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...keep the publc forums open? There is pretty much nothing left to dicuss and it only promotes useless posts like "...big corporations $uck..." or "Let's start a letter writing campaign..." I can understand keeping the ME trivia forum open and even the mods' private forum open but the public ME forums are producing a lot of posts that are upsetting the mods.
Eno
Eno
While I disagree with the idea of closing the forums, I have to admit that most recent posts have been fairly, well... useless! People have either: come up with silly proposals without reading older posts (+ resulting angry replies); dissed(& praised?) MEO (and that includes Yours Truly...); showed off their supposed knowledge of Tolkien's sources of inspiration; and other more silly things I cannot remember.
So why not try to start a more constructive thread? I actually found that the few interesting posts have been those in which people proposed ideas for possible future projects for the team to pursue.
I know Surian wrote that the team might split and work on separate projects (don't do that!), and I know that in any case they will choose whatever is of their likings. But perhaps if we could all contribute with our ideas and preferences we might help them understand what their fans really want and perhaps someone will come up with a spark of creativity that might inspire them to stick together...
So far, reading older threads, some proposals have already been made. Let me try to make some sense out of them:
Historical/mythological mod: since the team was so obsessed with realism when developing MEMod, this might make the most logical transition. Various subproposals have been:
- The Norse world with its mythology that insipired Tolkien himself (don't know much about it myself so someone fill me in! Pros? Cons?)
- The Arthurian English Dark Ages. This was my idea so let me expand it a bit further. If we skip the silly recent film, and all other cliches attached to it (including Monty Python... ^_^ I know it's brilliant but that's not what we want, is it?), I think this setting has been retold so many times that it leaves plenty of scope for creativity and imagination. The Team could want to choose to retell the story alltogether or just add a side-plot that was never told before... it doesn't even have to involve Arthur & Co. In general, I think a setting featuring the same technological setting as Tolkiens' ME, just a hint of magic, Viking invasions, civil warfare and the possible extra (at the Devs discreetion) of the quest for the grail (with its relative mysticism... could even make a dark version of it.... :halloween:
), has significant potential as a transition from ME. So as I see it - Pros: well known (plus no copyrights involved!); potentially beautiful setting (if one can get over the cliches); reasonably smooth transition from ME. Cons: well, not everyone might be capable of getting over the cliches... 
; no Orcs, Elves, Hobbits & Co. around.- The Middle-Ages. Not much has actually been said about this but, as I see it, the Mod could be set in feudal Europe with you starting a commoner and, say, working yourself up the feudal ladder to become some local lord... or something like that, perhaps it might even involve the Crusades... Pros: about the right technological setting; makes for a good historical setting Cons: I don't know, doesn't really convince me, lacks of imagination. Besides, if you keep it historical, no room for ANY magic of any sort (perhaps just some mysticism, if you believe in the power of prayer...). Also it would be a human-only setting.
- New proposal! Just writing the Middle-Ages paragraph above, I thought it would be much more "spicy" to have a scenario resembling Vampire: the Masquerade (I guess though for copyright reason you'd have to dissociate from that name). While this wouldn't be strictly historical, I think it would be way more exciting to have vampire clans involved.
Create a new world altogether: this would indeed grant the Devs the biggest artistic license of all as they could do exactly what they want. Some suggestions have been:
- Fantasy-style world. This would really allow the team to keep most of the MEMod material and the result world would probably bear a lot of similarities to ME. Pros: just said them! Cons: the team originally wanted MEMod to be a tribute to Tolkien and doing a bastardised world, would probably be against their credo (just like the changing names idea was). I guess they could do a very different fantasy setting, but I imagine the temptation to stick to Tolkien's way would be strong...
- Star Wars Mod.... Pros: (almost) everyone loves SW Cons: I do think there are way too many SW games around already and besides, it probably is neigh-on-impossible to convert
- Post-holocaust with elves&co.: Well, that describes it really.... Pros: ehmm.... sorry DMKW, but I am not really a fan of this idea... original I guess! Cons: I think it would involve a LOT of work from the Team to adapt (especially if you mean post-nuclear holocaust!)
Any more suggestions? Oh yeah, before I forget, DMKW had the interesting idea of perhaps having the Mod released in chapters. I think this might make sense as instead of having one single huge Mod that would take ages to finish, it could be split in chapters (of the same story presumably) released regularly as the team works. I am not sure how practical this might be though as in any case all the scripting would have to be done before any chapter is released and I don't know what proportion of the work world modelling takes. Still, there's an interesting proposal.... any more?
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