their WDF offices as of the end of Crossroads, when in fact they'll have long since left those jobs by 2412, when CD is set.

Cost of doing business in my brain, I guess...

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

I can totally understand how that goes... which is why I'm determined to write in a chronological fashion on the story I'm writing. Of course, its one heck of a lot simpler to do that when your a single, rather than the great expanse that Eyrie has become.

And even though the crew here have a whole lot of real life to distract them, I keep poping by about once a week looking to see if they've finished something new. Especially in some of the more forgotten stories, like Gods Willing or Street Fighters. (HINT HINT HINT!!!)

However, Griff, I think you let something slip. Clearly, something interesting happens during twilight's final chapter, as one of your 'kids' shows up bearing god markings in Symphony... Of course, since we don't know exactly WHAT, I guess it really isn't a spoiler, is it? Or he could well have earned his deification after Twilight... etc...

Anyway, I recall seing somewhere... Oh yeah, on doc's site. He had a piece of artwork that shows that the 'BIG 4' who started it all have a new set of adventures to write about... sort of a UF meets MIB sort of artwork. Can't wait till you start releasing portions of that.

Vahn doesn't know I exist. I guess this explains why the rest of reality keeps ignoring me as well. >_<

>However, Griff, I think you let something slip. Clearly, something
>interesting happens during twilight's final chapter, as one of your
>'kids' shows up bearing god markings in Symphony... Of course, since
>we don't know exactly WHAT, I guess it really isn't a spoiler, is it?

Are you sure the "something interesting" happens in the unreleased chapter? Go read Fifth Seal again and see if you're still sure...

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

>D'OH!!< :)

Vahn doesn't know I exist. I guess this explains why the rest of reality keeps ignoring me as well. >_<

>>D'OH!!< :)
>
>Vahn doesn't know I exist. I guess this explains why the rest of
>reality keeps ignoring me as well. >_<

D'oh indeed matey!
Oh come on!
You really didn't get it? What did you think they did in that tent all night? Played scrabble?

drakensisthered

LAST EDITED ON Jun-11-01 AT 07:19 PM (EDT)

>You really didn't get it? What did you think they did in that tent all
>night? Played scrabble?

Oh my. I am broken.

Thank you. You've made my afternoon linking that up the way you did. :)

(I doubt playing Scrabble counts as overstepping one's bounds - unless maybe you're proposing a round of Lying Bastard Scrabble, a variant that will appear in the Symphony in which anything can be a word if you can lie about what it's supposed to mean with a straight face.)

--G.
["'myxtogogic' means 'of or pertaining to the teaching of the bartender's arts'"]
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

HAHA! Ow my side.. damn you Gryph.. I pulled several muscles falling down stairs yesterday.. Owowowow.... Lying Bastard Scrabble? *SNERK* Ow.. the pain.. the pain of it all...

Berk Watkins
Student of Quantum Bogodynamics...

>(I doubt playing Scrabble counts as overstepping one's bounds - unless
>maybe you're proposing a round of Lying Bastard Scrabble, a variant
>that will appear in the Symphony in which anything can be a
>word if you can lie about what it's supposed to mean with a straight
>face.)

I saw that played on Red Dwarf... the Cat asserted that something sounding like 'mqwhebdhi' was a cat word used only when their 'wedding tackle' was caught in a door.
And he apparently maintained total calm while saying it (I'm sure it would have turned up in 'Smeg-Ups' or 'SmegOuts' (two entire tapes of outtakes, for those who don't follow the show)

"my name is drowgehirnaziz der rotte. conjure with it and I shall eat your spleen"
"conjure with it? I can't even say it!" I lied

with respects to Kevin Knight's The Dying of Ember

>Anyway, I recall seing somewhere... Oh yeah, on doc's site. He had a
>piece of artwork that shows that the 'BIG 4' who started it all have a
>new set of adventures to write about... sort of a UF meets MIB sort of
>artwork. Can't wait till you start releasing portions of that.

Okay, I'm not sure exactly *where* that is. Do you mean Phil Moyer's website? I'm not into the art scene, save for convention commissions.

--DocMui

>>Anyway, I recall seing somewhere... Oh yeah, on doc's site. He had a
>>piece of artwork that shows that the 'BIG 4' who started it all have a
>>new set of adventures to write about... sort of a UF meets MIB sort of
>>artwork. Can't wait till you start releasing portions of that.
>
>Okay, I'm not sure exactly *where* that is. Do you mean Phil Moyer's
>website? I'm not into the art scene, save for convention commissions.

Yeah - he means this:

As for the name confusion well, y'know, Mui, Moyer... it's almost the sa
me. And then there's that other guy named "Phil Moy"... it's all so confusing...

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

>Yeah - he means this:
<snip>

Wow. That kicks ass. I am seriously digging the Cosmic-Rod-Carrying Kei.

-- Sean --

http://www.thebrokenlink.org The Broken Link 4.0 is live!
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." -- Albert Einstein
"It's not easy being green." -- Kermit the Frog

>>Yeah - he means this:
><snip>
>
>Wow. That kicks ass. I am seriously digging the Cosmic-Rod-Carrying
>Kei.

Yeah, Special Guest for Life Moyer does a hell of a job. I wish I could pay him to be our staff artist. :) There's only one mistake in the entire thing, and it's my fault - I forgot, when writing up the character design specs, to mention Gryphon's swords, and it somehow managed to elude me throughout the test-sketch-approval process that they were missing. I guess he left them in his office or something. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

>>>Yeah - he means this:
>><snip>
>>
>>Wow. That kicks ass. I am seriously digging the Cosmic-Rod-Carrying
>>Kei.
>
>Yeah, Special Guest for Life Moyer does a hell of a job. I wish I
>could pay him to be our staff artist. :) There's only one mistake in
>the entire thing, and it's my fault - I forgot, when writing up
>the character design specs, to mention Gryphon's swords, and it
>somehow managed to elude me throughout the test-sketch-approval
>process that they were missing. I guess he left them in his office or
>something. :)
>

Or he knows the MacLeod Clan secret technique for hiding long sharp implements inside an innocent looking trenchcoat.

BTW, d'you think he'd resond favourably to a request for permission to put this on my webpage? I'd make clear whose work it was of course, but it's just so cool...

drowgehirnaziz der rotte
"What cough?"

>Or he knows the MacLeod Clan secret technique for hiding long sharp
>implements inside an innocent looking trenchcoat.

According to Adrian Paul, that method is exceedingly dangerous and uncomfortable, much too much so for Gryphon to use it. :)

No, it's fairly well established that G wears his swords across his back, sort of like Leonardo in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics. I just forgot all about it.

>BTW, d'you think he'd resond favourably to a request for permission to
>put this on my webpage? I'd make clear whose work it was of course,
>but it's just so cool...

Dunno if he'd say yes, but I doubt he'd kill you for asking, in any case.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

>Yeah - he means this:
>

Yup, that's the pic I was thinking about....

>
>As for the name confusion well, y'know, Mui, Moyer... it's almost the
>sa
>me. And then there's that other guy named "Phil Moy"... it's
>all so confusing...
>

ARRRGH!!!!!! Can't I get anything right?!?!?!?! ^_^;

Maybe because I found Moyer's site from Mui's?? I dunno. gawrsh, this is embarassing.

___________________

Vaughn doesn't know I exist. I guess this explains why the rest of reality keeps ignoring me as well. >_<