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En Masse's Lead Writer David Noonan is in Korea this week, working onsite with Bluehole Studio on the TERA story. Here is an excerpt from his daily updates:
Day 2: Meetings
I spend almost the entire day at the Bluehole offices. I've been here once before, so it is roll-up-your-sleeves time from the moment I walk in the door. On the plus side: I find the building on time despite Google Maps's efforts to hide it from me, and I am given a temporary desk in a corner cubicle. The view is mostly other skyscrapers, but still, it's a good place to work.
Drawing Some Lines
Most of what we talk about today is how we're collaborating on the story on both sides of the Pacific. I show them how the En Masse writers use a wiki to track things like NPC personality traits and various character arcs. Speaking of character arcs, I get to see some new characters-both monsters and friendlies-and then we brainstorm different ways to interconnect them.
Overall, that is the goal of the day: interconnection. When you put story people in a room with a big whiteboard, we start drawing all sorts of lines: This character hates that character. This character aspires to become that character. This character is rivals with that character. And (my favorite, though it's rarely employed) this character actually is that character...in disguise. We also discuss groups: Group A is trying to infiltrate group B. Group C manipulates Group D on behalf of Group E, which is working toward an unrelated but far more sinister purpose...you get the idea.
Most of our building blocks for TERA are already in place. But applying the mortar to those building blocks-connecting them in ways that we hope will surprise you, delight you, and even occasionally anger you-is a fun way to spend a day!
