[ASimulacraOfAlex]

xomunkixo wrote:

No kidding, I'd volunteer myself in a heartbeat. If I ever win the lottery, I shall give one million of those dollars to you, Brian Bricker. In return, you must create the greatest ARG ever made.

Seconded and thirded.

I'd also like to thank Classi, Schwinn, Rysuto and Wulf, and ESPECIALLY you, Brian Bricker, in particular for making me feel welcome even though i joined somewhere around the 95th page, just in time for the very end. It was an incredible experience for me, and I had a lot of fun with the (little) i had time to contribute.

Sooo...when can i buy a copy of your book?

[xomunkixo]

No kidding, I'd volunteer myself in a heartbeat.

If I ever win the lottery, I shall give one million of those dollars to you, Brian Bricker. In return, you must create the greatest ARG ever made.

[Wulf74]

<snip>

Kelvinator wrote:

But now, if you gave a guy like me a team of people and a million dollars - holy cow what a FUN ride it would be! Forget about the movie tie-ins or the social conscience! Maybe it's time that somebody tried the 'Majestic' game model again...but just gave much more content than expected rather than less!

<snip>

Majestic was one of the coolest things ever, gotta say it. And I was sorry to see it end, much like I'm Sorry.
But hey - let me be the first to volunteer my help if you get that big budget, or hell - need someone to stick up a poster in SLC for old times sake..

[Kelvinator]

Wulf74 wrote:

So how much of the story did we miss with Beryl Stain? That aspect really intrigued me at first, mob/mafia etc. There seemed to be a lot more behind that that what we discovered. Rage was obviously involved with them on several occasions, the hint written on the cover of the book "This is bigger than Stain" and so forth.

It was pretty extensive, but (and this is where the one guy on limited resources becomes a hinderance) I simply couldn't produce enough content to drive the whole mafia story as well. I had originally intended to have some news stories and searchable stuff for Stain but just wasn't able to get it done in time to be believable.

classical wrote:

Ooh, did that manuscript bit have anything to do with the Sol magic square thing? That also kinda puttered out and we never really saw the end to that. Or figured out what it was supposed to mean.

Actually, I wanted to put a time frame on the game and to add a bit of time pressure for those playing - and in looking at the calendar I saw that 9/9/9 was coming up at the end of the summer and between The One and Arlen "Grim Reaper" Rage, 666 just fit so well. Sooo...the Watchers were using the Tarot cards and the Sol square to slyly let you all know about the time limit - without alerting the CIA. The short answer is that you guys figured out the Sol square puzzle...you just didn't realize it.

ASimulacraOfAlex wrote:

Well i finally have internet and WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE OVER?

I'm sorry.

3v1L Schwinn wrote:

Also the Fastgate story lines. Secret mysterious meetings in smokey rooms. Politicians controlling the fate of the world by using the Oracle. Hell that could be an ARG all into it self. Maybe it could run during the same timeline as "I'm Sorry".

It's funny, I wrote the Burton Fastgate storyline before Obama even appeared on the national scene - right down to the Chicago connection and the old communist professor. It was bizarre to say the least. If you notice, I was slowly pulling the Fastgate story into I'm Sorry and then just dropped it. On one hand I was trying to triage my time and resources and on the other I became concerned that I'm Sorry would become politicized, which - on top of all of the other drama - may have driven away some of those still playing.

Quote:

You actually showed that one person on a limited budget could do with superb writting and story-telling what entire companies with expansive resourses try to do.

What? Poop on the unfiction community? Sorry - I just had to say that. This compliment means a lot to me and really underlines my feeling about ARGs. They are an entertainment that is designed to be experienced like no other form of entertainment in the world. And most of the big mARGketing companies create two-dimensional characters and puzzles for the sake of puzzles to promote some movie or to encourage goofy environmental activism. But now, if you gave a guy like me a team of people and a million dollars - holy cow what a FUN ride it would be! Forget about the movie tie-ins or the social conscience!

Maybe it's time that somebody tried the 'Majestic' game model again...but just gave much more content than expected rather than less!

Quote:

Are you dissapointed that there wasn't a larger group of players actively participating?

