Improvisation and flexibility

[Connor Fallon]

Lots of cool stuff got scrapped cause of implementation concerns. Additional crossers were usually foiled by the comic requirement.

Though, we should note, we were prepared to have any of the characters who challenged the wall cross if the stories had not been present, or somehow not up to scratch (like that would ever happen with this group.)

[JackAlsworth]

Lots of cool stuff got scrapped cause of implementation concerns. Additional crossers were usually foiled by the comic requirement.

Dammit, now I want to see an Angel comic that'll never exist.

[S_o_S]

You had to hit "20 points", an arbitrary marker of how much work you'd done to save Adell. 20 or more and he lived, less, and he died.

-A Cabal member in the fight was worth 2.
-A fic was worth 1.
-A song was worth 1 or 2, I'd have to dig up our notes.
-A wall piece collected was worth 3.

If you weren't going to make it, we weren't going to tell you the point total, but we would have told you that you needed to do more.

It was never close. The end total was absurdly higher, at least 3 or 4 times our goal. You not only turned Cthulhu, you clobbered him senseless.

I'm pretty sure at least half of this was Qara posting songs when she should've been studying <3

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

Of course one of the metaguards still had to die. And I think it would have been great to kill Adell.

*Sigh* Another day, perhaps.

*glares*

Well, I'd be angrier, but somehow I'm one of the strongest advocates for killing him off in the Christmas Carol, and I hate to be a hypocrite, so...

Anyway... *does mental math* Well, I only sent in 7 c!fics and 12 songs, so unless some of those songs were worth more than one point, I can't have singlehandedly saved Adell... *cries*

...Sincerity Mode is *hard* when I've been Archive Binging on the events of a day and a half for so long with no end in sight...

[Val Reznitskaya]

Anyway... *does mental math* Well, I only sent in 7 c!fics and 12 songs, so unless some of those songs were worth more than one point, I can't have singlehandedly saved Adell... *cries*

You're awesome, but I am somewhat scared right now...

[Dana]

If it helps, I believe we only counted the songs and the fics which met certain criteria

However, even then, you did much to help So did everyone! After a couple days, Adell was pretty much in the clear.

[JRPictures]

Regarding the whole the Sydney wall piece fiasco

How much of it was planned in advanced? Considering I am the only player of the ARG that could access it.

[Dana]

You were pretty much always supposed to be the one who got it. As soon as we realized we had one player there and that it was you, basically. We had planned on it being in Sydney for awhile.

[JRPictures]

You were pretty much always supposed to be the one who got it. As soon as we realized we had one player there and that it was you, basically. We had planned on it being in Sydney for awhile.

Well great to hear that really. Being the only person to be intended for a wall piece makes me feel warm and Fuzzy inside

That doesn't sound weird right...?

[Tom]

For the record, it is lucky coincidence that you lived where our Australian GM did. He could have been in Perth. Once we learned where you lived, we were like, thank God, someone will be able to get it!

[Bill Cohen]

I resent the use of the word 'fiasco' :p

Seriously though, the riddles were designed to force players out into the world, and they were conceived fairly early on in the game. The statue of the Reverend Doctor above Wynyard station was technically solvable online via photos...provided you could work out the 'holy healer' bit first (and I still have NO IDEA how GU17 nailed that). However, I turned the interwebs upside down looking for photos of the Sisters of Mercy plinth in Gore Hill Cemetery and came up blank, so I knew that part of the puzzle was only solvable by getting someone out to the cemetery to have a look around.

As for having a player in Sydney, I was delighted that we had someone who could visit the places and report back directly to the rest of the players. I was however pretty sure that if there were no players from Australia in the game (which was my initial expectation) then the player base would be able to crowd-source someone to head out to the physical locations, provided the stakes were high enough. Which they were - Exhibit A, Cthulhu.

[JRPictures]

I resent the use of the word 'fiasco' :p

Seriously though, the riddles were designed to force players out into the world, and they were conceived fairly early on in the game. The statue of the Reverend Doctor above Wynyard station was technically solvable online via photos...provided you could work out the 'holy healer' bit first (and I still have NO IDEA how GU17 nailed that). However, I turned the interwebs upside down looking for photos of the Sisters of Mercy plinth in Gore Hill Cemetery and came up blank, so I knew that part of the puzzle was only solvable by getting someone out to the cemetery to have a look around.

