Watch the Footage archive

I'm curious, because we are doing this, what has come to a surprise to you, and what you have enjoyed learning about. I'm sure most of you will have different things =P There is a lot that we have covered, and have yet to cover.

A lot.
One, actually reading about the inner workings of the ARG, technical aspects and design decisions, that stuff is really interesting for me. I mean, I played the game spending half of the time actually wondering about the thought process behind the decisions about each event. Trying to understand and anticipate what you guys would do, and I did call quite a few things and some really big ones, but mostly in private chats so I can't actually prove it now. . Learning about how this all came together is really the most amazing thing for me.

Second there was the fact that you guys would actually carry out the Adell is dead scenario if we failed to meet the milestone. That was one decision I simply couldn't make myself believe you would make.

And then there's everything else that I didn't actually process yet. This is so much good information that it'll take a while to actually absorb all of it. I already learned a lot, and I'm sure I'll make use of these lessons for many years to come. Thanks guys!

Pixelmage wrote:And then there's everything else that I didn't actually process yet. This is so much good information that it'll take a while to actually absorb all of it. I already learned a lot, and I'm sure I'll make use of these lessons for many years to come. Thanks guys!

This.

Everything is fascinating, and I just want to know more and more.

I guess the most interesting thing for me is learning how much of what you did was made up late into the ARG. I'd already assumed that lots of stuff was adjusted or added in response to the direction players were taking things, but learning just how fast you managed to pull some of the things together (like Cthulhu) is amazing.

I learned that apparently you guys are all crazy, and are convinced that Joe and I don't exist =/And apparently you somehow took over our forum. I guess I can't change it back without having you all revolt.

No worries Ed. We all love you and Joe.
We promise not to break anything.

I'm still kind of reeling from the lack of reveal on Batman. GU17 was an actual player who actually managed to pull that many friends out of his utility belt?!

BlackWolfe wrote:I'm still kind of reeling from the lack of reveal on Batman. GU17 was an actual player who actually managed to pull that many friends out of his utility belt?!

Tom already used Word Of God via Twitter to confirm that. XD

Sicon112 wrote:

BlackWolfe wrote:I'm still kind of reeling from the lack of reveal on Batman. GU17 was an actual player who actually managed to pull that many friends out of his utility belt?!

Tom already used Word Of God via Twitter to confirm that. XD

Did he? *checks Twitter* Oh. Dude joined from unfiction, so apparently, he's an old pro at ARGing. That might explain it.

Anyway, things that surprised me from the Post-Mortem:

How insanely flexible the game turned out to be. All of you saying "We had plans for what would happen if X or Y," where I thought Y was a case of "You guys done ____ed up and lost the ARG."

Sicon112 wrote:

BlackWolfe wrote:I'm still kind of reeling from the lack of reveal on Batman. GU17 was an actual player who actually managed to pull that many friends out of his utility belt?!

Tom already used Word Of God via Twitter to confirm that. XD

"Batman does not work for me" was one of my favorite Tom tweets during the game.

I was actually somewhat surprised that we had to confirm that GU17 wasn't one of us at first.

That said, since I lurk on Unfiction (I only really actively posted there during the days of Perplex City), I knew he was from there. Though even I was surprised at just how good he was at getting things done. Seeing him in action, I knew the difference between an ARG player like me and a true veteran like him.

JackAlsworth wrote:

Sicon112 wrote:

BlackWolfe wrote:I'm still kind of reeling from the lack of reveal on Batman. GU17 was an actual player who actually managed to pull that many friends out of his utility belt?!

Tom already used Word Of God via Twitter to confirm that. XD

"Batman does not work for me" was one of my favorite Tom tweets during the game.

This, and the fact that it was in direct response to something I was saying in the chat at the time confirmed for me that the GMs were watching. I still had no idea that Tom was Greyscale though, until he came out.

We were as stunned by Batman's abilities as you guys were.

Haven't read too much yet, but the amount of hidden GMs we had certainly threw me for a loop.

Being all techy (even though not that much ), I like having learned the inner workings. The phone processing, the xovr scripts (even though you didn't tell me ), the hosting details. All that.

JackAlsworth wrote:

Sicon112 wrote:

BlackWolfe wrote:I'm still kind of reeling from the lack of reveal on Batman. GU17 was an actual player who actually managed to pull that many friends out of his utility belt?!

Tom already used Word Of God via Twitter to confirm that. XD

"Batman does not work for me" was one of my favorite Tom tweets during the game.

When I read that tweet, my first thought was that it could mean that Tom worked for Batman.

"This is why Superman works alone."

Most itneresting things I have learned from the post mortem

• Setting up a worldwide ARG is really, really difficult
• It's amazing how much people can get done on absolutely zero sleep
• Even Fanfiction can be utilised as a force of writing education AND a world saving method (which is actually just reaffirming preexisting suspicions, but it's nice to have them confirmed all the same)
• Puzzles are hard, but immersion is surprisingly easy.
• Being a GM requires not only a steely nerve and impeccable patience, but also the ability to adapt extremely rapidly to players doing crazy unexpected things that perhaps weren't entirely planned for.
• I can now properly prepare cookie dough which does not go goopy and spread everywhere in the oven (THANK YOU TO THE FOOD GUY!)

It sounds like you learned at least as much from this as I did.