Yes and no. Yes because my goal was to entertain people...and no because I would not have been able to offer the depth of experience to 40 people as I was for 5 or 10.

Just know that I promised myself from the outset that even if only one person followed I'm Sorry, I'd still give it 110%. (I'm hoping to inspire those game runners who are tempted to quit if they don't get a big following. If it's truly about the story and characters, then you can't ever quit.) /soapbox

[3v1L Schwinn]

Wulf74 wrote:

So how much of the story did we miss with Beryl Stain? That aspect really intrigued me at first, mob/mafia etc. There seemed to be a lot more behind that that what we discovered. Rage was obviously involved with them on several occasions, the hint written on the cover of the book "This is bigger than Stain" and so forth. lol I really hate that this is over. It was very involving and...... personal? I really don't want to let it go - and frankly I haven't even really looked at any ongoing new ARG's.. I feel like there is too much of the story that we didn't get .. I just feel like this is unfinished and it's driving me nuts. Everyone has expressed their appreciation of your work and I can't add anything else to it. You did and awesome job and sincerely hope that you consider creating more realities.

Also the Fastgate story lines. Secret mysterious meetings in smokey rooms. Politicians controlling the fate of the world by using the Oracle. Hell that could be an ARG all into it self. Maybe it could run during the same timeline as "I'm Sorry".

OK. Sorry. I'll stop...

Just like Wulf said I too feel like there is too much of the story that we didn't get . Not that You didn't do a great job, because what you did was awesome. You actually showed that one person on a limited budget could do with superb writting and story-telling what entire companies with expansive resourses try to do.

Are you dissapointed that there wasn't a larger group of players actively participating? I mean there were a lot of lurkers, that we know. Some people came and went, but few times it felt like it was just me, Wulf, Classi, and Munki. I dont mean to say that we were the only ones who played. Each and evey name listed on www.1407oakhurst.info definatly deserves to be there. But thats how it felt.

[ASimulacraOfAlex]

Well i finally have internet and WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE OVER?

[classical]

Ooh, did that manuscript bit have anything to do with the Sol magic square thing? That also kinda puttered out and we never really saw the end to that. Or figured out what it was supposed to mean.

Wulf74 wrote:

lol I really hate that this is over. It was very involving and...... personal? I really don't want to let it go - and frankly I haven't even really looked at any ongoing new ARG's.. I feel like there is too much of the story that we didn't get .. I just feel like this is unfinished and it's driving me nuts.

Haha, exactly how I feel. Though I'm not looking at new ARGs at all for another reason... keeping myself busy with a project related to this game. I'm now crawling through the thread and making copies of some things--I keep coming back to those loose ends, some of which are tying up now with the information that we know now and didn't know back then.

Like that Alcatraz image--in conjunction with "The Walrus and the Carpenter"--it is just so obvious to me now and I'm kinda kicking myself for not figuring that out then.

[Wulf74]

So how much of the story did we miss with Beryl Stain? That aspect really intrigued me at first, mob/mafia etc. There seemed to be a lot more behind that that what we discovered. Rage was obviously involved with them on several occasions, the hint written on the cover of the book "This is bigger than Stain" and so forth.

lol I really hate that this is over. It was very involving and...... personal? I really don't want to let it go - and frankly I haven't even really looked at any ongoing new ARG's.. I feel like there is too much of the story that we didn't get .. I just feel like this is unfinished and it's driving me nuts.

Everyone has expressed their appreciation of your work and I can't add anything else to it. You did and awesome job and sincerely hope that you consider creating more realities.

[Kelvinator]

classical wrote:

I'm absolutely serious when I say that my appreciation for your work has just increased tenfold.

Thank you...sincerely!

[classical]

What!

WHAT!

Seriously!?

