It's that sort of writing contest... :( By submitting the stories for the contest, the participants agree to assign the rights of the story and the characters created for it to Corvus Belli SL. The Author will receive proper credits when his or her story is published.
Yeah, I noticed that myself only this morning, but since the Human Sphere is already their intellectual property, we needn't think the clause is as draconian as it seems. Isn't it more likely to be to guard against a writer being too far off their reservation than about essentially stealing the author's work? I think the prize of Third Offensive is a little weird, because it's a book that many of us will have already bought, so I presume the real prize is that the winning author will get published, and might have the opportunity to write a full length story, and reap the benefits that only publication by Corvus Belli themselves can provide. No actual riches then, but perhaps an afternoon signing books in the echoing vault of an exhibition centre to a bunch of sweaty nerds brings its own reward. "<smiling> I know, right! Killing him off before the end of the story was a tough decision, I can tell you. "<sympathetic> Well, of course I understand he was the character you liked best. Me too, actually. "<hesitant> ... Sure, well I guess that would be another way to have written the ending... "<worried>... No, I'm not sure we could so easily rewrite the book that way, to be honest... "<puzzled> ... My ankles? No my ankles are just fine, thanks "<alarmed> Security! Could you ask this woman to put her sledgehammer down, please?" ... tell me again why we'd want to write a story for Corvus Belli?
Do people konw if there are any more of these sort of posts (guide to ALEPH lore) in other factions? (I thought it was so useful that I nominated it for Forum Post of the Year)
I don't get the deal here. Considering what we're writing is basically fanfiction that has the chance to become official, I don't see the problem with CB having the rights to the characters we create and so on. Of course, CB can always go and just turn our created chars into some asshole that gets killed off in a horrible way, but I don't think (or I hope) they wouldn't do that.
Well, it’s very much the same problem of recording artists and their recording contracts, as illustrated by the landmark law suit between Sony Records and George Micheal. Micheal became a huge star adored the wotld over, and a mulit-millionaire able to live a lifestyle accorded to very few people. Sony Records made many times more, partly as a reflection of their considerable power and investment, but also because of a contract so assymetrical in profit that the judge remarked it would be legally indefensible in any other sphere of business. As long as both parties were happy, there was no problem. Then Micheal wanted more control over his creative output; specifically, to release some of his songs, but not others; perform with some artists, but not others; and generally conduct his creative career as though he had the slightest shred of control over it, which legally it was held, he did not. Likeswise, as long as your little story is brought to a wider audience under Corvus Belli’s banner; has a manga series made; gets a brilliant new miniature sculpted by Carlos Torres and featured in Angel Giraldez’ new masterclass; and as long as you’re generally feasting on octopus and wine whilst chatting with Gutier and the boys about the minutae of the Human Sphere, all will be well no doubt. (Hell, you might even make some pocket money off the royalties and enjoy signing books for sweaty nerds in convention centres the world over. Some authors do. I’ve seen Games Workshop’s Gav Thorpe at the end of a very long day at Warhammer World at the Birmingham NEC, and after twenty-odd years of doing that sort of thing several times a year, and he was still smiling like a Wood Elf mutilating a greenwood trespasser. That, I thought to myself, is a true professional.) But if none of those things happen, and they ruin your story by leaving out your good bits, adding bits of their own that really aren't (and in badly translated Spanish), then killing your character off in another story that celebrates your least favourite aspect of abother faction (say, to have your character’s trivial death glorify the Tohaa’s Symbiomates...) you will have about the same degree of comeback that George Micheal had. None.
I’m pretty sure no one will be getting royalties off the stories here, as you sign away all rights to it upon submission.
@Wolf you make a good point there. I am not sure if I am that worried about this, but I wouldn't like it if they effed up one of my characters either. I'm not going to pull out of the contest because of this, but I do hope CB treats our stories with a little more respect than Sony treated George Michael.
1500 to 5000 is verly low. Thats a Micro- Story and it´s hard to get all in that small wordcount. Almost too low for me. I have plans for a story with 20k and one with 180k. I would attend the contest, but i had to translate it from german to english, which would produce to much spelling errors among other errors. Sad....
