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Source: collected/009-developer-commentary-5-what-is-collected-what-do-you-mean-by-it-s-ours-season-2-updates.mp3
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00:00:00.080 Speaker 1 [upbeat music]
00:00:06.560 Speaker 1 Hello. Welcome to another episode of the Collected Developer Commentary. So this is
00:00:12.100 Speaker 1 the show where I talk about the show and where it's all going. So this is part
00:00:18.020 Speaker 1 one of a master plan series that explains exactly how we're gonna do things a little
00:00:23.420 Speaker 1 bit differently here, uh, than most of the other podcasts you probably listen to.
00:00:28.760 Speaker 1 But I'm gonna go ahead and give you the punchline right now.
00:00:32.360 Speaker 1 It's not about me. It's about all of us. So who, who is us?
00:00:38.300 Speaker 1 So we are the storytellers and the lovers of story who support them. That's
00:00:44.300 Speaker 1 who we are. So if you don't care about the creators or their wellbeing,
00:00:49.720 Speaker 1 unfortunately this is not the place for you. Now, support isn't always
00:00:55.220 Speaker 1 financial, but if you're not interested in getting involved somehow, then you're
00:00:59.860 Speaker 1 gonna get less and less out of Collected. You're just not gonna enjoy it because
00:01:04.319 Speaker 1 we're building it for our people, and our people are the creators of great story
00:01:10.400 Speaker 1 and the lovers of story who support them. That's us.
00:01:15.000 Speaker 1 Now, Collected is just the name of the brand. Uh, it's a creator-first brand and the
00:01:19.500 Speaker 1 beginning of a user-created, user-owned multiverse.
00:01:25.740 Speaker 1 It's not mine. It belongs to all of us, but we'll get into that. My name is
00:01:31.640 Speaker 1 Steven Schrembeck. I'm a writer and programmer. I see my role here really as a
00:01:35.840 Speaker 1 facilitator and pace car. Basically, I'm gonna set the vision. I'm gonna get it all
00:01:40.960 Speaker 1 started, but then I'm gonna take a step back and start supporting you all so you can
00:01:45.580 Speaker 1 take it over. Now, I am personally committed to writing and producing a 12-story
00:01:51.320 Speaker 1 block. So here's what's gonna happen. Each story follows the events of a different
00:01:57.180 Speaker 1 inner world. Mortal Steel is just the first of these stories. Uh, it has 12
00:02:02.000 Speaker 1 episodes, and it's part of the 12-story block called the Revealer Block. If
00:02:07.960 Speaker 1 you wanna know why, you'll just have to keep listening to find out. But that's just
00:02:12.540 Speaker 1 the surface level. Let's dig into what exactly I mean when I say Collected is
00:02:18.440 Speaker 1 not mine, it's ours.
00:02:22.580 Speaker 1 So I have three important points to go over here. One, our shared multiverse is
00:02:28.140 Speaker 1 called the Eternium. It's shared because once we're ready, Collected is going to
00:02:32.720 Speaker 1 start taking community submissions. That means any story which meets some very basic
00:02:38.280 Speaker 1 qualifications for what is a Collected story is going to become canon in our
00:02:42.960 Speaker 1 multiverse.
00:02:45.200 Speaker 1 Now, obviously, it's gonna take some time to build out a pipeline where we can start
00:02:48.500 Speaker 1 accepting submissions, actually doing something with them and turning them into
00:02:52.420 Speaker 1 stories and getting people to produce them, so for a while, just expect to see
00:02:56.260 Speaker 1 mostly my work. But the goal is, eventually, my work is just gonna be a tiny portion
00:03:00.760 Speaker 1 of all the great stories that you have available here. So as a listener, that's
00:03:04.860 Speaker 1 obviously good for you. There's gonna be more great stuff coming. But if you're a
00:03:09.500 Speaker 1 creator or aspiring creator, so specifically a writer, voice actor, musician, or
00:03:15.240 Speaker 1 visual artist, you're gonna wanna pay extra close attention because we've got some
00:03:19.320 Speaker 1 really cool opportunities coming up. But honestly, this is about more than just the
00:03:22.780 Speaker 1 creators because not everyone wants to make stories, and that's okay. I'd wager that
00:03:27.660 Speaker 1 only a small portion of the community will ever really be interested in learning the
00:03:31.540 Speaker 1 skills to tell stories. No problem. So that brings me to my second point. Number
00:03:37.700 Speaker 1 two, we're using an open, shared IP model.
