Orbital Colony: Meta/Questions-Responses

Orbital Colony asteroid just flew by

Rogi Ocnorb@forums.unfiction.com — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 07:33:34 +0000

I really miss the rush games gave you back then when you could contribute and have fun for fun's sake and the developers cared about their players and not just a handful of fickle, mostly clueless, bloggers.

I check-in and scan the forum traffic every few months and try to keep up with the movie guessing thread, but nothing even looks interesting, anymore.
I tell myself, it's just because I don't have the time to play that I once did, but I think I'm being less than honest about that.
Maybe everyone's found something better than ARGs to do and, as with all the trailheads missed, I wasn't invited.

Oh well, there are still some good memories. Even the hundreds of puzzles I did for games that never launched evoke nostalgia.
Orbital Colony was a class act.

Orbital Colony asteroid just flew by

Rogi Ocnorb@forums.unfiction.com — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 15:49:42 +0000

This was the asteroid we used in Orbital Colony, Toutatis 4179. It looks like Igor Bronco missed his chance to snag it this year. :D

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/17/huge-asteroid-on-video-toutatis_n_2316699.html

Space-elevator tether climbs a mile high

Slyfox@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 20:13:49 +0000

A nice little news article about liftport

http://www.newscientistspace.com/article.ns?id=dn8725

PM Forums are open!

Ehsan@forums.unfiction.com — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 09:01:51 +0000

:worship:

Thank you, really.

PM Forums are open!

Ehsan@forums.unfiction.com — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 06:07:22 +0000

The OC PM forums are open!

We're still "sanitizing" threads and moving them into the public forums, so there's only a portion of the information available now. We wanted to open up at least part of the forums and announce it now...before we get archived :P

Request for player feedback from the PMs

tom_in_bristol@forums.unfiction.com — Sat, 04 Feb 2006 00:03:54 +0000

My point of view couldn't be more positive. This was my first ARG and I loved it from when I joined (lucky 7s) onwards. Every player I spoke to went out of their way to be helpful, and the puzzles were all a real team effort (although certain people were vital in their perserverance and technical skills LOL). My only disappointment is that the ARG I have begun since OC hasn't been so well planned or fast-moving.

The idea of having the players helping Seth yet with the clues coming from an independent source (Steven) worked absolutely perfectly, although Seth did become increasingly redundant throughout the game. The fact that we could interact with IG characters (Seth, Davi, *Raidar* etc...) only increased the sense of inclusiveness.

The four caches were a fantastic touch which I realise might not have been so easy to arrange, especially over three continents! We were however a bit baffled by the difference in levels of detail of the clues in each of the cases - the US ones were specific, the others less so. Perhaps this is an indication of how much some of us (i.e. me) had to wise up when looking for them.

The only down side (fairly trivial i know) might have been typos in the ribbons, FLYHGGH, and a couple of others but they never distracted us from the solves. I also have to admire the patience of the PMs during certain drawn-out, torturous solves which went ond for FAR too long :-)

I do agree with the post above when it mentions about the wasilei station site, it would have been great if it updated during the game, but I recognise the effort that went in to it initialy to make it actually very genuine!

Bring on OC2... you would honestly get serious donations if you fancied it... ;-)

Tom
8)

Request for player feedback from the PMs

tom_in_bristol@forums.unfiction.com — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 15:03:55 +0000

I was looking forward to Orbital Colony for a long time, but in the end I didn't participate much. The simple reason for this is that the bulk of the action occurred during the wrong part of the year for me.

I intended to catch up and join in but I had some computer issues.

I tend to be biased towards puzzles anyway, but I particularly liked repairshops.gif and contact.wav because there is something to be learned from doing them. I regret that I couldn't help solve them when they were released.

The -worldwide- caches added a lot of excitement. It was fun to find out about the cache in Australia.

Well, I'd like to have seen more of the game itself. I'd definitely be interested in playing anything else that the team works on. :)

Based on what I saw of Orbital Colony, well done to the PMs. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to participate as I had hoped and as the game deserved.

Request for player feedback from the PMs

tom_in_bristol@forums.unfiction.com — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 12:56:56 +0000

Hi! First, compliments on a game well done!
Since you asked for feedback from drop-out players, here's my 2cts.

