Journalism: The Next Role? (and a poll!)

[flimflamm]

 

You may have read my recent suggestion thread discussing ways to improve journalism. This is a follow-up thread intended to amalgamate my findings and gain feedback in a more organized way...

 

JOURNALISM!!!!

 

Journalism currently exists as an optional hobby for crew, a praiseworthy pastime for security, and as a fluff title for librarians. The main mechanics which facilitate journalism are already in place (photography, newscasters, and newspapers) but there are a host of limitations which make serious pursuits of journalism somewhat difficult to pull off. The questions of the poll represent the formal or drastic changes which would help to reduce these limitations, and the suggested changes below are minor by comparison.

 

List of minor suggestions:

 

- Re-sprite newscasters (check! https://github.com/ParadiseSS13/Paradise/pull/6211)

- Re-sprite newspapers (gonna be checked by me in the near future)

- Tier one security door access (press pass?) for the purpose of working with security

- Remove "Nyx Daily" and other such RNG news because it confuses people and distracts from real news and hides player content on the back pages of newspapers

- Increase slightly the number of newscasters across the station

- Put some newscasters on the shuttle

- Give journalists their own camera monitor

- Enable or fix photography through entertainment monitors (live video camera feeds) and borgs similar to the regular camera network and photography

- Add a "Header" field to news articles (bolded and left margin formatted)

 

The above suggestions range in coding difficulty but are more or less straight-forward ways to drastically enhance the function of news aboard the station. Having been interested in doing hardcore news (covering every major event, trying to break important stories, including additional community/comedy/fluff pieces, with quality photos for every article) for a while, I've found it to be quite difficult in that unless I'm constantly on the ball and are given access to the detectives camera monitor (which can view all cameras with no ID access checks), then I will always do a less than satisfactory job. Right now the main hurtle is getting photographs while staying alive and writing the actual stories. The adding of a camera monitor to the library would instantly solve most of this issue (good luck photographing shadowlings) and actually empower a lone librarian with lots of energy and dedication to pull off worth-while news. If more librarian slots were opened (makes sense from a library perspective) then willing librarians/journalists could work together and form a news team to share leads and divide the news work in order to cover more ground and produce higher quality content.

 

The main point of formalizing an actual "News/Journalist" role is to establish "The News" as the main job and prerogative of those who choose to play as one, and as an indication to everyone else that news-work actually exists (maybe security will actually let you interview a perma'd prisoner). Enhancing the existing capacity to perform the news via camera monitors and additional slots will have some possible impacts on balance (some antagonists might have to be more careful when operating in full camera view) but beyond that journalists would in the end still be a glorified kind of civilian (from a hard balance perspective).

 

Why news? Everything about it is inherently role-play oriented. It facilitates immersion and community interaction by keeping people appraised of relevant or interesting information using a mechanic (newscasters) that are themselves immersive. Certain round-types would be instantly enhanced due to their otherwise lackluster tendencies because a majority of the crew either don't participate or are left almost entirely out of the loop (unable to observe what is even happening). Nuclear operative rounds, wizard rounds, and blob rounds are all sometimes disappointing because the round arc leads to one ultimate conclusion (the success or failure of the antagonist) and only those who directly participate get to actually witness it. This is where the news comes in and makes the round interesting for those who do not want to directly participate or who otherwise cannot. Intensive live news updates (and photographs via camera network) of invading nuclear operatives (and/or the preparations for war) would be insanely desirable for the average crew member to have access to. Photos of a blob are straightforward to get and could be great for showing the crew what needs doing or just generally keeping them entertained while they get drunk in the bar and wait for the shift to end. Wizarding + News speaks for itself. Photos of the wizard would be the golden prize on such rounds, while the wizard itself provides absolutely endless and absolutely hilarious sets of circumstances that would make for excellent news. On every shift where there are one or more actually dedicated news people, the stories that are naturally generated during each shift will have a chance to be documented and broadcasted. Arriving at 13:30 and having a dozen or two dozen news articles to read would directly serve to immerse you in the existing round and improve your own experience and the experience of people you interact with. At the end of the shift, journalists can haul printed newspapers onto the escape shuttle and actually give people something worth-while to read while they sit there waiting for a blood-bath. Maybe once they see how terrible things really went for everyone else, they will feel less of a need to vent their frustration at round end!

