a multiplayer game of parenting and civilization building
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I know Jason doesn't like suggestions but I'm gonna try to make my case anyway.
I've spent the past few days making a library. First a building, slot boxes in it, paper, ink, all that jazz. I had help from many cool people along the way and it was legit a lot of fun. It was when I started writing the notes that I ran into a problem. You see, I went to the OHOL Discord and asked people what I should write. Naturally, we got 'need content', 'chicken batnana is a cutie', you know, good stuff. But in writing down stuff, I noticed I wanted to write MORE. People would give me one-liner pieces of advice to write down, but I wanted to write a whole damn guide on it. Even just practical things aside, I wanted to write stories, whether fiction or not. I wanted people to read and enjoy them.
This is currently impossible.
I will now recall an instance from many months ago, where I was cruising leisurely through town only to find a bunch of notes all laid down together on the ground. Picking them up, it became very clear that this was a story. It was horribly spelled, kinda weird, but it was something that someone had put care and thought into. It wasn't just a retelling of events. I will share it with you here, transcribed by me, from scattered notes onto a google doc with all its glorious spelling mistakes.
''Once apon a time thier was a person. Her name was mitlida she as strong mom. She had many kids and farmed her entire lif. She gave birth to three girls and four twin. One sunny after noon she saw one of her kids. Naturaly she said hi to him but thats when her son came back to her and started coming towards her. She saw a sword strapped to his backpack her. as he aproched her she knotese. Knotesed that this wasnt her son but a very person who looked a lot like him . Thats when he drew his sword it glinted in the sun...and in a diffrent launguag shouted dasjhldk!! Matilda was shocked as the sword impailed her. She screamed with pain her vision got blood red she felt rage and fear and anger. But this anger melted into some thing stronger magicl. All her previus acomplishments were meaningless to the killer he stood over bloody sword in hand. So matilda whispered, curse you and your kind, you are the bane of our world leave while you still can savage!!''
I want to draw your eye to various parts of this 183-words-long text. First off, we get lots of 'unnecessary' information about Matilda. She is not just a mom, she is a -strong- mom. She doesn't just say hi to her son, she -naturally- says hi to her son. We can infer from this that she cares a lot about her kids. Then there are the vivid descriptions. The attacker man doesn't just draw his sword, his sword -glints in the sun-, and Matilda's emotions of fear and anger -melt- into something magical, a type of primal rage, if you will. My point here is that this isn't recording an event, rather it is storytelling for storytelling's sake. It's entertainment. THIS is what I want to do so desperately in OHOL. THIS is fucking gorgeous and you can fight me on that.
This is where the tale turns sad though. You see, it took me nearly 30 minutes, up until my last breathe with no time to spare, to piece Matilda's story back together from the notes. They were unorganized, it was like fixing a puzzle. I saw many people come and go to pick up the notes, but never all as they gave up on reading it to go do something else. It was frustrating, it still is frustrating. A piece of the story may have been lost or moved, never to be found again. The ending does seem very abrupt, don't you think? Currently in OHOL writing stories longer than a sentence is made nearly impossible. It takes too much effort to read for it to be worth it, taking half a life for this one to be read and understood, only by one person.
And that's how I'll conclude, ADD BOOKS PLEASE! We need a way to write long things down and make them accessible to read, by having them be bundled together in a set order. This will help with storytelling, recording history, player guides, communication, think about 'baby books' to read to babies to introduce town, think rule books, think entire libraries full of them! How is a town supposed to have a culture if there is no way to write a text longer than a sentence? How are we supposed to remember our tales? Hell, especially for you Jason, since books will be unique they will be prime material for trading. I am begging on my knees, ADD BOOKS.
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Please, this is great considering more complex things simply can’t be taught through oral tradition. Writing a book for future generations is still working for the benefit of your kids in a way, since someone still needs to read the book. “Oral” teaching should be for the most simple actions. Imagine engineering classes learning how to make engine and oil rig parts, people studying the newcomen hammer/roller/lathe/bore for the first time.
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Please, this is great considering more complex things simply can’t be taught through oral tradition. Writing a book for future generations is still working for the benefit of your kids in a way, since someone still needs to read the book. “Oral” teaching should be for the most simple actions. Imagine engineering classes learning how to make engine and oil rig parts, people studying the newcomen hammer/roller/lathe/bore for the first time.
You're absolutely right ^^ I have touched very little on the more practical teaching aspects of books in my post, but it's easy to imagine those would be so helpful too. That makes me think actually, libraries could become much more intricate with sections and stuff. Guide/teaching section, fiction section, non-fiction section.
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ADD CONTENT
Need Content
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