00:03:44.900 Speaker 1 That means any member can create their own content, sell their own merchandise,
00:03:50.860 Speaker 1 and even spin off their own podcast and make money from any Collected story IP.
00:03:56.960 Speaker 1 Whether that's one of my 12 worlds or somebody else's, it doesn't matter. Now, if
00:04:01.780 Speaker 1 you're a creator, your brain is probably melting. What do you mean other people can
00:04:05.720 Speaker 1 make money off my story worlds? I'm not gonna get into the details today, technical
00:04:10.720 Speaker 1 implementation or otherwise, but the gist is that as long as the sellers and
00:04:14.460 Speaker 1 creators play by a few simple rules, a small portion of the revenue is gonna come
00:04:18.360 Speaker 1 back to the entire community, including the authors that created the stories. But
00:04:23.100 Speaker 1 the gist is anyone can sell stuff, and we all get a little bit of money from it. So
00:04:28.560 Speaker 1 if you want to sell Mortal Steel stickers or a T-shirt or a fan-made sequel, you
00:04:33.320 Speaker 1 don't have to ask me. There's gonna be a very simple self-service and mostly
00:04:37.620 Speaker 1 automated way of going about this. But I'm also aware that a lot of people aren't
00:04:42.600 Speaker 1 gonna wanna do that either, which brings me to the third point. Anybody who
00:04:48.580 Speaker 1 contributes to Collected is a part owner. This is gonna take a little explanation.
00:04:55.380 Speaker 1 Just imagine that if every time you commented or posted or did a like on Facebook,
00:05:01.420 Speaker 1 you got a tiny share of the business itself, and anytime Facebook made money, you
00:05:07.460 Speaker 1 got a cut of that money relative to how many of those tiny shares you owned. That's
00:05:12.700 Speaker 1 what I'm building for you. It's not lip service when I say that it is ours.
00:05:17.860 Speaker 1 Collected is actually going to be yours in the financial sense as much as it is
00:05:22.020 Speaker 1 mine. This is obviously a very lofty vision, and it's gonna take some time to build
00:05:27.320 Speaker 1 out, but that's the goal. So anytime Collected makes money, as long as you hold
00:05:32.400 Speaker 1 something that gives you a share, you're gonna make a little bit of money too. So
00:05:37.680 Speaker 1 you might be asking, "Who gets these shares?" Uh, the short answer is anybody who
00:05:41.980 Speaker 1 contributes value. Obviously, there's a lot of details here. Besides producing
00:05:46.620 Speaker 1 things to consume, like stories or merchandise, whether that's digital or physical,
00:05:51.720 Speaker 1 you can do things like start discussions, host events, or just share stories.
00:05:56.500 Speaker 1 Really, anything that benefits all of us, you're going to get rewarded for, and
00:06:00.960 Speaker 1 that's going to earn you a piece of the total pie. I'm gonna get more into the
00:06:04.716 Speaker 1 mechanisms behind this actually works and how it's possible in the next Master Plan
00:06:09.596 Speaker 1 episode. But just know that that's what's coming.
00:06:14.516 Speaker 1 Obviously, this is a pretty new way to run an organization, but it's actually
00:06:18.756 Speaker 1 gaining in popularity. We're not the first, and it really represents part of a
00:06:23.476 Speaker 1 larger shift. People are kind of tired of top-down organizations that really only
00:06:28.496 Speaker 1 reward the people at the top, more or less at the expense of everyone else, or at
00:06:32.876 Speaker 1 the very least, they don't get nearly as much out of it. Collected is actually just
00:06:37.696 Speaker 1 a small part of this bigger cultural movement happening right now. It is a shift in
00:06:43.616 Speaker 1 power to creators, which is being enabled by technology. And it's also a shift to
00:06:48.996 Speaker 1 the people who support those creators. It's cutting out a lot of middlemen. But it's
00:06:53.136 Speaker 1 doing more than cutting out middlemen. It's also making the supporters part owners
00:06:58.016 Speaker 1 in the entire project. I'll also talk a little bit more about the creator economy in
00:07:02.456 Speaker 1 some of the, uh, later Master Plan episodes.
