unforum

[jbd]

[James Lyon]

There's a simple system to the point in case anyone hasn't noticed:

For every 4 cards the number of points goes up by 1 so cards 1-4 give 1 point, cards 5-8 give 2 points and so on...

Solving all four cards in a set gives 4x the points of one card in a set (i.e. the sum of all four cards). Whether this means you get double the points (once for solving all the cards and once for solving some kind of connected puzzle) or just get them the once remains to be seen.

[rose]

[erekose]

perhaps the points will have a dual purpose. One will be to establish a leaderboard to show who has soved/bought the most cards. On the other hand there could be a collective points system, like exp in RPGs. and by collectively obtaining large amounts of these points we uncover new information about PPC and the cubes whereabouts. In this case everyone will be able to contribute in a collective manner, as the more people we have buying and solving cards (even in small amounts) the more chance we have to find websites and solve puzzles on them (perhaps leading to opportunities to obtain rare cards for free?). Anyway, sente said this is just the begining, maybe their will be other ways to accumulate points. We just dont know enough about how this point system will be implemented.

[Centipede]

[Boboj28]

Just a thought form a newcomer

1.You can choose to spend money on the cards, solve them by yourself or by help from the forum (I had no prob. with card 219 but was completly lost on card 138 and would therefor turn to the help of the forum).
The first to "check in" the correct awnser/clue gets the points, but the clue is published for all to see. You get your name on the leaderboard = you "boost your ego" and can maybe use the points to buy hints.

2.You don't spend any money on cards but gather clues from all info including the solved and published cards. Again this can be done flying solo or by the help of the forum.

So as I see it you can either choose to spend time solving cards and thereby get the needed info or you can gather clues and info the "traditional" way. both ways leeding to the location of the cube.

By this I don't mean that the game is split in two "fractions" of "Card-players" and "Info-seekers" but only that there are different ways to solve the riddle, free of choice.

Boboj28

P.S. Has anyone thought of wether the cards will the same in all the 9 shops?

[GuyP]

Interesting points.

I'm positive that all the cards will be available from all the stores. Most people aren't gonna want the hassle of having to ship internationally to get the cards they need.

[nichtwahr]

Maybe you'll be able to trade points in for certain in-game things... like, say, subscriptions to the Sentinel. That'll help set apart the gotta-have-points!ers from the serious ARGers.

[Leeravitz]

To throw my hat into the ring on this one:

Seems to me that if some of these puzzles are as specialist as they have proven so far (requiring cipher - breaking expertise, the ability to translate translate another language etc.), then people will surely end up in a situation where they'll have to be reliant on other helping them to solve problems, utilising skills that they don't have. A guy who is brilliant at mathematics doesn't necessarily know his way around ancient Etruscan, if you see what I'm saying. The card playing system seems a bit peculiar to me, inasmuch as a) either the actual cards are going to have be easier to solve than some of the prototypes were or b) to solve the riddle of the cube single - handedly, you'll need to be pretty polymathic...and single - handedly determined to complete your card set whatever the cost...

Unless, of course, they're hoping that the game will go on open - endedly for...well...years and years and years...

Evidently, one idea is a la Magic, Pokemon (blah, blah...), you end up trading cards...and, in that sense, 'trading' them on - line seems perfectly respectable to me...but, yeah, copyright might get tricky if the guys at Mind Candy start feeling we're fleecing them (after all, they have to make a living, too, right...and are potentially giving a lot of money away here!!)...

Still, I hope as well that there's going to be more to the game than just card trading...so far, there have been site - specific events, phone messages, e - mails, texts, hidden websites etc. etc. - typical ARG, in other words...and this site says it all, really...everyone's clearly devoted to giving over many hours to solving the riddle, without worrying too much about what the end result might be for them...and that seems right to me...but maybe the lure of the profit venture can only be avoided for so long...(sigh!)

[ER123456]

Some further thoughts on buying or not buying cards.

There is a substantial prize offered, so enough cards need to be solved to pay the prize, developers, distributors and some profit. So they need to sell perhaps 200,000 sets of cards.

There are less that 10,000 registered users, so maybe there will be 10,000 to 20,000 players. I would expect that we will need to buy sealed sets of cards, with the critical cards not released till near the end. So it will not be possible for every player to get a complete set. The only thing of significance will be that they all must be sold.

So we need to expect to buy 10 to 20 sets each.

I don't think it will matter either how we solve the puzzles. the evidence is that the answers will not be clear, and we will get points for selecting the right answer.

However I doubt that that will be the end of the game. Once all the cards are released, we will then have a complete map and lots of other data. So the game will end with some puzzles that can only be started when we have finished the cards.

So in order to get there we need to buy lots of cards and share all the solutions.

[POTUS]

Everyone who's planning on buying a TV should buy a whole set of cards and spend their free time trying to figure out the puzzles. They would likely save money, and they would certainly be smarter in the end.

I plan on buyin packs like I bought football cards when I was a kid. I think everyone who has a Group333 set should buy ten packs. (Except Hannah because she had to pay. She should get some for free!

There will be shoeboxes and doubles, triples, rare. We'll trade and re-sell. eBay, flea markets, etc. etc. What good is a few cards to solve puzzles if you don't have the asset in your collection?

Unlike sports cards, these are more than just random facts about some rich guy - these are assets that will puzzle the next person and the person after that. They have value that does not neccesarily amortize - their value will likely increase.

I suggest you get as many as you can or look foolish later on!

[Leeravitz]

Again, bit of an obvious point, I suppose (not much doing in these hiatus periods is there?), but I note that the 'Futures' section of the Sentinel appears to be having fun with the current set - up. Or, is that reference to laying 'cards on the table' *just* coincidence?

[JebJoya]

Meh, my opinion, I'm gonna get a few cards from firebox and post them here when I get them, then try to solve them myself for a day or so, put my soln's up for points then on the board, then start looking around for others (here i mean)

They just look like a bit of fun to me...

Jeb

[buff]

I see the cards from two different perspectives;

1) As an entertaining way of spending time, just as any other way of spending free time. I mean, puzzle-solving is really entertaining and since nothing is free in this world (let's hope for the next one I don't mind paying for something which entertains me.

2) As a very creative way of tying in revenue to an ARG - and the idea is worth supporting from this fact alone.

Regarding clues, cube-searching and so forth - that isn't and won't be an issue until I can actually see the real cards and make up my mind about it then...I mean, we don't really know anything about the "real" cards just yet - do we??

[Mikeyj]

I see the cards as an added puzzle bonus. The Sentinel, the two blogs...etc are entirely superfluous if you are going to make the cards the route into finding the cube. The main events are going to be running alongside, and probably going to take a while, if we're needing cards as entertainment in the meantime (they're going to take a while to get the prize money together from card sales anyway!).