As for having a player in Sydney, I was delighted that we had someone who could visit the places and report back directly to the rest of the players. I was however pretty sure that if there were no players from Australia in the game (which was my initial expectation) then the player base would be able to crowd-source someone to head out to the physical locations, provided the stakes were high enough. Which they were - Exhibit A, Cthulhu.

Well I'm sorry for using that word...

Anyways I'm glad to hear how things worked out as they did.

[Dryunya]

Looks like you've already answered my question about the metaguard characters.
There is still one, though. Did you have anything similar in the works? Because there have been some theories that you would introduce us to the metaguards anyway. And if not, how do you think the unifying Grand Finale would look if I didn't come up with the idea (brag brag ^_^)?

[Tom]

Did you have anything similar to the metaguards the works? Because there have been some theories that you would introduce us to the metaguards anyway. And if not, how do you think the unifying Grand Finale would look if I didn't come up with the idea?

Nope. It was just a concept that we looked at and realized it fit perfectly in our world. It sounded fun, it would train skills that would be useful in the endgame (refics), and it didn't require us to bring in any new staff. It was a simple, elegant idea.

Without it, the endgame would have been shaped by other things you'd done. People keep asking "what if we'd done this?" and that's hard to know. All we have to answer that question with is our rough plans, outlines, and gut instincts. But what made so many of these plot developments work were hours-long meetings where ideas got pitched back and forth, stepped on, regurgitated, and toyed with until something workable and fun came out. We didn't have these sorts of meetings to discuss things that did not happen.

Something cool would have happened at the end, but it would have been different. Without playing the game differently, and forcing us to plot a different endgame, it's somewhat impossible for us to tell you what it would have been.

[Rick Healey]

Something cool would have happened at the end, but it would have been different. Without playing the game differently, and forcing us to plot a different endgame, it's somewhat impossible for us to tell you what it would have been.

Of course, this goes into one of my (no, not really) sequel ideas. At first, it appears that the game *is* starting all over again... until all the people involved realize what happened, and they all see that they're in a Groundhog Day Loop. The different parties all start gambitting against each other, some trying to cause things to happen as they did before, and some intentionally pretending like they will so that they can change the outcome of the game.

(For reasons why that actually wouldn't work, keep in mind that it'd involve us basically taking EVERYONE playing this game and turning them into at least confederates to the puppet masters, if not full-fledged puppet masters themselves, in order to fully present the illusion that the loop was happening again - and all that for no guarantee of a new audience. It'd basically be a theater troupe doing an improv play online rather than an ARG.)

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

It'd basically be a theater troupe doing an improv play online rather than an ARG.

Which, to be fair, would be hilarious fun, though admittedly somewhat impractical.

[Dryunya]

If you manage to bring a new batch of metaguards to the ARG, this scenario is actually pretty wicked! And, considering that the new metaguards would have to catch up on the old timeline to get an advantage, it's wicked in both ways.

[RotavatoR]

If you manage to bring a new batch of metaguards to the ARG, this scenario is actually pretty wicked! And, considering that the new metaguards would have to catch up on the old timeline to get an advantage, it's wicked in both ways.

Using the old Timeline as a device to solve the next ARG? I like :3

[Dryunya]

Hmm, that doesn't even have to be a sequel. Make up some ARG that didn't really happen, post a timeline, start a new ARG and nudge other players towards the old timeline, making it look like a Groundhog Day Loop.

[narrativedilettante]

Hmm, that doesn't even have to be a sequel. Make up some ARG that didn't really happen, post a timeline, start a new ARG and nudge other players towards the old timeline, making it look like a Groundhog Day Loop.

Oooh I like this idea!

[screenstorming]

Something cool would have happened at the end, but it would have been different. Without playing the game differently, and forcing us to plot a different endgame, it's somewhat impossible for us to tell you what it would have been.

Of course, this goes into one of my (no, not really) sequel ideas. At first, it appears that the game *is* starting all over again... until all the people involved realize what happened, and they all see that they're in a Groundhog Day Loop. The different parties all start gambitting against each other, some trying to cause things to happen as they did before, and some intentionally pretending like they will so that they can change the outcome of the game.