 

The news really could be something special in this game. I know people really do enjoy quality news because of the downright karma factory hardcore news-work turned out to be. Paradise being as populated as it usually is may make it uniquely suited to having a formal and formally enhanced news role; the more people there are, the more stories there are to be told, and the more readers there are around to hear them. On very populated shifts when only security or civilian roles are available is where a formal news role and additional slots would really shine, and it is for this reason that the role should come with a karma cost to ensure that only people who actually want to do news (and are capable) get the slots.

 

Feedback is highly desired because I'm very serious about serious news. It turns out I'm capable of doing re-sprites but beyond that it would take me quite awhile to learn enough para-code to submit the PR's required to fix photography from live cameras, or map changes, let alone role creation. I know for certain that most of these suggestions require a coder of some caliber to achieve, and also quite a bit of consideration and consent from those who maintain the server (stalwart in excellence as always!), but if even some of these suggestions could be worked out then I think that with minimal changes to the code journalism could become a whole new staple for those interested in the going-on of well populated shifts. Since I've had exactly zero negative feedback either on the news or my suggestions so far (except from those I have lampooned IC'y ), I beg for a coder to give this some consideration (any of the suggestions), and if you're a higher admin who knows why enhancing the news won't fly, please do me a favor and kill this idea in it's crib for me because of late I've really been obsessed with it.

 

[ExGame]

 

Promotes RP. Doesn't fuck up Balance. Not hard to add into the game.

Why is this still just a suggestion?

 

[SomeGuy9283]

 

Promotes RP. Doesn't fuck up Balance. Not hard to add into the game.

Why is this still just a suggestion?

Just blame Fox, it works for r/ss13.

 

[alexpkeaton]

 

Promotes RP. Doesn't fuck up Balance. Not hard to add into the game.

Why is this still just a suggestion?

 

I agree, with the exception of access to a camera network. That DOES affect balance.

 

A camera network is a great idea on paper for a journo, but it will cause people to become journos just to be valid hunters, which will block those who want to RP and write entertaining stories from getting the role.

 

[flimflamm]

 

Promotes RP. Doesn't fuck up Balance. Not hard to add into the game.

Why is this still just a suggestion?

 

I agree, with the exception of access to a camera network. That DOES affect balance.

 

A camera network is a great idea on paper for a journo, but it will cause people to become journos just to be valid hunters, which will block those who want to RP and write entertaining stories from getting the role.

 

I was thinking that they could be given access to some but not all cameras; basically any camera visible from public places and certain departments (like medbay) could be accessible to the journalists, and maintenance cameras and cameras within certain restricted areas could not.

 

The way this would affect balance is interesting though. Right now the AI and security can peruse the cameras at will, making the scope of the balance impact an increase in the likelihood of detection when committing crime on camera networks rather than adding something entirely novel. Also, if and when an antagonist is spotted over the camera network, the journalist has the option of screaming out over coms, but they could also take the Nightcrawler(2014) approach for the sake of ratings and wait until the actual story drops in order to force everyone, including security, to read their content.

 

I would agree with you that scanning camera feeds looking for news (which includes crime) is on some level valid-hunting, but the impact that it has is somewhat different than someone who takes direct action themselves against antagonists. A journalist using cameras has to have their butt planted at their newscaster and camera monitor, and so the extent of their personal impact (ought to be) simply informing the station (so that security, the real valid hunters, can get to work). Valid hunting which results when people get informed about particular crime or criminal or antag-type could possibly be an issue, but the problem of valid-hunting is ever present and even camera monitor enhanced news doesn't add much power to antag detection over and above the existing camera monitors, the AI, and the old fashioned coms network.

