It's Summer Time...

And it is HOT Out There!

Hope you people are finding ways to stay cool and comfortable. In fact, the only thing hotter is… well, you all know the answer to this. Should I state the obvious? Of course you know it’s your mom—she is a foxy lady… oh wait, you thought I was going to say the blog? Well, I suppose that is a hot commodity too. Anyway… >_>

Good stuff coming up, with a couple of events kicked off and other things coming down the pipeline soon. You’ll find that the new members and returns section is back again, albeit short due to a lack of responses- hey, I can’t make them return my PMs. Even if I sit at the computer waiting. Alone. Hanging on every moment where my inbox stays empty. With ice cream. Where was I going with this?

Suppose we’ve had enough babble for one day. Let’s get to the good stuff; it’s kind of like tearing off the top of a Hostess cake to get at the cream filling- to hell with the sponge cake. 

What's Happening Valucre?

We the People- Morale is down and the people are getting restless. A full week after the events of Veelos, the queen is only just getting around to show up, and while she’s at it, she’s knighting some people. That sets the stage for this event, one whose outcome is not yet defined, where you can play out your story as you will, interacting with key players or the disgruntled public. If you are looking for a high profile place to kick-start your own future plots, this one is definitely worth looking at.

Attack on Palgard's Bell Tower- Palgard suffered its share of ups and downs, but the current leadership is making an effort to get the city back up on its feet. Nevertheless, progress is slow and as some people feel the strain of lacking resources while some others enjoy the comforts of a restored city, tensions are sure to build. The have-nots eye the other side with jealousy and anger, deprived of a clean city and lacking the lightning rail, a primary means of transportation. As the anger bubbles, so do the ideas of how to get back at the city for their failings of the lower class people. Cornelius, a downtrodden factory worker who has suffered enough at the hands of these political moves, has finally met his breaking point. Eying the Northern Bell Tower as a symbol of the power the haves hold over the have-nots, he begins the machinations of an attempt at (justified?) domestic terrorism.

The clock struck one, and soon it was done, as it all came crashing down.

Join the side of the terrorists who seek retribution for the sleights against the lower class, or join the guards in preventing a disaster sure to affect many people. The choice is yours fair people—who will you aid?

The Dead is Recruiting- The Dead are looking for talented recruits to join their ranks, are you interested in some organized crime? Unlike some groups, the Dead do not use politics as the means of your advancement—no, it is all based on your number of successes in performing missions. Solo work, teamwork, they have both for you to choose from, so no need to be picky about your what you like to dig into. What’s in it for you, you ask? How about access to IC goods not otherwise available, as well as vast stores of VB to aid you in getting your work done. Not to mention, who doesn’t enjoy spending some time stirring up trouble in the world of Valucre? Whether you are looking for some small time work like running gambling facilities or you are into some bigger tasks like gaining control over entire crime networks, they have a little something for everyone. So go ahead, join the ranks. Just remember—lack of obedience is never tolerated.

--BeyonD-- Space- How would you guys feel about joining an RP with the feel of an alternative RP while still getting to play in a canon setting? How might that be accomplished you ask? Why, let me tell you. BeyonD is a spaceship designed to sustain life indefinitely, recycling old resources and producing new ones as well. The mission seemed to be going well, but sometimes good things have a way of hitting little snags—or big ones as the case may be. When you join this RP, be sure to do so with the understanding that things will take a grim turn, combining horror elements with the sci-fi alien genre (Described as “Dead Space meets Mass Effect”). Potential harm to characters is a high possibility, so perhaps a new character you have no attachment to would serve you best—especially since this ship launched more than seven months before, which makes canon integrity difficult for some characters. So, go ahead, think on it; will you go for the ride of your life?

Damn, That is a Lot of Pirates- Aside from the sheer awesome that is a pirate based RP Event, there is a cool new development that might interest people—we have moved from only allowing site control to allowing full city control. This means that if you want to be a pirate, you have five choices left, and if you want to help the guards, you also have five choices left (the choices are slightly different). The ultimate goal is that someone will step up to a leadership position and then go recruit some other Role-players to assist them in their goals. Guards against the pirates, cool items on the line as well as challenging RP- come in and join the fun!

New Members!  

This group had a better turnout than us

As I hinted above, I only had two respondents. This means I have less to share, but at least we got two instead of none. Let's get to know the two people who took the time to drop us a few lines!

1.What brought you to Valucre? How did you find us?

Interestingly enough, I used to rp as Haytham Kenway on tumblr but the toxic nature of my dashboard eventually grew to be too much and I developed a nasty insecurity with my writing. After a year or so on break I decided to break this anxiety and the original goal was to find a group on Deviantart. When the best one turned out to have had no activity for three months, I was forced to google the internet, going through site after site until a yahoo answer to "what's the best fantasy rp group" that pointed me to here and here I am~

2. What got you into role-play? What are your favorite types (genre, style, etc) of role-play?

My sister and I loved to act out stories and when we became older we imported that into writing roleplays into notebooks and passing them back and forth between each other, I was...11-12 years old at the time I believe. My favorite genres were and still are High fantasy and Romance, but lately I haven't done a well thought out romance RP in a very long while.

