The South Sea Daily

Ahoy there fellow Legionnaires, I would like to announce that a small group of people who are playing (played) on Scarshield Legion are re-introducing a RP related project which started in February 2008. Some might know it, for others it is new, althought in the past two years with small exceptions we've always kept it updated as far the realm activity and our own time allowed it.

The South Sea Daily is a internet blog functioning as a RP newspaper for the realm and is always trying to promote, report and create RP from its own RP wise based views (which are sometimes twisted, the whole truth or complete lies but mostly a good mix of all).

The absence of the newspaper in the last months was influenced by RP reasons and the SSD is now RP wise able to report, as the reporters are just as well characters on the realm. (although we have to be honest we had a delay duo technical reasons for about a month)

During the two years of existence the South Sea Daily has endured various changes in the style of reporting things to its look and appearance, today the active SSD team is happy to announce the third installment of the SSD.

Please leave responses with feedback and constructive criticism if you took the time to have a look at it, it is highly appreciated. Take in consideration that minor flaws might exist during it being fairly new and that once funds have been raised we shall work on the very own domain.

Till then please follow, comment and send your own RP so we can have something to report on.

Sincerly,

the Team.

_________________________________________________________________________

South Sea Daily Issue 1: http://southseadaily.wordpress.com/

Good to see the SSD back in business

Nice write up for Vyp there

Hopefully, i will have something for you to write about soon ...

Is AIM back on SSL then?

They left?

Vexacus wrote:

Is AIM back on SSL then?

Quote :

They left?

Thats a long and hard story, but AIM was always on SSL, still is just not under original management.

That's what I thought. The new management has been making alliances. With us. So I was pretty sure they hadn't left server.

This new management has to pay for its crimes now (including not recording down one single story, you lazy fucker I know you read this) but they shall face their punishment and hang by the gallow if they dare to resist!

On a side note, anyone else noticed that the Darkshire RP project launched something similar? Ha! I beat them on timing cause now I can say I used the lawyout first

Also the response on the realm forums are overwhelming.

Shadowtroll wrote:

This new management has to pay for its crimes now (including not recording down one single story, you lazy fucker I know you read this) but they shall face their punishment and hang by the gallow if they dare to resist!

On a side note, anyone else noticed that the Darkshire RP project launched something similar? Ha! I beat them on timing cause now I can say I used the lawyout first

Also the response on the realm forums are overwhelming.

I lolled. But seriously does anyone even read the realm forum anymore. Even the blizz EU RP forum itself seems pretty dead these days.

Hi guys, Wimto here occasionally lurking/reading. I did not steal the layout *dramatic hands on hips*.

RP newspapers has kinda been done to death now on the realm. If one want attention to something, perhaps it's time to invent something new?

Quintilius wrote:

RP newspapers has kinda been done to death now on the realm. If one want attention to something, perhaps it's time to invent something new?

And what would you suggest? Town criers screaming the news out from street corners anyone?

Just saying that it is not surprising to get next to no response to a RP newspaper nowadays. They aren't actually news anymore as there's been so many of them in various quality and I suspect very few actually bothers to read them.

I'd just make a blog which had no pretense to be IC and casually blog about RP related stuff, and maybe try to be funny. ICly I would've done something that might've come of as original. It's hard to be original these days though.

To be fair, mine has come across more as a blog than anything but IC'ly I refer to it as a paper.

But Alliance hasn't had that many successful papers. I know Hordeside have had some good'uns.

Tipsy wrote:

Hi guys, Wimto here occasionally lurking/reading. I did not steal the layout *dramatic hands on hips*.

I never said you stole anything, silly. Its the Newspaper Standart one Wordpress provides, and Quint, go back to your hole I dont wanna hear a word from ya anymore!

Stfu, Shadowtroll. I do what I bloody well please, besides I am not trolling. I am serious, and also, right.

Quintilius wrote:

Stfu, Shadowtroll. I do what I bloody well please, besides I am not trolling. I am serious, and also, right.

First of all, this isn't your Random Carp haven.

Secondly, I can tell you that doing nothing but being a constant nay sayer is quiet easy, so great achievement on that one!

Personally, I really don't think the rp newspaper bit has been done to death. I really don't think the depths of potential have been fully explored yet. From my humble outsider perspective, these newspapers, well written and interesting as they may be, don't really do much to broaden their horizons. The SSD, for one, is something I've always found interesting, but the subject matter of what shadow writes about all falls into a very particular niche which, while interesting to read, is largely limited to the activities of shadow and the blackhands/AIM, and the different stories that they have constructed. And don't get me wrong, that is great. But this results in headlines that are simple curiosities to folks who aren't inside those stories, and miss out on a lot of actual RP news and events. To sum up what I'm getting at before I get too wordy and theoretical: I think that if you want more of a response for this kind of thing, try and be a bit more invasive with your investigative process. I really like the initiative you are taking, but what you put out seems like a very specific niche interest.

