STARNEWS23 is a machinima project, or a film project using machine-like animation at its core, inspired by and based on the world of Guild Wars, a massively multiplayer online role playing game developed by ArenaNet, Inc. and published by NC Interactive, Inc.
The jist behind STAR is simple: For those that play Guild Wars, the movie series acts as a creative spin on the ten o'clock news as we know it. Everything that is discussed, covered and shown in STARNEWS23 is based on some aspect of the Guild Wars universe, whether it be true or not.
The STARNEWS23 project started more or less as an accident, or at least not as it exists today. As part of a larger video, the first STAR release featured just two reporters, leading anchor John Johnity John John John and "his trusty reporter sidekick" Bloody Hell the second. In the episode, the pair talked about the final moments of the Factions beta-weekend-event from April of 2006. The video was part of a larger series of videos, titled "999 Points of Ownage," though most of the other videos never made their way on the web.
Of the videos released, only the STARNEWS video garnered constructive feedback, leading creator Dustin Luca to believe that the rest of the videos were a failure. Two months later, STAR would be revisited when ArenaNet held its first Dragon Festival. In this video, three new characters (reporters The Stillborn Prince and Hurts McGurt, along with PVP Reporter Badonka Monk) were introduced and added to the STARNEWS lineup.
But something was still missing: females. So, to compliment this, with the release of the next video nearly two weeks later, inspired by a player-vs-player weekend highlighting the at-the-time unreleased Nightfall chapter, a new character was added, at least in preview form: a skinny, bald Elonan girl named "Chemo Ethiopian."
After this, Dustin took some time off to focus on his studies, but then brought the series back full-circle at the beginning of 2007 with the currently ongoing "season one" of STARNEWS23. The premiere episode in the now-official season kicked off with coverage of Guild Wars' holiday celebration, generally referred to as Wintersday 2006. In this episode, a new lineup was presented that introduced three new, more permanent characters, all of them female and all of them correspondents: Pre-Searing Correspondent Betsy Crapshot, Tyrian Correspondent Melody the Mesmer and, previously featured but now as an official Elonan Correspondent, Chemo Ethiopian.
After the first episode, a lot of the developmental focus was placed on interaction between the characters as a sad form of a story began to introduce itself with the kidnapping of co-anchor Bloody Hell II. As the first season progressed to its current point, Bloody was set free and, at least as things have turned out in the videos, Johnity was held accountable and he lost his broadcasting rights for a short time while Bloody took the chair position. After a few episodes, following a dead silence in the world of Guild Wars that involved no festivals or events to cover, there was a brief pause in the release of new episodes.
With the release of a promotional video in preparation for 2007's Dragon Festival, Dustin, now working more closely with Stephanie Guaraldi (the voice actor for Melody, Chemo and Betsy), released a promotional video detailing dramatic staff changes that included Bloody Hell becoming a correspondent as a result of insanity and, though subtly hinted in the video, a promotion of some kind for Melody the Mesmer.
The details behind the promotion, which included reinstating John back in his original position, bumping Stillborn, Melody and Hurts up a spot and putting Bloody in as a correspondent, came full circle with the release of episode seven of the series, which is where the series is currently.
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