You fooled me. You not only rolled with this mistake, but you made it work. And work so well. The discovery of those temp files was timed so exactly to what we were playing out in game... it was as if it was meant all along. Even down to the way that the last manuscript ended:

Quote:

"I'm sorry," He said. "You probably didn't want to hear all this." "This is exactly what I wanted to hear," She said very gently. "Go on." This girl was dangerous. And she had absolutely no idea. "So I shut up and crossed my arms and they showed the next film. It was this extreme close-up of a flower. A yellow dandelion. It just sat, bobbing in the wind for like three minutes…and as I was starting to nod off, the camera pulled back violently to reveal just acres and acres of identical dandelions. There were gasps from the class and a standing ovation. A standing ovation." "I just grabbed my book bag and walked out of class.

Just... reading that. All of that, and getting there. The blank page remains, the speech stops halfway, and the cursor sits there, blinking... it kills me, every time.

It's as if the writer had been stopped in mid-thought. It was the perfect way to end it for this game. Felt like an incredibly conscious decision, too. Never would've guessed my favorite piece of the manuscript was just when Word happened to auto-save the file.

Not that it makes it all any less elegant for me; I'm absolutely serious when I say that my appreciation for your work has just increased tenfold.

[Wulf74]

[Kelvinator]

[classical]

Kelvinator wrote:

Bravo, Classical! Although you were one generation off, I'll still give it to you. My family decided to confuse you by having two William Brickers...my father and grandfather. Treg was actually my great grandfather.

Ah! Well that is confusing. :B I knew your mother was married to a William, so I just ran with that.

Also:

[Kelvinator]

classical wrote:

Uncle Feezel's your grandfather, isn't he?

Bravo, Classical! Although you were one generation off, I'll still give it to you. My family decided to confuse you by having two William Brickers...my father and grandfather. Treg was actually my great grandfather.

You win. I'm heading into a meeting right now, but when I get back to the computer I'll post the dumb mistake that I made in I'm Sorry that actually made the game more interesting for all of us.

[classical]

Kelvinator wrote:

As some after-the-fact-fun, if you guys are successfully able to discover how One For The Brood... Will Lead You To the One Who Did All Of This - then I will disclose the little error that completely changed the face of this game. It's some fun trivia!

Weeelll... I did find this.

from the image description wrote:

Treg Bricker, Daisy's brother. AKA Uncle Feezle. He played guitar and fiddle with Bill Monroe and the Virginia Mountain Aires.

"Uncle Feezel", which was the attached image on that post, is actually a guy named Tregoning, who was a brother of the Daisy this page is about. According to this page, Treg was put into an orphanage at a young age and adopted... by a "Dr. Bricker and family".

Quote:

About the "Uncle Feezel" photo...Shirley Coleman MacKinnon informs me that Treg played both guitar and fiddle in the Country Western style (so did another of Daisy's brothers, George). Apparently, Treg and family came down for a weekend from St. Louis and they all got together. A kind of family reunion was held in Carbondale almost every summer. They would have "hoedown" in the yard. Treg played (for how long I don't know) with Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys "around Depression time." Treg also played on KMOX radio as Uncle Feezel. He also was close friends with a Roy Queen band (from south St. Louis)

Quote:

The next series of photographs begins Lee Hubert Hill's (Hubert hereafter) relationship with Daisy Hogue. Daisy was Hubert's first wife; as far as I know, he was her first husband. They were married on Christmas day, 1920, in Cairo, Illinois, Alexander County. It was a double ceremony; Daisy's brother Tregoning and his wife Edith Bricker were married with them. I know next to nothing about Hubert's second marriage to Nell (Lastname); according to his daughter, Sue Casper, Hubert's daughter with his second wife, died at birth or shortly thereafter, and so did the marriage. I found the grave marker for their daughter, born and died in August 1940, at Oakland Cemetery in Carbondale Illinois. I don't know yet where the second marriage took place. Hubert had a sister, Dessie Mae, who married a man named McCleod, and he had a younger brother, Herbert Lee, who died as a youth. The first photo of Hubert and Daisy bicycling shows them fitting together quite well on a bicycle built for two. The other couple could be Treg and Edith. The four were married in a double wedding. The Bricker's firstborn son was William, about the same age as Lee H. Hill Jr. Lee Hill Jr. and Bill Bricker both went on to serve in the navy.

William Bricker. The same William Bricker who married a woman named Diana C Madden, yes?

Uncle Feezel's your grandfather, isn't he?