Well, that was more or less our actual objective to test new writers and programmers to see if someone would have the time or the consistency to joint he team on a more permanent basis. The reason we as a small team can't just expand the team to do this and need to test it out, is that we don't have the resources to risk on someone that just may not pan out.
It is more important to focus on getting the whole team to a point where they are financially secure. So contractors were in our eyes the safest and most hassle-free route.
But, it was a tall order on our contractors and our organisational skills lacked a bit, too. It ended up with multiple contractors which came and then had to leave due to other obligations or not realising how MUCH work there is in making something like GnS. We tried the safe bet and had two writing contractors, an integrator, and a pretty clear plan. Art would mostly be re-used assets or assets that can be used in Avarice that we would need anyway so our main production line could handle that.
Not keeping up on it properly and observing it closely enough led to... a lot of issues and "neglect debt" adding up. Most all the work was good on a writing standpoint, but there were large formatting issues and characterisation and voicing that differed from one contractor to the next and Aya was radically different than in Avarice!
So when I took charge of GnS it was a lot of work taking a despotic handful of documents that Deck did his best to order and organise, but even then some did not play properly in the numbering order and some had portions that over-wrote the others. Funnily enough, this is an issue some BIG teams have where overwriting can happen and you need to decide which version is better or even if the two can flow, it's why having a single writer with a principal manager/editor can save you time instead of just adding more people at a task.
TLDR;
Full time persons would be much more expensive and they don't always work out. Writing is a VERY hard thing to judge when a writer is GOOD, but might not have the time management/motivation to stick to a long-term collaborative process. Contractors were a way for us to feel that out but... did not pan out in this situation.