(For reasons why that actually wouldn't work, keep in mind that it'd involve us basically taking EVERYONE playing this game and turning them into at least confederates to the puppet masters, if not full-fledged puppet masters themselves, in order to fully present the illusion that the loop was happening again - and all that for no guarantee of a new audience. It'd basically be a theater troupe doing an improv play online rather than an ARG.)

I've been thinking about an ARG that would work like this, where the line between puppet masters and players blurred and overlapped. I think it could be done, if there were some rules established, and not everyone would be an equal puppet master, there would have to be some canon and so on. It would be not only improv play, but an Improv Reality Game.

It could work where to get PM-like leverage, you'd have to progress through some kind of obstacles, and even PMs could get demoted (with the exception of some core team that handles canon and meta-rules.)

Having the postmortem to build on could help everyone take a different approach to the meta, even bringing meta directly into in-game discussions while maintaining immersion, becausing PMing would be part of the story. Writing could remain a key part of the game, and there could even be a protocol for introducing new characters and storylines.

Finally, the game could have outputs that are marketed to the general public or a larger audience than the active player base. The best writing, comics, songs, or videos could have a pipeline to a published canon and purchasable merch. That really takes it in a new direction, but why not? Transmedia is all around us, and the original PMs could quit their day jobs and hire assistants so they can get some sleep.

[Krika]

Hmm, that doesn't even have to be a sequel. Make up some ARG that didn't really happen, post a timeline, start a new ARG and nudge other players towards the old timeline, making it look like a Groundhog Day Loop.

You know, something like this would be pretty cool to actually try and do. At the very worst, it would just be a multimedia RP that we'd all play in. I'm imagining that the overlying scenario is plausible enough that people could get confused on the matter of whether or not it's real or not, but they'd eventually figure it out.

Three overall groups of PMs (at least at first): one group each playing/managing both sides (two is probably a good place to stick to, though three is plausible I suppose), and a third managing the overall view. Some sort of ongoing Templar/Illuminati war (or whatever groups work) that people get involved in without quite realizing that it's an ARG (perhaps recruitment could be at least partially under the guise of an RP or something).

I dunno. It's a cool idea.

[Dryunya]

The ultimate mindfuck is recruiting every player manually and giving him some goal, only to reveal at the end that no one was special, and everyone was manipulated.
That would require a lot of secrecy and perfect Masquerade on the players' part. So I don't think it's possible.

[screenstorming]

Three overall groups of PMs (at least at first): one group each playing/managing both sides (two is probably a good place to stick to, though three is plausible I suppose), and a third managing the overall view. Some sort of ongoing Templar/Illuminati war (or whatever groups work) that people get involved in without quite realizing that it's an ARG (perhaps recruitment could be at least partially under the guise of an RP or something).

That makes me think of the prospect of an ARG where the PMs are actually part of different factions, and their gambits to control the game are part of what the other players see or discover through various means. Perhaps the game could even be linked to a real-life value, like a vault of gold bricks (or some kind of "promotional consideration" provided by sponsors) that players can try to unlock through their participation.

I'm kind of wary of making artificial Templer/Illuminati sides like Ingress. That makes it more like a game, and less like a story. In a networked world, the lines between groups are often blurred anyway, and people have mixed allegiances to them. Having people just sign up for one side just strikes me as not the best way to make a strong narrative drive. Maybe PMs or participants could create their own groups, but people could have overlapping membership, or levels of membership. Something more organic to the storyline and participants than an us vs. them game.

The ultimate mindfuck is recruiting every player manually and giving him some goal, only to reveal at the end that no one was special, and everyone was manipulated.
That would require a lot of secrecy and perfect Masquerade on the players' part. So I don't think it's possible.

Hah, that makes me think of 419 scams, Ponzi schemes, and the like. Or Enron!

...not to mention, school... which *RGs could augment or replace.

[Rick Healey]

While I think (for the named reasons) that none of these are plausible to actually run as an ARG, I bet someone could write a really neat novel in which something like this happens.

And then you make an ARG to promote it.