3. Do you have any long-term goals related to role-play and/or writing? If so, what are they?

Mostly to improve my not so stellar writing. I'll admit and say years of experience has given me an edge in my writing that makes it very nice at first glance, but it lacks a lot of refinement and can be very lazily written from time to time. My word choice could also use a little reworking.

4. What are some of your other hobbies and/or interests? What is one interesting thing about you that others might not expect when they first meet you?

Painting is the only other major hobby I do. Something a lot of people do not expect from me is the absolute raunchy humor I can get into. My humor lacks all boundaries and it can get both strange and extremely morbid.

5. How has your Valucre experience been so far? What do you like, and is there anything we can do to help you (as staff or fellow members)?

Incredible. I absolutely love the post like system and the fact that solo Roleplay exists. I also love the freedom that Valucre has given me to import my other characters, so I can use different kinds of OC's that I never thought I could use. The biggest help has already been done for the most part as everyone has been super kind and welcoming to me. I legit couldn't ask for more as Valucre has far exceeded my expectations and definitely has been a dream so far.

1. What brought you to Valucre? How did you find us?

Well, I was searching for a website to role-play and this site popped up as # 1. multiple times. It immediately drew me in, and I must say, the welcoming community sealed the deal.

2. What got you into role-play? What are your favorite types (genre, style, etc) of role-play?

I've loved writing for as long as I can remember, but I've always had trouble with moving the plot along by myself. An old friend directed me to a pet sim that had a small role-play community and it just clicked with me. My favorite ways to role-play is usually in first-person. (Weird, right?) And I absolutely adore fantasy, with a hint of romance.

3. Do you have any long-term goals related to role-play and/or writing? If so, what are they?

Well, I've always wanted to write my own book.

4. What are some of your other hobbies and/or interests? What is one interesting thing about you that others might not expect when they first meet you?

Hobbies and interests include Game of Thrones, WoW, LOTR, Harry Potter, House of Night series, and Skyrim are my above-all favorite interests. I do enjoy reading and can read just about anything with a plot. I love animals (especially horses and dragons.), my family, and food. I really can't think of anything that is not expected, because, well, I'm an open book. xD

5. How has your Valucre experience been so far? What do you like, and is there anything we can do to help you (as staff or fellow members)?

I love it! It's been awesome. The community is super nice and I have always had someone to guide me when I have had a question. I believe I will be starting my first role-play soon, and I am super-stoked to see how it goes. Keep up the good work, guys! You are awesome! Oh, shoutout to Supernal for creating the coolest site I've ever been on!

Other Highlights?

The Safeguard Act:  In Casper, Dougton, and Tia, if you see suspicious uses of magic that might be magic without a license, be sure to report it to the authorities immediately! Yes, citizens of Terrenus, be sure to do your part to help law enforcement ensure that the streets are kept clean. Besides, when you scratch their back, they scratch yours. Ten validated reports lands you personal favors (background checks, etc) and 25 validated reports gets you a "Get out of jail free card". So what are you waiting for- go be a part of the neighborhood watch.

Did You Know-  That you can archive conversations in your PM box? Yep, if you hit the archive button below your reply options, you get the PM sent to your email- pretty handy. Check it out here. While you are at it, read the rest of the Did You Knows too. 

Closing Thoughts?

I said I would pick this one back up, so here we go. Stories earning their endings, or reaping what it sows, so to speak. If you recall from the last discussion, I endeavored to make the point that a story must have support for the way it ends (comedies sometimes excluded). Even the most brilliantly written, enjoyable story can come crashing down if the ending is poor. It’s not that the ending itself has to be likable—sometimes, the best ending is one that leaves the reader feeling depressed and angry. What it needs is pieces of the story that support it, a foundation for which you can rest it. If nothing in your story supports where the story went, you’ll leave many readers annoyed and in all honesty, you have a piece that just was not ended properly.

What is a bad ending?

Well, as I said above, an ending that comes without support, without framework, without something that makes it believable, will usually fall flat. Let’s say that from the beginning, I had in mind that these two characters would fall in love and get married. As my story goes along, the second character makes his/her appearance, interacts briefly with the protagonist, and then fades for good. The rest of the story, the protagonist never communicates with this person and never thinks about him/her either. Worse yet, another person in the story fit this role much better than the other person does, but I choose to stick to my guns. This hero is marrying their first interest they had, even if they do not know each other and they have not interacted in the last 500pgs.

