Enter the Warrior Bard - Character Bio
The Tales of
Captain Burgundy Jenssen - Warrior Bard
Enter the Digital World of STNE:
In August of 2009, I stumbled across an on line MMOG Game out of a German Gaming Server as I was doing a little research for my novel "A Captain's Metal". It reminded me of an on-line game I played in college, long long ago when the internet was young. Like that old college game, this one too allowed people from around the world to play in a science fiction type game similar to a "Star Trek" genre.
So I started to play: Space Trek: New Empire ...or STNE for short. The game can be found here:
http://game.en.stne.net/Game.aspx
This is the login page from one of my screen shots of the game.
Interestingly enough, I joined the game within the first 3 months of the game's beginnings on a new English Server. So I saw much of the early fumbling of German Gamers trying to convert a long standing German MMOG game onto an English Version Server. The galaxy map is extensive, but still condensed for play inside a virtual space. I found myself interestingly enough in the "Delta Quadrant" in game. Yes, the game galaxy map is big enough to show all four quadrants of the Milky Way Galaxy in a limited area of cyber space.
But as far as games go, STNE is not the most "computer graphic" MMOG out there, in fact, it's downright primitive.
The ships and avatars are little more then .gif files. The battles waged by "logs" of computer compiled reports calculated from computational data pitting ship, shields and weapons against planet and fleets all with a micro management of research trees, energy balances, Ferengi taxes, production of resources, and colonization of planets with unruly inhabitants and scales of economies. If you come looking for a 3-D player side seat for an epic space battle, you will be sorely disappointed.
The major part of the game is actually the "roll play" opportunities it affords. Like using wooden blocks and tinker toys to build castles and kingdoms, catapults and kings, STNE it is a playground for the imagination. The larger part of the game involves comes up with Roll Play stories for the "avatars" or characters that inhabit your digital worlds. This becomes a great creative theater for writing short story lines and working on character development around things that actually happen in the game. As a player, I started with my Pen Name as my main "character" and from that, worlds of creativity followed.
A lot of things worked early on in the beginning of the server, but also a lot of things didn't. Most notably, the play style of the NPC team (Non-Player Characters). For those who have no idea what an "NPC" in a MMOG game is, think of a sort of an individual that only responds the way an established species or civilization would to allow players to anticipate the response they would have interacting with the NPC. These first NPC Players were a team of mostly German advanced players trying to "teach" the new English speaking players how the game worked. Well let's just say, the play style of the German servers was NOTHING like the way the English speaking players enjoyed playing.
Having hugely powerful ships running ...well...amok...among players just trying to figure out how to read the logs didn't really work.
And there were problems with certain people being given favors and getting certain privileges in game that really off set the fairness and balance of the game. Many people quit and more, including myself, probably would have if things had not changed...
After nearly 6 months, The Admin wanted all NPCs to be English Speaking players to further the Roll Play activity of the game on the English Server. I applied multiple times (and was turned down multiple times) but after getting through several interviews with the Admin and the then sitting NPCs, I became the "Borg NPC".
On April 14, 2010, I finally achieved the position. Being aware of the concerns and failings of the previous NPCs, I took a little different approach to help stabilize the English Server. Instead of playing the "Borg" as it would be in canon Star Trek (namely assimilate all and salt the Earth), I played it as a "split personality", an "experiment" being run by the new "Borg Queen" to only half assimilate a body of a human so that the Collective could learn from and observe this individual while she was forced into situations the Collective found itself facing. This also afforded me the chance to NOT be as nasty to the players as the previous NPCs had been. I took that responsibility very seriously, and lost more battles then I won with ships that really were not designed to "loose". As an NPC, it is paramount that you be a "good sport" and an "honorable looser".
By using Jenssen's interference from within the Borg Collective, I would have reason why the Borg Queen would not or could not, completely assimilate every last crewmember from every ship, fleet or planet I found in game or destroy everything in my path. I would use the last surviving bits of Jenssen's
"humanity" to help the players learn how to "outwit" the "Borg Queen" (who was also in the body of Jenssen as an AI lifeform) so that the players would be able to win against even vastly over powered Borg ships.
Some players quickly realized that many clues were put into my Roll Play stories about the internal workings of the Borg Collective on how to win when waging a battle against me (again, the Borg have no reason to contact the players outside the Collective, but this allowed them to peek in). Those paying attention and reading between the lines could then learn how to avoid assimilation (by not resisting, but redirecting it). Others often needed more help.
For over a year and a half, I worked along with many of the newly seated NPCs to fully staff the NPC Positions and we worked together to come up with a "Code of Conduct" that would not favor any player or alliance. We wanted above all to make it fair for everyone in game and have a way for players to address the NPC team if they had concerns. We had placed in a set of checks and balances to prevent some of the early failings of the first NPC team. It was working exceptionally well and we were on the verge of voting in a "player advocate" to help with any complaints in game. We had at the tome accomplished well over 100 Roll Play and coordinated in game actions and missions had been waged between the NPCs and the Players with really little overall complaints. I eventually had intended to RP the rescue of Jenssen and actually step back into a player roll, but then things changed ...it was not to last.