Constructive criticism, woah, its so nice to see some and is highly appreciated. You've got some very good points Katalmach and first of all thank you for liking the story lines whom have been showed so far. Yes indeed the SSD has been a instrument to raise interest into my own RP projects and guilds, I am even more aware that for people who open the link for the very first time and read it are like 'what?' having in mind that the current issue is very deep into fan fiction and plots which aren't familiar to some.

While I am certain that the SSD has always more represented the above said, it never was only to this and in fact widely spread other peoples plots, stories or events to promote them. There are some problems with that, taking a look at the old edition of the SSD there are articles who make completely no sense because they open questions and never answer them, the reason of this happening is I've written on request those concerning some plot which should be revealed over time but then said person loses interest and abondons his own plot leaving me hanging.

I dont want to evade the points you stated, because I agree absolutely with them but I gotta add that sometimes there is a complete lack of things to report. I've always browsed the realm and WAL forums to see stories, current things which happen and other stuff to have something to report, the absence of such and the will of keeping the SSD updated with something at least might the result of BsB/AIM orientated news, I can only guess and am not sure here.

So grabbing the chance I address you even personally, the SSD always avoided meta-gaming at full cost and information is either character wise made up, false or sometimes a mix inbetween combined with a sense of humor (hopefully) to make it interesting. However if -anyone- wants to see something on the front page he is heavly encouraged to do so!

Without news, there is no point of a newspaper so if you want to have something about the Warsong Blades for example listed feel free to post here, IC wise the reporters are story wise accessable in Booty Bay.

I can try to cover most of it, but with the help of people who send me material to write about the SSD and the team can be far more efficient. I've already had some chats with Snicka and Vypra first since we've done things in the past before to have stories from different origins, but do not feel as a spectator but as someone who can influence (if he wants too) the front page.

Shadowtroll.

I don't rightly care which part of the forum this is, because I am not trolling. Don't get your ass in a twist just because you don't like what I am saying. I am not a constant nay-sayer, but I do express my opinion on matters even if that opinion is that I don't like it, as well as I do when there is something I do like. You don't have to care about the opinion, but the opinion will sure as hell be given.

I don't not slag off your precious newspaper in specific, but just saying that the whole newspaper thing isn't all that interesting anymore, seeing as how many there are. It was you who gave a sarcastic comment about the overwhelming response it had recieved so I just gave my thought on tho why that just may be.

Having started and run a newspaper myself, actually the first on the realm, (wow, I was original) along with Teeboppity I know how hard it can be to make a newspaper that is interesting to a wide public, and in the end it didn't work as we didn't manage to pull the newspaper where we wanted it to go.

However, a good tip, which we found out, is not to report things that has allready happened, unless it was very interesting, cause that's just basically a summary, which often is boring to read. Rather make up shit that hasn't happened to create interesting angles to potential RP, like planting seeds before the actual RP is done.

All I am saying, don't expect overwhelming response to something that seem to be a dime a dozen these days. Unless you manage to turn it into something really really good, which sets it apart from the rest.

But by all means, nice initiative...

I understand the challenges that face you in something like this, for sure. I think a lot of us on SSL, myself certainly, get very absorbed in our own business and don't make as much of an effort as we could to keep our RP in the public eye where other people can pick up on what is going on. Bearing that in mind, I think the effort you go to is admirable. If you do end up on a dry spell where it looks like there is no news to report, just stick your nose into someone else's business and make news, is my suggestion. RP here can get very political, and there is certainly no shortage of very opinionated characters whose words you can twist for sensationalism or whatnot. Anyhow I'm just trying to be constructive, I certainly haven't put much thought into this or anything. I will be keeping an eye on your efforts, for my part.

Having a opinion is one thing, this does not bother me and is absotely in the normal, its a forum and its the internet, differences are a common thing but we dont want to have them go into the wrong direction. However while I did not assumed you are trolling you can read the forum guidelines and rules in the first sub-forum here to understand the warning above fully. While some moderators take on some of the rules very light hearty the board has become something important to me and I am very pedant on keeping it clean.

I never took offense in your comments regarding the SSD, however I cannot agree that there are so many RP newspapers at all. Having in mind that the SSD just returns from a break since February, the Morning Sun alongside the Goblin Gazette being silent and knowing that Gnomurus isn't working on the Gnewspaper at the moment it leaves us with the Darkshire Project which is a bit uncategorized but on first look seems to function in some ways as a message board as well.