Prepare to have readers saying, “Wat???”

What you did was force an ending that did not work. One of two things should have occurred to ensure the integrity of this story remained. Either you need to go back and overhaul your story to include more interactions for the pair as well as more signs that this protagonist has thought of the other, or you need the easier option is to change who the hero ends up with at the end of the story. The way it stands now, your ending does not work, so either change the ending or change the story.

Sometimes, the story can support the ending, but there is a better option. I think this more often happens when there is pressure to change the story because people would rather have a happy conclusion than a tragic one. A good example of this I think is “Stranger than Fiction” (spoiler ahead folks), where the author who writes the story always goes with tragic endings, and in the case of the story she is writing, the tragic ending is the one that will have the most affect.  Based on how her manuscript is setup, the downer ending is the one that will resonate with readers the longest and have the most profound affect—only she has a unique problem. The story she writes is not just a story, it is a script affecting the life of a real man, and so killing him will make her sort of a murderer, an odd dilemma.

Where the movie itself works is that when he reads the ending of her story, and the tragically beautiful way she ends his life, he realizes just how important his final act is and how poignant the climax is, and so he tells her to leave it as it is. It is this act of kindness, a deviation from his normally set ways, that truly transforms the character fully into the person we want to root for, so when she changes the story (and the ending is clever), the movie itself works, even if her the fictional author’s story suffers a little for it.

A metastory, makes you feel like we’re heading into inception territory.

Speaking of which, another story whose ending is one that works because of the plot structure and the way the tale is told, making a change less thought provoking and lasting. Appeasing the people in having a definitive ending (spoilers again folks, and yeah, this  one ended ambiguously) lessens the overall quality of it and it falls away from a central theme: Was any of this real in the first place? Perhaps one of the few examples out there where an ending of “perhaps it was all a dream” isn’t infuriating (for the traditional reasons), critical breakdown of this movie makes you realize that you have no idea how much of it- if any of it, is truly real.

Did his wife actually kill herself, or was she the one who finally woke up, while he stayed asleep?

Did they actually succeed, or did others die in their attempt while he embedded himself so deeply that he dreamed the happy conclusion?

Did he actually see his children, or was he back in that dream world again?

It’s extraordinarily debatable, and that’s what makes it that much better. We can have deep conversations about it. We will think on it, chew it over, argue about our opinions and weigh the evidence. Leave it to Nolan to brush off attempts for an actual conclusion, though he will point out that in the sense of it, it’s a happy ending no matter what. He gets over the loss of his wife in his subconscious, and in the end he sees his children and returns home. Either it’s all real, or he’s having the best dream he’s had since before what happened with his wife. Either way, you can feel good about it.

This primes us for the discussion on maintaining the artistic integrity of the story. Much like (another Nolan reference, weee) “The Dark Knight” put so honestly—“Because he's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now”. The reader may at the time of reading the ending feel like they need it to go a certain way, but that is not what the story deserves- following me here? The reader sometimes cannot have their cake and eat it too- they cannot both have a story written with as best it can be while having the ending they would have preferred in contrast to the one that works.

Making sure your story is earning its way is also a good way to ensure you can avoid Deus ex Machina (literally “God out of the machine”), which are forced, “convenient” endings used to make the story resolve itself despite having no logical way for it to do so. If your hero is trapped behind a sealed off door, with no exits in the room, a bomb ready to go off and no allies in sight- congratulations, either you’re killing off the hero, or accepting you wrote yourself into a corner and will now have to commit a faux pas to get them out of it. The problem here is that you wrote yourself into this corner, and now you cannot maintain the integrity of the story (getting to the earned ending) without “cheating”.

Now, what you could have done earlier in the story is picked up a “Checkov’s gun”, a plot device seemingly innocuous at the time of its introduction. Maybe it is established that this character likes collecting odd books. During his travels, he comes across a guide on building and defusing bombs. Now faced with certain death, he suddenly remembers he has that book- and sure enough, there is a page on this very one! Ha ha, he has a way out of this now, and it’s not pulling something out of his backside to make it work. Sure, the example is silly and perhaps not the best set up, but at least there were some pieces back there to make this an earned ending.

Hero gets free, goes on to resolve the climax, happy ending.

That’s the basis of this discussion on earned endings: Make sure that the ending fits where the story has progressed, stick to it even if some people don’t like it. I am personally of the opinion that it is better to preserve the integrity of your written works than it is to appease some people who are unhappy with how it turned out. Give them time, they’ll probably come around eventually once it sinks in and begins to make sense for them. In the meantime, you can throw on some music to drown out the whining and set your spam blockers to toss out the hate email. :P

Alrighty, that is my time folks. See you next week. 

-          Acies   

"Compromise is but the sacrifice of one right or good in the hope of retaining another - too often ending in the loss of both. ~ Tryon Edwards