I don't presume to speak for anyone. But as a task-writer my two favorite things are getting them accepted and getting them done. So I wrote this one really high level task called Trajectory of Desire, a 400 point paean to our game. As a 7th level task I knew if it got done, it would be done by the best players, and therefore be awesome. I'm reassured by direct experience this will be so. But there's something else. My mantra remains "In the absence of concrete information, people tend to make shit up" and they also spin the worst cases, sometimes out of the thinnest evidence. That was the one bad thing that could come out of this supposedly awesome task made by truly awesome people. That risk was worth it. Once I reached a level high enough to do the thing, this story began: Chrononautic Exploratorium was cruising along, outlining outstanding ideas, developing terrific tasks. A well-informed player approached me and said that the SF0 creators were interested in our group, and that they wanted to include it if we could get done by reset. awesome Everyone knows there are other Trajectory groups operative in SF0. A little friendly rivalry is par for the course, and it sprung up here. As the task writer in the first place, I never intended Trajectory of Desire to be seen as competitive. Friendly rivalries were natural, but not the kind of competition you see in some of those other tasks-- like Discussion Forum and What is Advertising? and even the Dispatch Challenges. Specifically anathema was that idea of "most votes = most true." Well, other ideas hit our table while talking C.E., and they could be groups in their own right. But these were put aside. I also was given to understand from my source(s) that due to time and other things, SF0's creators planned to only include one new group in the next eraÑthis was during the time when Glasnost was originally scheduled to end November 1. (I worked to shut that fact out and just focus on making ours the best group we could, regardless. I think we got to that point.) What concerned me was that the existence of multiple Trajectory groups might become focal points for factions. This would be exacerbated if the era changed over and there was only one "legit" group, especially if for whatever reason C.E. didn't get as much public interest as the other proposed groups. Such a thing would leave unpleasant lacunae in the social fabric. Even if it wouldn't feel cruel to people who worked hard on building their groupÑi.e., it wasn't any skin off their noses because they were using a different methodology or different long term agendaÑit could be perceived as unfair or unpleasantly confusing to third party observers. People would--and DO--just make up these crazy battle lines around stuff that's integral to this game, no matter how awesome, even though it's all still part of a game. It started to happen during the run up to submitting our CE proof. A little of that friendly rivalry started, and one other group accidentally posted their proof early (unsubmitting it within the hour). Word got out that there was some messin around aimed at yours truly in their proof. This I believed because I had approached one of their members to ask what was up and make sure that if there was any crossover, we should talk to each other. We didn't have any crossover. Though I got back some grade-A baloney from my contact which snowed me for a while: "We will separate Process from Conception and the didactic from the sentimental. The University would retain its name but narrow its focus to formalism, emotional expression and craft while the College of Conceptual Perception would emerge to fill in the remainder by concerning itself with Artistic endeavors more heady." That their actual trajectory was quite different from this aim piqued my curiosity. I suspected they had something really good and I was interested to know what it was. Since the formal structure of "friendly rivalry" had sprouted up, I was not able to make headway getting solid information. Which was just fine because an opportunity arose when the Artist Formerly Known As The Villain joined the C.E. group. Feeling inspired and hungry to go big time on it, I devised multiple strategies to accomplish this task.