 

Even if there is a noticeable hit to balance it might not be a bad thing. Being more likely to be detected doing crime while on camera could lead to people valuing the deconstruction of cameras or camera bugs more, donning better disguises, and generally being more clever criminals. If someone makes a cult rune in plain view of camera in xenobiology, at least the cult having their cover blown via news article w/ photos is much cooler than someone hollering it out over coms which would have been bound to happen regardless.

 

Also, if we give "Journalist" the right karma cost, hopefully we could exclude people who only want access to cameras in order to find antagonists to go fight. Security can already do that as it is I believe.

 

[alexpkeaton]

 

Promotes RP. Doesn't fuck up Balance. Not hard to add into the game.

Why is this still just a suggestion?

 

I agree, with the exception of access to a camera network. That DOES affect balance.

 

A camera network is a great idea on paper for a journo, but it will cause people to become journos just to be valid hunters, which will block those who want to RP and write entertaining stories from getting the role.

 

I was thinking that they could be given access to some but not all cameras; basically any camera visible from public places and certain departments (like medbay) could be accessible to the journalists, and maintenance cameras and cameras within certain restricted areas could not.

 

The way this would affect balance is interesting though. Right now the AI and security can peruse the cameras at will, making the scope of the balance impact an increase in the likelihood of detection when committing crime on camera networks rather than adding something entirely novel. Also, if and when an antagonist is spotted over the camera network, the journalist has the option of screaming out over coms, but they could also take the Nightcrawler(2014) approach for the sake of ratings and wait until the actual story drops in order to force everyone, including security, to read their content.

 

I would agree with you that scanning camera feeds looking for news (which includes crime) is on some level valid-hunting, but the impact that it has is somewhat different than someone who takes direct action themselves against antagonists. A journalist using cameras has to have their butt planted at their newscaster and camera monitor, and so the extent of their personal impact (ought to be) simply informing the station (so that security, the real valid hunters, can get to work). Valid hunting which results when people get informed about particular crime or criminal or antag-type could possibly be an issue, but the problem of valid-hunting is ever present and even camera monitor enhanced news doesn't add much power to antag detection over and above the existing camera monitors, the AI, and the old fashioned coms network.

 

Even if there is a noticeable hit to balance it might not be a bad thing. Being more likely to be detected doing crime while on camera could lead to people valuing the deconstruction of cameras or camera bugs more, donning better disguises, and generally being more clever criminals. If someone makes a cult rune in plain view of camera in xenobiology, at least the cult having their cover blown via news article w/ photos is much cooler than someone hollering it out over coms which would have been bound to happen regardless.

 

Also, if we give "Journalist" the right karma cost, hopefully we could exclude people who only want access to cameras in order to find antagonists to go fight. Security can already do that as it is I believe.

 

What if the journo had a camera monitor at round start, but zero linked cameras (or maybe just one on the exterior of his office). However, they are provided some camera assemblies and a toolbox to be able to install their own cameras and link them to an established "Journalist" network. They could choose where to set up their cameras. Of course, this might encourage the very validhunting I am cautioning against, but at least they would have to work to install cameras.

 

[Spacemanspark]

 

- Tier one security door access (press pass?) for the purpose of working with security

- Remove "Nyx Daily" and other such RNG news because it confuses people and distracts from real news and hides player content on the back pages of newspapers

-Security access.

I'm warning you right now, this is just gonna either get abused or security is going to chuck them out very violently every time they waltz in.

 

-Remove RNG news.

No. We removed this at one point and it was kinda lame. It doesn't confuse, either. It's green colored, and the author is always from CentComm. As for "distracting"... Not really? At the most the players are just going to look at it, and THEN the player news articles.

It's just one of the things that adds a bit of spice into the game, and I don't want to see that removed.