This clause is to protect the blog and Corvus Belli, so the story can be posted freely in the website and other media, opening the door to even include some characters in the game canon, credits and thanks will be properly given, of course.
What you'd want is a writing partner who’s a native English speaker. They’d go over the story after youve translated it, smoothing it all over in the style you’ve yourself presented; so they’d need to be sensitive to your style. Normally, I be very enthusistic to help out like that myself, but right now I have a lot on and its out of the question, sorry. But maybe someone else here, who’s either finished their submission, or given up coukd help @Kielax out?
This soundss as though you have some more knowledge about the competition; can you tell us about your relationship to the company or the event, please? Im sure we’d all be interested to hear anything more you might tell us, thanks.
Thanks Wolf. Yes it needs a lot of trust and energy to help a writing partner. That trust is not easy to gain. But i guess i write some Microstories anyway. I like to be semi-pro on writing, so i should´nt leave out a chance for practicing.
I'm editor at Wargarage.org, I basically wanted to make a literary contest to promote in-universe narrative fiction and made the proposal to Corvus Belli, one of my goals is to stimulate CB, as well as scifi literature readers and CB gamers, into reading and creating Infinity's fiction. I thought it would be really nice to see novels, comics or even movies about this universe, but that's the long term goal, I just want this contest to help, I think it could show CB there are talented people able to write good stories and people eager to read them. I'm happy to see you are interested and I really hope you send your stories, I have some nice ideas in mind but I need the community help me participating, so CB will be more interested.
I'm game to proofread and check grammar. Did that a lot back in the day in the Navy (it was my actual official job!). 5k words is no big deal at all! Your grammar/spelling rules make it impossible for me to enter, for reasons I've already posted.
That would be great. I already wanted to write the whole first draft today, but got headache unfortunetly, what is rare with me. I did 1300 words, which is okay for me. If i like the reworked story in hindsight, i will try to translate it to a good standard. If all stories have to be in english, will it be american oder british english?
If you refer to this then don't be afraid, context is everything, if a character has a special way to speak then go ahead, this will not be a problem.
General Human Sphere question for my story (which I'm not-at-all-frantically trying to finish; oh no, not at all ... ) i) Is a 'shuent' the correct term for the recorded memories and experiences of someone who's Cubed? ie. the emergent, possibly intangible product of the hardware Cube ii) Do we think a Cube is a piece of hardware that, like Richard Morgan's 'cortical stack' is installed in the person, perhaps at the top of the spine; and (since it can be salvaged (Cube Jaegers, etc.) could it be voluntarily de-installed? Beers a-plenty at Interplanetario for contributors with good answers, especially with general references eg. 'somewhere in Human Sphere N3' or 'Roleplay main book, page ##' I'm hoping to get it finished and submit something; did anyone else get something done?
Yes, we see an example in the Outrage manga that the "cube" is a piece of hardware/wetware. From p. 366 of the Infinity RPG corebook on the cube (salute to @AdmiralJCJF for already slapping this on the forum). These wetware cranial implants combine quantronic microprocessors with sophisticated, Silk-based biotechnology. Implanted at the base of the skull (for easy access to the encephalon), they spread nanonic fibres to form neuronal links throughout the brain. These links maintain a constantly updated copy of the user’s personality (or sheut). Upon death, the Cube retracts the nanonic fibres, stores a fresh tissue sample (to allow for the creation of a clone Lhost), and enters a standby mode waiting for retrieval. (Some models will also activate a location transponder.) For obvious security reasons, standard Cubes do not have a quantronic link. They are not even accessible from the user’s personal network. Without the use of VoodooTech they cannot be hacked or compromised without first removing them from the host body. That should also answer or at least help with your shuet (not shuent) question.
I just want to say thank you for your dedication. It is all Infinity needs now IMHO. More good fluff, stories, some iconic characters, and interesting stuff to read. The fluff we get in current format is really dry. I always read infinity books from cover to cover, but more often than not it is rather uninspiring for me. I would also like to thank everyone that decided to participate with their stories. I wish you guys luck and I hope to see your stories published.
Thanks for drawing my attention to this conversation by tagging me @Solodice @infoholico, how much longer are entries open?