Even then its in total 5 for the realm, compared to other realms some might say its a standart result but thinking of the active ones its not that many at all.

As to what I ment with you being a nay-sayer. I've always expressed my sincer admiration to the original Goblin Gazette and its content and you deserving credits for being part of it is nothing I would question. However as you said not once, you stopped it alongside active Role Play (according to what you've stated in other threads). What bothers me somtimes personally is that you despite not being active yourself and playing active you always turn down things with very little argumentation (truth, only in your first posts) and comment with a attitude which I dare to describe as "been there, done that".

Things are changing and what you name realistic I call being a nay-sayer, again, differences exist and everything is open to interpretation.

As to Katalmachs reply, my only concern in sticking my nose in other peoples business is the drama it sometimes spawns from the priorly mentioned fear of me meta-gaming. Meta-gaming always felt to me taking out flexibility out of Role Play and I try to avoid making things too easy in the first place, when I am confident in knowing I can use said information, for example on a plot, in the SSD its mostly from closer players such as friends who again have ended up in a common plot leaving is with the problem couple of posts above.

I will certainly whip the lash around the SSD teams heads and experiment but making things 'secure' so to speak, however just posting various stories on the boards is just enough to have something to work with.

I have to agree with Shadow on on the point that, often, the issue of metagaming is something that can stifle attempts to be a truly effective newspaper.

I have enough problems justifying the way my characters interact.

Having a reporter rustle up a reason to know of, and therefore investigate, a certain event is extremely difficult when even looking over all the guild forums gives you no incentive to approach people for a story.

Don't get me wrong, i know its not in any way fair to expect people to keep a running commentary on their rp just so others can jump in and go 'hey, i'd like to be involved in that' but sometimes, the lack of any kind of summary of what's happening with the different groups on the realm can be a little frustrating.

Oh, on too Shadow. lol (y)

Oh, you little bast--*. hm.. yeah, allright.. okey.. You might be right. I have sported a less than constructive attitude. I'll go into the cupboard and blow the dust of my happy face.

And I -have- been there and I -have- done that, more often than not anyways. And the reason I went from casual afternoon trolling to in your face was that you went all "Well, what the hell do you know, old timer? You've been away, things have changed. Go back into your dusty hole.

When I left it wasn't like I burned all bridges behind me. I still browse the forums, I still read all the posts, I still chat with wow-folks on msn and I still even hang out on the old vent server. And whenever a new discussion about the state of RP arises chanxes are that the same discussion has been done before and there is little evidence to find that much have changed seeing as many of the arguments are still the same. I kinda refuse to believe that SSL has fundemantally changed in the last realtively few months from what it has been the last years.

And as a matter of fact I have come back to play wow, however I am mostly busy with testing out cataclysm. And as a pirate RP'er I think you gonna love it

Anyways, this is all a rather hefty derail from your thread so sorries about that.

RP newspapers is an excellent concept, only hard to make it good. It is hard to make it fun and appealing for more than your closest five roleplay buddies to read, but if you succeed in touching several cliques with your paper than job well done. I dunno if you do this allready, but people love to be interviewed in-game so have a reporter go around askin' questions when other people do something Noteworthy.

In Goblin Gazette I remember thinking that every article should be written/angled in such a way that it serves as incentive for further roleplay, even though it is essentially just a summary of scenarious that has allready happened. Even though some would like to just read summaries of Shit That Has Gone Down, I think such things should be more blog'ish material. If it's an IC newspaper than it should be aimed at the characters. our characters won't be interested in reading about what some dude did yesterday at some inn when some other dude called him a Stinky Ogre Foreskin... Unless it's a very famous person.

Metaing is a difficult thing to master, it can be hard to see where it helps a plot arc along or when it starts to become just plain cheating. But metaing in newspapers can be a very helpful tool if a plot arc has gone stale, just to help things along, if done with subtlety. If done for the sake of Narrative then metaing is sometimes essential methinks. Refusing to meta event he slightest ever can be a hindrance in itself.

Anyways, the most fun I had was when I found a story IC with an actual reporter character. THe whole thing about Yrjial and her sex orgy and resulting pregnancy was discovered totally IC, which made the whole thing super fun.

Anyways, you've probably figured all this stuff out by yourself allready so good luck, honestly, with it and hope to read Interesting Stuff in it.

Vexacus wrote:

And what would you suggest? Town criers screaming the news out from street corners anyone?

=O your a genius lol, i'd love that xD