 

[flimflamm]

 

-Security access.

I'm warning you right now, this is just gonna either get abused or security is going to chuck them out very violently every time they waltz in.

 

You might be right, but I do like the idea of the press having at least a modicum of consideration from the security team. The idea being that if and when the news team wants to get some information from the security team, or to interview prisoners, they might actually cooperate.

 

I was considering the idea of making a newsroom near security itself instead of the library in order to emphasize closeness to security, but at the same time, it might be better entirely to keep the news and security wholly separate so that news persons can be free to be anti-establishment if they so choose (toeing the line of redaction). Toward that end, not giving them a "press-pass" into the tier 1 security doors would probably be the better decision.

 

-Remove RNG news.

No. We removed this at one point and it was kinda lame. It doesn't confuse, either. It's green colored, and the author is always from CentComm. As for "distracting"... Not really? At the most the players are just going to look at it, and THEN the player news articles.

It's just one of the things that adds a bit of spice into the game, and I don't want to see that removed.

 

I don't like it that people are subconsciously trained to ignore newscaster alerts because the majority of them are for fake news (confusing), but my main issue with them are that they occupy the front page of newspapers. If I have a channel with 20 something stories on it and I print a bunch of newspapers, when people read them they have to scroll to the bottom of each page in order to find the "next page" button, until they get to the last page of the paper, which effectively hides the player produced content.

 

Instead of deleting RNG news, how about this then: Shunt the RNG news and station announcements to the back pages when printing news papers (or enable selecting of individual channels or stories for inclusion when printing). If we keep RNG news while disabling newscasters from signaling an alert when the channels have new content, then people will begin to associate a news alert update with the existence of new player created content instead of with RNG content. Getting rid of the RNG alerts in and of itself is not an overly consequential change in terms of enhancing actual news, and I am not really too gung-ho about removing a feature which is so cleverly implemented (it's easier to remove than to re-work though I imagine), but that "bit of spice" you mentioned is exactly what I'm looking to develop and enhance. The hope is that through these changes dedicated news-work becomes much more common, and so the reduction of visibility on the RNG news network will serve to make room for a prevalence of new player generated content.

 

[Spacemanspark]

 

-Remove RNG news.

No. We removed this at one point and it was kinda lame. It doesn't confuse, either. It's green colored, and the author is always from CentComm. As for "distracting"... Not really? At the most the players are just going to look at it, and THEN the player news articles.

It's just one of the things that adds a bit of spice into the game, and I don't want to see that removed.

 

I don't like it that people are subconsciously trained to ignore newscaster alerts because the majority of them are for fake news (confusing), but my main issue with them are that they occupy the front page of newspapers. If I have a channel with 20 something stories on it and I print a bunch of newspapers, when people read them they have to scroll to the bottom of each page in order to find the "next page" button, until they get to the last page of the paper, which effectively hides the player produced content.

 

Instead of deleting RNG news, how about this then: Shunt the RNG news and station announcements to the back pages when printing news papers (or enable selecting of individual channels or stories for inclusion when printing). If we keep RNG news while disabling newscasters from signaling an alert when the channels have new content, then people will begin to associate a news alert update with the existence of new player created content instead of with RNG content. Getting rid of the RNG alerts in and of itself is not an overly consequential change in terms of enhancing actual news, and I am not really too gung-ho about removing a feature which is so cleverly implemented (it's easier to remove than to re-work though I imagine), but that "bit of spice" you mentioned is exactly what I'm looking to develop and enhance. The hope is that through these changes dedicated news-work becomes much more common, and so the reduction of visibility on the RNG news network will serve to make room for a prevalence of new player generated content.

I'm fine with the newspaper idea, but the notification doesn't matter- Every time I hear the beep, it certainly gains my attention, and I can look at my chat to see what channel it's from. And from the "view count" thing we added, I can tell you that it gains quite a few other player's attentions as well.