bonfiredog

Hello, I'm very sorry I haven't answered these questions. I have been running a drop-in studio at the Library today, and I thought it would be much quieter than it has been. I will answer all your questions as soon as I've driven home, showered, bathed in wine, sprinkled myself with cloves, unctioned, punctioned and baked at a high heat for half an hour.

So, soon.

Hello there,

Alexis (sitting across from me in a fetching black shirt) has asked if I would like to jump on and solicit questions. My name is Rob Sherman, and I am the writer of Black Crown (http://blackcrownproject.com) a fungal epic web narrative commissioned by Random House, and built using Failbetter's stellar software.

If you have any questions specifically about Black Crown, or me, or anything that Alexis cannot answer (which, compacted, would fill a very small cavity at the centre of PSR J0108-1431) please don't hesitate to ask, I will be lurking.

It depends what you mean by a living. If you mean from the Nex spends, then no. I have a more traditional royalties agreement with Random House which complicates things, but Black Crown has some problems between format and content. The way that I write, and the way that the story needs to be told, is anathema to repeating content. This is something that was a problem from early on, and which Alexis and Failbetter in general has really helped me ameliorate, but Black Crown will never see the repeated payments that FL sees, precisely because that content is very hard to do in a way that suits the story; there is not this organic, viscous, urbane drama that encapsulates FL. However, people do seem to pay for the Nex unlocks, which I hope comes from the strength of the story, or at least points to an interest in the world.

What did help is that I was paid an advance by Random House, like a traditional author. In addition to them bankrolling the project, this meant that I could do the project fullstop. This would never have happened without the money that they provided. I just could not have afforded it.

By the way, FL has, as far as any F2P game that I have played, explored that realm of "micropayments done right" the most. The ludic structures and narrative budgeting that Alexis shows me on an almost daily basis are astounding.

I think the mechanics inherent in such a game would be difficult. As your girlfriend seems to have a complex psychological relationship to anal sex, perhaps because of the pressure that you are putting on her. This isn't to mention the issue of your priapism.

It might be a more interesting game to simulate the conversations between you two in bed at night. I think it might be quite static, with a vague mountainous shape of you two sitting under the covers. The conversation would be uncomfortable to play, I imagine, with coercive tactics being the most effective route to a 'win', reminding of slights unapologised, the antics of celebrities, how her body is a political landscape which has numerous powers over and under it.

It would play a little trumpet blare, when you did it, and nothing else.