Earlier this year (2011), one of the NPC team members was "encouraged" to resign for actions violating our "Code of Conduct" so that this individual could save his good reputation in game. A few months later, suddenly multiple unfounded and non-specific complaints rose from one group in the game against the NPC team. I'll leave you to figure out who lead that group.
Finally the Admin yanked the rug out from under the entire NPC team and all our efforts. After 1-1/2 years of dedicating between 4 to 16 hours a day, including many weekends, working behind the scene on the game without pay, I and the rest of the NPC team was being told to allow one select group to have "privileges" others in the game did not have. That basically we couldn't engage in hampering their movements in game even if they outwardly attack various NPC positions. No other player or alliance was afforded that exception in game.
After a week of trying to contact our Admin team to straighten this matter out with NO response, I resigned on September 11, 2011. No one in the Admin had taken the time to find out "our side" of the story and see what were had set up in game as a really nice set of events to find a good compromise with this group of players. I stood up and made a stand for the integrity of the NPC team's action and in doing so, knew that I would become the first target to be dismissed from the team. My final RP as Borg NPC was never completed in game.
I will not be party to unfair advantages being given to certain set of players in game excluding all others. This matter is not yet resolved and while I may return to the game in my Player Account #13700, I will no longer be an active player in a game where the Admin will not communication with those helping to keep the game fun. I do not know if the Admin staff really understoong the value the unpaid efforts many of us on the NPC team made to make sure fair and honest play were extended to all in the game. I don't know if they players understand just how hard it is to stay fair even when it means telling your good friend in game..."No". There is no "win-win" situation when this happens...because if you give in to your friend, you loose the respect for being honest and if you don't, you loose a friend. That is why the NPC team is so hated all the time in game. It takes a special person to do that job for free for so much time and eventually, it isn't worth it anymore.
Unfortunately, this incident made it hard for me to find any enjoyment in participating actively in the game. Certain players I thought were my friends, who I had once allowed to save their reputations with grace, have pretty much wrecked it by being too close to the Admin team so as to influence too much in the game. I have no interest in dedicating so much of my free time to something I no longer enjoy, so I will move on, without regret for the things I did to keep the game honest in my short time in assisting behind that "big curtain in the land of Oz". I will go on to new projects and back to finish others I have yet to complete...
But all is not lost. Like a phoenix from the ashes, I will use the Roll Play I had written in STNE to go on to new writing projects. This is the real source of enjoyment I had in the game. Perhaps nowI can expand those early Roll Play writings here as a sort of Graphic Novel with some added music and artwork.
My writing, like all creative works, is copy written. My Characters which I created in STNE are my own and I retain all creative rights to them, which includes but are not limited to Captain Burgundy Jenssen, Admiral Bonsworth, Jrell, Tellis, Amelia Nobel, Larry Dorran, Magistrate Gavin Renquest, Kelran, Gorp, Grewell, Captain Ronda Rhodes, Kandar-Lynx, Captain Val-Tera, Stelvok, T'Laurn, Dr Mark Nibbert, "Fluffy", "Buzzsaw", "Tank" and "Rover", Captain Byron Lance, and all my "Digital" characters. I may yet develop these characters further into a novel or other works, but for the time being they will live on the pages here in cyber space.
I do not claim any creative license to any of the other "players" their avatar or characters in game. I will highlight in "Authors Notes" in this column, when interactions between my own characters and theirs happened in game. I will try to carry through the formatting of the STNE Roll Play copied here. I have always requested that each player approve or provide their own dialog for their player name or character. I would only ever post so if they fully approved and agreed to final draft. I interacted with many player in game so I will try to keep some of their RP writings where needed intact for the story and denote it accordingly where I can.
Many of my Roll Plays in STNE were co-written with each individual filling in their own character dialog. Where this occurs, I have noted that as such.
I have extensive writings in Main SCN (Channel 1), Historical SCN (Channel 2), The Borg NPC channels, My Player Channel (Channel 520) as well as various player channels. Many times written as Jenssen, Borg, Federation or one of the other various positions I assisted or played on. If you contact me in game, I will be happy to point those out to you.
As with many "fan fiction" writings, STNE does focus around "Star Trek" genre which is owned and licensed through CBS/Paramount. No infringement is intended and as with most fan fiction... I can say I have never made any money from playing the game or my in-game Roll Play writings. As for writing these Roll Plays or otherwise engaging in ”fan fiction", I merely do it because I enjoy it and without a current Star Trek series to watch....it's the next best thing I can do to share my enjoyment of the series genre with others who wish to read it.
The You-Tube Videos I might use to provide "mood music" will give you a little theme music for each page of this Roll Play Storyline. I will highlight the composer or album or links so that you too can go and purchase the albums or view the composer's links. I have no problems giving people free promotions on my webpage as I am not makng anything off it as it is.
To start off...A tribute to the state of "Indiana" a source of quiet, creative people who have through their writings and songs allowed us to reach beyond the very boundaries of our own small piece of the heavens, into the depths of the Delta Quadrant and beyond.
Jon McLaughlin's - "Indiana"
Visit Jon McLaughlin's Webpage here:
http://www.islanddefjam.com/artist/home.aspx?artistID=7328
The YouTube Link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WkJa0-N6as
Enjoy.