I liked the story thatguy. I don't get why hosts stop typing them. Khushrenada's F-Zero GX story was excellent. Why did he stop typing the DK story?
Simple. Writer's block. I encounter it far too often these days. And when I don't have writer's block I have far too grandiose ideas that require a lot of time to get from a to b. I tip my hat to Pyropizm. He kept the story going and did so with such ease.
Now let me try and make this big block of text more easy to digest.
Why F-Zero worked and others haven'tIn the case of F-Zero mafia, I knew how I wanted the story to end before the game and framed the story in such a way that it did not matter what the end result was of who won. It was still going to end the way it did regardless. Remember, I killed the winners off in the conclusion. That's what happened at the end of a lot of early stories. The winners were often killed off with everyone.
And while I should know how the story will end so that I know what I am typing towards, I often don't. Sure, I can come up with a good reason for the event to be taking place. I'm very good at the MacGuffin if you will. (I think that is how you spell it. Don't feel like double-checking.) So, in Rogue Mafia, it was about a treasure that was stolen and everyone was hunting the thieves who took it. The Wild West mafia was a throwback to the Pyro days with a town trying to weed out the evil elements in it but the townfolk don't know who to trust. James Bond was easy enough. S.P.E.C.T.R.E. was plotting a villianous attack and trying to get revenge on Bond. With Donkey Kong, it was the competition to gather Crystal Kumquat pieces.
Yet, these mafias all lacked endings. There are various reasons why. But a big case is because I didn't know how to end them and I was following along with the unfolding of the game meaning you are unsure how the game will end yourself or who will be victorious. So, you can reach a point of not knowing how it should be resolved or be able to reconcile all the events leading up to this point. It might not matter to most people but I always stive to have my stories readable and interesting enough so that you could skip the games and just read the stories for an interesting time.
Once in awhile, I do go for just the random route and go for a joke story. That would be stuff like the Funhouse Mafia or Sonic Mafia. There was a loose thread of a story but the main thing was more just a chance for me to try and come up with a laugh or two and make each death a bit funny or make a joke about something to do with the theme. Those are nice as well. I guess I'll try and quickly summarize the reasons why my stories stop or slow down.
Problems I have come across in making the story. A 7 point guide.1. I'm not a fast typer and I have a habit of writing long posts, like this one. I try to shorten things but I'll keep coming up with a new idea that I want to cram in or I feel the need to try and reconcile the story with what has just occured.
2. Writer's block. I try to make each death special. This was easier when I first began but now I'm running out of ways to kill people as evidenced by the slow down of story posts compared to when I first started hosting. Sometimes I can come up with a death scenario right away for a character. Sometimes I'm struggling for hours to figure what to do with a character since I might not know the character chosen or figure out how to work it in the story and am trying to come up with something they might like to put a bit of a fun spin on the fact they just got killed. Take DK mafia. I didn't expect Shigeru Miyamoto to die so soon and I had no idea what to do next in the story. Then everything just backed up.
3. Having too many ideas. I think my Bond story could have been my best story ever. The problem is, I wanted to make it my best story ever. However, in order to do the story and make it fit with the game, I was writing way too much and trying to move too many peices to make it fit with what was happening and for what I planned to happen in the story along with the usual cruch of making each death memorable. The result. A big prologue and opening set-up along with the longest story post on Day 2 and a final quick wrap-up in the ending post when I finally just let most detail go and gave a quick outline for the ending manuevers. This is the story I didn't complete where I knew exactly how it would end for either side and wasn't trying to come up with an ending on the spot. Moreover, with the way the game worked out, it set the story up to be almost perfect. This is the one that bugs me the most and I actually would like to finish but I would make it just too bloody long.
A couple other further side notes. Learning from the ending outline approach, I applied that to my next mafia game: The Mad Science Affair and was actually able to deliver a complete story pretty much on time for the first time since F-Zero Mafia and Funhouse Mafia. I soon forgot the lesson. Also, I see why the Bond people were so happy to be free of the Bond formula in Casino Royale. Writing a Bond story in the normal formula can be very tough especially to come up with new lines in those scenarios.
4. Not planning ahead. Similar to writer's block, not planning ahead can completely stall things. Animal Crossing Wii-Make was nearly complete. I just need to write the conclusion. I'm still not sure how to properly end the story. With the way that game ended, I feel the true ending was the Day before the end with Crazy Redd and Tom Nook squaring off. Off all the story pieces I've written, this is my favorite so far. In many ways, the whole game was building up to it and it stayed consistent with the way I had been writing things in the story and what those characters had been up to. I don't know. Maybe it's just me but if I'm killed off in mafia, that is the way I would like to be written up as going down. The problem was, it was too much of a conclusion. I had no idea how to then take what the game had led up to with what the actual main plot of the story was. In Rogue mafia, I didn't know what the treasure was and hoped to come up with an answer during the game but couldn't nor could I figure out how to tie the end back to the start with Waluigi talking to some policeman about the game's events.
5. Getting bogged down in hosting duties. I was doing ok with Star Wars mafia's story despite many problems in the early going but by the end, I was just too caught up making rulings and decisions to even have time to think about the story anymore. In other games, I can lose a lot of story writing time waiting for late night actions thus not knowing who is actually going to die or answer questions and concerns backing the story up.
6. Reader apathy. A lot of people don't bother with the story. I can understand why. For the most part, it is pretty much useless to the game. It used to be the way to figure out who died and what their roles was. But when I started falling behind in stories and made the announcement posts so that people could see the results easily and clearly, it further decreased the need for a story. Knowing that most people aren't going to praise you over your story and aren't playing to see themselves in the story doesn't help add enthusiasm. At the same time, when people do like the story and want to see it continue, it does help add fuel to the fire to work on it. I wish I could have done more for you on DK mafia just like I still feel like I should conclude Star Wars mafia for Kairon who liked it and did want an ending to it.
7. The writer's situation. And then there are times where it has been a long day and I'm tired. I've had to do an extra 30 minutes for a tie-break that does not get resolved and then wait until the deadline for night actions in case someone suddenly wants to change at the last moment since it has happened before. Combine that with some other situation above and one just feels like getting sleep by quickly posting the results and hopefully finding time to tackle the story in a better mood and more rested. Or maybe things just get really hectic during the game and now that you are already commited and have the game going, you can't back out but you just don't have the time to do a story. So, you at least do what you can to see that the game goes on but sadly, the time for a story is a luxury you can't afford.
I think that about covers my thoughts on mafia stories for now. Thanks for wasting some time reading it.
Topic: Future Mafia Games (Read 418535 times)
