I'm doing a lot of things. I'm spinning about here and there, and going back to it...but that caveat aside....
1. I'm trying to create a set of Developer's Tools. They have more use that just as DT's, but once you have these DT's, you can create a world far faster, and easier than before. And you can create it to a level of skill that is much greater than you might have.
There are a lot of people who might have a 1@ Read History, but they can't actually Use History. I create these tools, and they can use their 1@ level bias to do things of a higher bias level just like someone with a 1@ Mag Bias could do some really remarkable things with the proper magic item.
2. A Bunch of Dumb Bits if Properly Interconnected Can Be Very Smart. Genius and Leadership are still useful, but... In the old days, it was said that 'a camel is a horse designed by a committee'. Nowadays, bullet trains schedule themselves by using an interaction protocol. And messages are sent across the Internet by being broken up, and each bit looking for a passage that moves itself toward its goal at that moment, and in accordance with a protocol. And bullet trains and the Internet work better with this system than with a central computer sending instructions.
3. Your Customers are smarter than you are. This little factoid is easy for me to grasp.
I've told the story several times how I was sitting as GM for Multiverser at a table with a MBA lawyer, a nuclear physics grad, and a real-life rocket scientist. Me, the SF/Fantasy writer and game designer and putative leader was the dumbest guy at the table.
And I've GMed for a guy who knew my world better than I did, another guy who could be the next great alt-history SF writer, a computer sci professor, a logical game designer, and others. So this comes easy to me. Yes, my customers are smarter than me.
It doesn't mean I do exactly what they want. Yet, I have learned most of what I know from them. I speak gladly of dazzled smiles, but thats not the whole story. Not everyone thinks as one young lady said "That was the best game I've played in ten years." Some people frown a little. Its from them I learn. I ask them whats the matter. I wonder to myself and try to match what I know of what happened to them and to other theories to see if I can figure out what went wrong. This is how to grow.
I need to find ways to get my customers to use their brains on my behalf by improving my product. One way to do this is to let them improve the product (and it has to be easy to do it, a low threshold of entry) so it helps them, and then copy their idea, give them credit, and distribute it to anyone else.
If I work this right, suddenly I've got a couple dozen editors, playtesters, and scenario design workers plugging in small bits (and remember point #2) and the whole thing is getting rapidly better. And as it gets better, I get more help.
The chief problem is how to construct the protocols to make it easy and profitable (not in money but in terms of satisfaction) to let others improve your work, or to let others find ways to cash in on your work....like Sun systems did by giving away Java which created a new job of Java designer, and this giving it away made Sun rich.
The question is thus: How can I get smart people to help me out?
Maybe set up some Wiki pages.
A multiverser guide wiki would be a wonderful tool. There are various free wiki sites available out there if it's not an option to install one on gamingoutpost.
Hmmmm....
1. Say TEN worlds in various forms of order with offers to help finish them....
2. A disclaimer saying I can use what is provided however I like.
3. A purpose statement.
4. A bunch of Semi-agglomerated articles
5. A suggestions for new stuff List which would be like....
"I'd like to see a new world on Kung Fu Dragons, and a list on favorite cuisine types."
and then a bunch more other suggestions some by me, and some by others...
6. Miscellaneous section:
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Everything but #1 and #2 would be changeable. Although we'd solicit any input into changing that that anyone wanted to provide.
???????
Eric