I started out on the game but had to drop out out of necessity (moved to another country, which left me with little time and no internet for quite a while). A pity, since I had been waiting for the game to begin for a while (I even got a brochure in the mail -- thanks for taking the trouble of sending it all the way to Belgium!). After that I never really got back into the game, though, for a number of reasons. Mostly through laziness on my part, for there was a lot to read up on, but also because of some external reasons:

- What attracted me initially to OC was the SciFi aspect, which seemed to become less and less important.
- Some of the content and websites seemed to distract me from the plot, as there did not seem to be a whole lot of 'point' to some of them. I realise they functioned as back story, but I found it a little bit disappointing that there was not more 'happening' to them, if you know what I mean: it seemed a waste not to use them (http://www.wasileistation.com/ would be an example). I get the feeling that all of you had much more content lined up for this game that you had to cut out for the sake of flow?
- The endgame came as a total surprise for me, and I am sorry I missed it. Looking back it was an exemplary endgame in which everything came together: the use of different tools of communication (sound, IRC, websites and live puzzles), yet all subject to and warranted by the main story line. But from a narrative point of view, I would have preferred a bit more of a narrative arc, a build-up that prepared the players for the transition from finding the hidden caches and ribbons to the climax of the final confrontation. Perhaps it is just me, but it seemed somewhat rushed (or perhaps it was just that I was sort of getting into the game again, and then you guys ended it like that! Shucks!).

On the other hand, this is my top 3 of things I liked :-)

- the pre-game, the contest and sign-up and earlier the e-bay teasers.
- the character Stevie and the player interactions with her, perhaps the strongest point of the entire game, especially in combination with Seth and:
- Raidar and the SAIpets: a wonderful solution to the problem that a young protagonist such as Stevie poses in relation to the story and its technological backdrop.

And runners-up: the caches, the trailer, and the repairshops.gif puzzle (!!).

Hope this helps. FWIW, please bear in mind that these criticisms come from someone who lurked throughout most of the game after it began, and who may have missed or failed to pick up on a lot of stuff.
All in all I think you have done a wonderful job and I hope you will do another ARG soon.

Request for player feedback from the PMs

tom_in_bristol@forums.unfiction.com — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 13:19:06 +0000

[OC] Postgame PM Chat

MageSteff@forums.unfiction.com — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 14:09:10 +0000

Little or no experience?

Surely, you're joking!

It wad so good, I figured y'all were like.. super experienced!

Um...no. That is correct. We all had either no experience or really limited experience when we started... Come to the PM chat and find out how we looked so experienced!

Seth Adams cases

Puck90@forums.unfiction.com — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 05:11:21 +0000

Any ideas on the two mystery ones?

Maybe they are future ARGS......

Seth Adams cases

Puck90@forums.unfiction.com — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 04:26:59 +0000

Wow.. I would never have foudn that. I dont knwo enough abotu old ARGs.

Seth Adams cases

Puck90@forums.unfiction.com — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 04:11:52 +0000

So grumpy and I were in #orbital, when he pointed out that the previous cases in Seth's file were probably references to other ARGs. And sure 'nuff, they seem to be.

If you look at MA51920 (that's Steven's case number), you get (using A=1, B=2, C=3), MA51920 = MA(5)(19)(20) = MAEST = MAE ST[even]. That's Steven Mae. So here's what he and I pieced together:

SP18174: SPRAGue, Dale (from Chasing The Wish)
WO14713 : WONGMo (from Metacortechs)
RE24921: ???? (maybe REXIU or REXIBA)
BL19145: BLAINE, david (from Mysterious Stranger)
TE65785: ???? (maybe TEFEGHE)
OM13208: OMM THx-1138 (from SubCity Central)
SL55169: SLEEPIng princess (from I Love Bees)
ST59149: STEINItz, dagobert (from Sacred Urns)
MA51920: MAE STeven (from OC...duh)

Any ideas on the two mystery ones?

[OC] Postgame PM Chat

MageSteff@forums.unfiction.com — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 03:37:12 +0000

Little or no experience?

Surely, you're joking!

It wad so good, I figured y'all were like.. super experienced!

[OC] Postgame PM Chat

MageSteff@forums.unfiction.com — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 03:10:18 +0000

(cross-posted from here )

Orbital Colony Postgame PM Chat will be held this Saturday, Jan. 28th @ 7pm EST (GMT -5) in the #inquiringminds channel on ChatSol. Sorry for the delay after endgame, we have PMs literally all over the planet, in no less than 6 timezones :shock: so coordinating is a bit tough.

Since Orbital Colony started out as a training ARG, I would definitely encourage everyone to attend, even if you didn't play the game, and especially if you are an aspiring PuppetMaster. Pretty much everyone on the team started out with little or no PM or BTS experience, and we learned a lot along the way. We would love to share our experiences with you, and answer any questions you might have. /me lights candle and sings hippie songs

See you there! :D

** Unstickied -- jamesi