We pause this MA Arc for a Youtube video

I'm making a story arc that involves a villainous monologue. The text limit is constraining, as is the fact that many readers will get bored. This gave me the idea to voice the monologue and post it on Youtube.

Question: If I were to do this, and you came across my arc, would you take the time to find the monologue?

Thanks!

No. CoX doesn't play very nice with alt-tab on my system..

Also it's rather resource-intensive, and Flash doesn't play nicely with a busy system.

I think it sounds like a fantastic idea.

Absolutely not; your work is expected to fit in the space provided.

Unless we ever get the ability to use cutscenes this sounds like the best alternative.

I've often wished we had the option to turn off Boss agro so they don't auto attack when you get close.

How many comics have the Hero enter the room and just start wailing on the guy? Usually you have some interaction. The boss delivers his monologue and then the hero retorts before the fight actually begins.

When making my Arch Nemesis missions I've wanted to be able to control how the boss reacts.

Set it for attack only when attacked. That way you could walk right up to them and have em just keep talking until the text was finished, then have the fight begin.

Alternatively I'd want a setting of 'finish talking then run for the hills' so I could have guys pleading for their lives, then when its apparent I'm not backing down, I.E. I attack them, they just panic and run....


Anyways, back to the OP.
Personally, even though my system pretty much locks up for 10 minutes if I try to Alt-tab I'd do it just to see what it was.
Unfortunately, I think it'd break any immersion I had going.

No. I prefer to have all the information relavant to the mission/arc contained in the mission/arc. A pointer to extraneous material in the mission briefing might prompt a look at some point but only if it is some background info.

IMO I think having an external source will break up the flow of the arc, which doesn't really help much.
I tend to put the monologue in the Inactive Text, Active Text and every other text field available. That should hopefully help. Also, you could put it in a Mission Complete Clue like I have in my own arc. The monologue is in every Boss text field, the boss defeat clue and the mission complete clue.

I've thought about this too, and ultimately I think it's going to be a no-go. People generally don't view external resources for an arc, and a youtube video during an arc is going to break the flow of the arc so people are going to be reluctant to view it. The best I've come up with is since I do trailers for my arc is to put that kind of "cutscene" stuff in the trailer, then mirror it as much as you can in the arc, and hopefully it will call up memories of the previously seen trailer.

Nice idea, but I could not check it out because alt tabbing plays havoc on my poor computer. So for me it would ruin the arc.

A good idea for future MA updates would be to stream media from places such as Youtube into the game, avoiding the Alt-tab issue and making it as seamless as possible.

IF...

I would look at it if your mission was otherwise interesting up to that point.

Sure today is the first day of the rest of your life. But so was yesterday. And look how that turned out.

I personally play in a wiondow, so technically there'd be no problem for me (at least on my current rig - if i ever get the new one running I don't know lol). A's alos have no problem whatsoever in terms of seeing it as part of the story, unlike some of the more purist 'Stay in your box, arc!' folk out there

However, as you can see, some folk have techincal trouble with viewing another window, and some people have psychological issues with any unusual storytelling methods.

It all depends on you, at the end of the day, and how 'common denominator' you want to go.

I have a quite long villain monologue in the final mission of The Echo, delivered in sections through an intercom system as the Player fights his way through the map, spread out over 18 (count em!) chained boss objectives, ending with the actual Villain encounter. The bosses are easy, but that's a long chain, and some people have complained about it. On the other hand, some people have raved about the monologue and it's paced delivery and build-up.

ou can't please everyone all the time, of course, and that's not a bad thing if we are to have such variety of arcs.

My own take is, for feedback, I'd rather get a few 'That was INCREDIBLE!' and put up with a few 'That was AWFUL!' than get a lot of 'That was ok'.

Eco.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

If they ever let us make cutscenes in MA, I know exactly what I will put in mine:

<《 New Colchis / Guides / Mission Architect 》>
"At what point do we say, 'You're mucking with our myths'?" - Harlan Ellison

and some people have psychological issues with any unusual storytelling methods.

Does that include every editor on the face of the earth? Do they all have "psychological issues"?

If a newspaper editor tells a reporter to write four column inches he writes four column inches. Not three and a half, not five, four. He'll have written it so that it can be cut down or extended if necessary, but what he turns in will be what the editor asked for. Writers in every field have to deal with similar requirements. The ability to meet specifications is part of the reason why the professionals get paid and we don't. People who can't aren't "creative", they're would-be prima donnas.

Expecting the material to fit in the space provided is not indicative of "psychological issues". It isn't an outrageous or unreasonable request. It isn't even an unusual one.

The examples you provide are all work-for-hire, not art produced for free by independent artists.

I submit that an artist can build a 20-story tower out of empty Coke bottles (presuming that he can find space to construct it - this is where file size limits come in). That does not necessarily mean that anyone will want to view it.

Someone working in MA is not an "independent artist", they are working within a provided framework. If they want to be independent they can design their own game.

A lot of people have summed up why the Youtube idea's not really a winner, due to extra work on the player, technical limitations, and it being jarring.

However, I'm not entirely sure that a villainous monologue can't be done within the limits of an AE arc. Depending on how your arc is written, you could use the contact text, which gives you 1000 characters for each separate window. The boss idle text that they say before you fight them has a pretty large limit. I've used that to make wordy villains for comedic purposes quite a few times. Depending on how long the monologue is, you could always have it extend into the text for when they see the player, and even into the text for different levels of health.

Apparently, in the alternate reality Venture lives in, editors are only for traditional paper newspapers and there's never any reference to other articles, papers or books in any article.

People who haven't the slightest clue on a specific topic should really stop talking like they're an expert. Or just stop talking altogether. I'm hoping the irony of someone quoting specific parts of posts and failing to use the quote feature properly complaining about something not being conform to what he thinks is traditional storytelling isn't lost. Moving on...


OP, it sounds like a nice concept. On top of the technical concerns, I'd also add you might want to provide subs if you actually do it (as it is easier for non-english speaking people to understand).