A new EL newspaper!

[ttlanhil]

It has been too long since the paperboys of Seridia were put to work. time to fix that!

 

we will need people to work on this, including reporters (on events, to do profiles, a sports section, community issues, etc. a spread over RL timezones is a plus), a (sub)editor or 2, a cartoonist/artist

 

now this is certainly not set in stone, but following is my rough idea for what would be in the 'paper. what actually happens will be up to the people who work on it.

 

this will be designed generally as a serious newspaper such that might be seen in Seridia

some silliness is allowed, but preferably in-character silliness. sensible humour is more welcome, remember that the plan is that residents of seridia are making this

some skill at RPing a newspaper writer could be handy, as well as knowledge of the EL story

 

there will be stories/articles, of course, games page, letters to the editor (if people write in), community section, sport section, a classifieds/notices section, and other misc parts in the paper, like the weather

 

In order to cover the high running costs of a printer, we will likely have to offer advertising space to the likes of Frukas and Molgor

 

games page can have cartoons, crosswords & puzzles, spot the difference 'tween mini screenies, name that location, horoscopes (once figured out), etc

 

community section will have player/npc profiles, information on player-run events, 'police' report (ie outlaws & bans type stuff)

 

sports section will have information on arranged fights, race-type contests, etc

 

classifieds will be only for large/unusual orders (otherwise go to market channel), have obituaries (players who declare they're moving on... they may come back, since we're Eternals and all), news of upcoming meetings, birthday greetings, etc

 

Once again, please get in contact if you want to work on this, or have ideas for other things that can be added

Edited September 30, 2005 by ttlanhil

[Arnieman]

I believe the original name was Eternal Times, from what I read elsewhere - it was more commonly known as EL Times. If we can still use this name (although there is some dispute as to whose name it is), I'd say go with it.

 

If not, I'll front this name: Eternal Tribune.

[CodeWarrior]

I'll put in a suggestion too:

 

The Land's Whisper

[Roja]

The Official paper's name is already The Eternal Land's Times. So please use that for the name.

[ttlanhil]

The Official paper's name is already The Eternal Land's Times. So please use that for the name.

203107[/snapback]

okay, cancel the contest and all then, we'll just continue with that name.

 

still need volunteers though!

[sparhawk]

what would volunteers need to do?

edit:spelling errors

Edited September 30, 2005 by sparhawk

[ttlanhil]

what would volunteers need to do?

edit:spelling errors

203279[/snapback]

we will need people to work on this, including reporters (on events, to do profiles, a sports section, community issues, etc. a spread over RL timezones is a plus), a (sub)editor or 2, a cartoonist/artist, etc

203061[/snapback]

[sparhawk]

where would one volunteer?

[ttlanhil]

where would one volunteer?

203287[/snapback]

in this thread will do. as well as what sort of work you're interested in doing

[sparhawk]

can i volunteer?

[ttlanhil]

can i volunteer?

203291[/snapback]

yup.

Almost anyone can requirements are that you play the game (exception if you're unable to for a week or month or whatever because of computer problems), are on the forums (since this is where things will probably be organised), have a decent grasp of english(you don't have to be an expert unless you want to edit, but make it easy for editors)(exception is if you're writing in another language. then you need a good grasp of that language), preferably have a basic idea of the game (you might get by without it, but it'd be hard... plus why would you wanna work on the newspaper if you don't know EL? ), and there's probably a preference against known troublemakers.

also, I'd like this to be more player run, so slightly less interest in getting devs(of all flavours) to work on the newspaper(besides, they have plenty to do already

I won't say no to anyone because they're a dev or mod or anything, I'd just like this to be more of a community project (if it's run by the community, it can be bigger, better, and have less chance to die off)

[Arnieman]

I hereby volunteer for the paper.

 

EDIT: Ttlanhil tells me I need to actually say I want to do something - well, I'm not too concerned. I could edit, or I could contribute - wherever I'm needed.

Edited September 30, 2005 by Arnieman

[Quinticus]

I would love to throw my lot in with this crowd as i know it would be fun. However things need to get moving in storylines. Therefore i would like to inquire about reserving the right to write an article every once in a while. Would this be possible ttlanhil?

Edited September 30, 2005 by Quinticus

[ttlanhil]

I would love to throw my lot in with this crowd as i know it would be fun.  However things need to get moving in storylines.  Therefore i would like to inquire about reserving the right to write an article every once in a while.  Would this be possible ttlanhil?