00:07:06.036 Speaker 1 I hope you found that useful. Yeah, let me level with you. I can get this started,
00:07:12.516 Speaker 1 but I can't do it on my own. I'll be announcing some opportunities to get involved
00:07:17.296 Speaker 1 later, but only to the people who are on the email list. So if you wanna get
00:07:21.596 Speaker 1 involved on the first projects, make sure you're on it. Sign up is at
00:07:25.596 Speaker 1 collectedaudio.com. And remember, this is a shared project, and the way these
00:07:31.196 Speaker 1 projects usually go, even though it's early days, the people who get in early are
00:07:35.996 Speaker 1 the people who get rewarded the most. And that's as it should be because those are
00:07:40.656 Speaker 1 the people taking the biggest risks with their time, effort, and money. While I
00:07:44.916 Speaker 1 can't promise financial returns, and this isn't financial advice, if you
00:07:50.476 Speaker 1 believe in this model and in this bigger cultural shift and you kinda buy into this
00:07:55.176 Speaker 1 vision, you will be rewarded. And the more you do and the more you contribute,
00:08:01.376 Speaker 1 and the earlier you contribute especially, the more you will be rewarded.
00:08:07.356 Speaker 1 So I'm gonna leave you with one question to chew on before the next Master Plan
00:08:10.836 Speaker 1 episode in, I don't know, maybe a month or so. Should I bet on this?
00:08:18.476 Speaker 1 Do you want to see more of this kind of thing in the world? Think about it. This
00:08:24.036 Speaker 1 space is moving insanely fast, like crazy fast, uh, and we're not gonna slow down.
00:08:29.656 Speaker 1 So I'm only bringing in the people who really know that they wanna get in early. If
00:08:33.776 Speaker 1 that's you, cool, sign up. I'd love to have your help.
00:08:37.476 Speaker 1 All right, let's wrap this up with a little bit of housekeeping. So Mortal Steel is
00:08:41.256 Speaker 1 going to wrap at twelve episodes. We're gonna do a short break, which I'm going to
00:08:45.836 Speaker 1 fill with a couple surprises. Uh, and then season two starts. Production on season
00:08:51.356 Speaker 1 two is picking up. The major characters and the plot are done, but the story's still
00:08:55.076 Speaker 1 being written. I'll be putting out casting calls for voice actors soon, and work on
00:08:59.376 Speaker 1 the cover art and music will begin as well. So as far as the sound design goes, I'm
00:09:05.316 Speaker 1 gonna tease you with this. I am planning something rather ambitious. I think it's
00:09:10.516 Speaker 1 something you've never heard before. Uh, and I [laughs] I might regret the
00:09:16.076 Speaker 1 workload, to be honest with you. But we'll see. We'll see. If you wanna hear a
00:09:20.376 Speaker 1 teaser of that, as always, be on the email list. Collected is less and less
00:09:26.336 Speaker 1 and less for the passive listener and more and more and more for the engaged
00:09:30.656 Speaker 1 community member. That's just how I think it should be. There are thousands of great
00:09:35.656 Speaker 1 podcasts and audiobooks for you to listen to. If you just wanna be a passive
00:09:39.676 Speaker 1 listener, please go consume those. They absolutely need your support. And finally,
00:09:45.576 Speaker 1 special thanks to the alpha readers who made season two better already. I really,
00:09:49.436 Speaker 1 really appreciate your work. And I appreciate you, traveler, for listening to our
00:09:54.476 Speaker 1 show. And I can't wait to bring you more. See ya.