: But he did. I think it was Scott, Meggs, and a couple
: others who met with Bungie, months ago, and talked to
: them. It’s easily conceivable they talked about the
: story at one point, but we cannot be sure.
As I said...therefore I addressed both possibilities.
: The design documents are empty of what we want. Equally
: is any other piece of material. There is nothing that
: exists which has any information beyond what we
: already know. It’s impossible to remember all the
: little miniscule details of the full “true story” that
: we think exists. If such a story did exist, it
: couldn’t exist soley in the minds of the creators (and
: then, each creator would have a different story). It
: would requiredly be scribed. Therefore, since nothing
: was written beyond what we have already been
: presented, such a story cannot exist. (more on this in
: a different post, including our future)
I disagree. Many artists are capable of envisioning a complex world without the need to write everything down in a single document. Does that mean that Rob McLees knows every possible Myrmidon name by heart? Of course not. But he might certainly know, for instance, the names of all of the Nine, or of all the founding Avatara.
And so long as a group of creators have had the opportunity to verbally discuss the consensus world with one another and iron out inconsistencies, they need not individually hold the entirety of the world in memory.
: Not he didn’t; he sent his book to be reviewed by Bungie.
: Bungie only reviewed to see if its proper titles were
: mentioned. It sent the book back, its story untouched
: (or merely grazed). Why else would they let so much
: slip? Otherwise, it can be directly seen that Bungie
: didn’t care about Myth or its story, so there is no
: other information.
Seabolt stated that he asked Bungie employees "lots" of questions while writing GURPS, and that they responded. You may argue that they were unqualified to respond or that they deliberately lied, but that's what he said.
: Giving “levels” to the definition of canon is absurd.
: Nothing is more canon than something else. It either
: is or it isn’t; yes or no. It’s equally ludicrous as
: saying one article of the Bill of Rights in the
: Constitution is more valid than another. They are each
: and all solid laws that are valid equally, despite the
: origins of their creation.
Again, you're speaking in a legal context, and I see no reason why that applies here--we're not lawyers. We're artists (from the creative writing angle) and/or scientists (from the world reconstruction angle). To artists, "canon" is meaningless. To scientists, the fact that errors are possible in the games themselves--even minor errors like typos--demonstrates that nothing is perfectly or properly "canon." All data comes with an associated error value.
: Of course they do. They represent nothing more than what
: they are. However, they were meant to conjur images in
: our head, a complete story that we all write
: ourselves. The Asylum is still valid in existing
: because we have to figure out what the best
: interpretation is. That’s where the fun comes in.
There is no best interpretation without a truth value criterion. Furthermore, if I'm interested in writing a story, then I write a story. Or create a Myth scenario with that storyline. The Asylum isn't really the place for that; "I think this, which would explain this and this" may inspire someone to write a good story, but as a story in itself it'd be lousy. :-)
: Then you mean your opinion is flawed?
No...simply that if Andrew Meggs is correct, then my opinion leads to the conclusion that Myth story analysis is fruitless.
: I think that MJ will do this, actually. It certainly
: sounds like it to me. They should be around after they
: release M3, and I would count on getting some steering
: onto the right course from them in our efforts.
: I think, since you can’t get everything into a game as
: story-filled as m3 sounds it’ll be like, and because
: my impression of Scott is high and that he is willing
: to tantalize us for real (unlike Bungie, the tease),
: we can expect a lot to be unsaid that’ll be saved for
: Myth IV, made by Mumbo-Jumbo Games.
I'm not sure why you'd think this; Meggs' own post indicates that additions to the Myth III world are accompanied by "a few lines of flavor text" rather than any sort of serious "let's sit down and write a long and complex subplot to explain this to ourselves" effort. And his statements about the Asylum don't suggest that we'll be anything more than creative writers in the near future.
--SiliconDream