203311[/snapback]

well, of course! almost anyone is welcome to write, let alone you

[Kendai]

Although I don't fit the first qualification (), may I still contribute somehow? I'll be more than happy to edit for grammar and spelling, if nothing else. I'm a forum junkie too, as you've noticed I'd like to participate if I can, I think it's a great idea ^_^

[Dunian]

I'd like to help too.

[Acelon]

I did articles for the previous EL times, if you want, I'm sure I could pencil you in to write one every now and then

[scarr]

I can be a screenshot maker in middle of fights in PK =)

[Leaf]

I can be a screenshot maker in middle of fights in PK =)

 

 

I can Help for Shivar

[LadyWolf]

Even tho I am currently not playing EL (left for reasons I won't mention, but will be returning soon) I would offer my services as a writer/cartoonist (you have seen some of my work) Let me know if you need me.

[Brom]

Two things I would like to say.

While I am here I would love to write a few articles for the newspaper, usually comical and with little base, "reguarding gnome trade" and "How a snowball can be a pig and a gnome"

 

Two I wanted to say please do not have this end up like the last EL Times (Nuff said)

[Lachesis]

It would be nice if you could buy that newspaper in game. Couldn't we use the server books for that?

[ttlanhil]

It would be nice if you could buy that newspaper in game. Couldn't we use the server books for that?

206462[/snapback]

that's what I wanted, and why I didn't do anything about it while waiting for 1.1.0 to come out

there's no way to change/add books without a server restart though(I asked about this idea)... I'm sure this could be added if there was enough reason, of course

as it was explained to me, server books are rendered on server ( ) then sent to the client. that's a fair bit of bandwidth usage, especially if the client doesn't cache the books. If we get an updater working, then this becomes more workable(newspapers go in their own directory under books, updated weekly). the editor/publisher needs an easy and quick path to getting the newest paper on the updates server though. bonus here is that you can keep the old ones, so a library would be able to keep back-issues. if things take off, you could even have the client figure out which one is latest to be in most places, and have some sort of index for old editions

far more of a problem, though, the books ingame are very small, based on the number of words per page. and because a newspaper isn't something you linearly go through, you definantly need links for stuff like "continued on page 5"... automatically selecting the page number would be nice, but not needed (imagine reading through a big newspaper and you had to turn each page on its own until you get to the section you want around 2/3 through). yes, there's number links along bottom, but (1) they're sometimes buggy, and (2) if the 'book' is large, you still have a lot of clicks

as far as I know(though you probably know better), there's no links in the books

[Lachesis]

Hmm, at first look I like the idea of using the updater a lot, as it enables you to keep the newspaper on client and to use links (client books can have links, like in ency ... some day :blushes:), yet at a second look that's not perfect because the updater us not intended to be run in the background, however forcing users to download the newspaper (even if they dont read it) before they can enter the game isn't something desirable.

P.S. Are server books really rendered or just parsed on server? I will have a look at the client

P.P.S. The client gets a serialized binary representation of the parsed book and renders it itself. Only if the book contains images these images are sent to the client.

Edited October 9, 2005 by Lachesis

[ttlanhil]

Hmm, at first look I like the idea of using the updater a lot, as it enables you to keep the newspaper on client and to use links (client books can have links, like in ency ... some day :blushes:), yet at a second look that's not perfect because the updater us not intended to be run in the background, however forcing users to download the newspaper (even if they dont read it) before they can enter the game isn't something desirable.

depends how the updater works. if it works well, only critical updates (which the newspaper will never be ) force the use to wait before they can continue. everything else gets downloaded (and throttled, so you can play without lag) in the background as you play

and even with the simpler option of downloading before you play... if we don't have pictures (which wouldn't work that great considering the size of the current books anyway), it's only going to be a couple KB download. for a modem user, yes, it might be an extra 5 seconds before you can connect, but unlikely to take that long. especially if the updated uses compression. and of course broadband users wouldn't even notice that size download

P.S. Are server books really rendered or just parsed on server? I will have a look at the client

P.P.S. The client gets a serialized binary representation of the parsed book and renders it itself. Only if the book contains images these images are sent to the client.

207384[/snapback]

well, just going on what I was told before, I didn't look into the code to get the full story

though even if it's sent as plain text, or even a compressed file, that's a fair hit if it's not cached/saved and someone goes to read it often

Edited October 9, 2005 by ttlanhil