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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » ARG: Sable & Shuck
[POST MORTEM] Constructive critique - Go!
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GuyP
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Joined: 15 Sep 2004
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Location: London, UK

 		[POST MORTEM] Constructive critique - Go!
I started, so I'll try and finish (if it's finished, that is) even though I've won diddly squat!

Grassroots games are made by players of ARGs - experts in the medium, but sometimes lacking the necessary skills, time and money to produce a successful game. This corporate game was very much the other way around - the talent was clearly there, but there was very much a sense that the PM's were desperately trying (and not always succeeding) at finding their feet in the world of ARGs. In fact, I still have my suspicions that seeing UF in their referral logs may have been the genesis of the later "game".

One of the interesting aspects of ARG-like promotions is our reaction to the "semi-ARG". It wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that while we love our fully-fledged games, we'd still appreciate promotions that tentatively embrace the genre. In actual fact, this game has shown that half-hearted attempts actually seem to generate a negative reaction from players - i.e, the attitude towards the brand is actually damaged.

As a result, I'm starting this thread for players to offer constructive feedback on the game. What you liked, what didn't work, and why it didn't work. Hopefully it will prove useful reading for the S&S PM's if they plan future projects in this arena, and also for other agencies trying to learn from previous experiences.

Personally, I thought much of what was there was exceedingly well done. There was some beautiful design (The Hiding Room in particular being outstanding) and I also really liked the thematic elements - the combination of 21st century modernity with ancient symbology was clever and witty. There was little to fault with the writing. The overall style was a touch homogenous, but that was explained away adequately (on account of all the sites being owned by S&S and designed by Marlowe) and Jon's pages differed believably from the 'conglomerate' sites.

Yet, the linear format of the narrative cost the game dearly. We had our suspicions from the very beginning about Brigid, which we progressively became more certain of, and yet we had no option but to tell her Jon's location in order to move the game forward. As a result, we lacked sufficient agency as players and in the later stages of the game, there was a real sense of futility.

The pacing was, by unanimous decision, far too slow. I have no idea how this came to pass (rigidly sticking to a preordained schedule? development delays?) but there was certainly no intention to try and meet the players' expectations.

For my own personal tastes, the puzzles seemed a little bizzare - when a player worked out Jon's location, for instance, I didn't get that "Ah, I see how they worked that out!" satisfaction. And, while I appreciate the value of the odd red-herring, there were too many instances where it was difficult to tell if the PM's were trying to be cute and cryptic or genuinely meaningful. The Day8 webcam pic, for instance...

I think there was a point where players lost their trust in the enterprise. Trust, of course, is the difference between "Nothing's happening, we must have missed something! Let's go over it again!" and "Nothing's happening... this is rubbish."

(I can't be 100% sure, but I have a feeling with that with the sites as they currently stand, it might still be possible to still play the game from start to finish. As such, is the S&S adventure really more like a puzzle trail - one that we played as it was being developed, but actually intended to be played start to finish once all the pieces were in place?)

I'm one of those players who often reflects on developments in the game by trying to measure the designers' intentions. As such, I found this campaign completely bizzare in places. I know £10,946 probably isn't very much money compared to the cost of buying TV spots, sponsoring films and the like, but the fact that there was no promotion of the prize itself outside the game struck me as madness. Making players jump through so many hoops to access the final puzzle seemed counterintuitive to the principles of viral marketing - I even had to make a guide to how to access it, so it was hardly the kind of puzzle I could send to my friends!

I can only wonder how the folks at Draft/Lowe/Stella percieved this promotion, and what goals they had for it. Was it important to their overall marketing strategy? Did our opinions ever matter? Is there a sense of frustration at our griping in the face of fancy 3D Flash and a big cash prize? Did they give up on this months ago and are now just quietly getting the work experience kid to pick the closest answer? To me, the circumstances surrounding the game were as bizzare as the game itself...

To conclude then, it's hard to deny that this game showed, at times, a great deal of promise. Alas, the community perception of the PM's seems to be "no-one likes us, we don't care." Our views on the game appeared to be insignificant in the eyes of its creators... which would be understandable, is there was any evidence that anyone else was playing! Unlike other forms of marketing, ARGs are about giving the consumer a feeling of power, agency, and ability - and by ignoring our concerns, the PM's created quite the opposite feeling. It's anger at that, I think, that has led to such a high complaint count.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2005 9:18 pm
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Stormalong
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Joined: 09 Oct 2003
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 		I think the fact that this ARG was also a contest wherein they were giving away a reasonable sum of money really limited the ways that they could react to the players. I'd bet that the whole storyline and progression had to be laid out in advance, and adhered to strictly, since it presumably had to be approved by the people who write the cheques.

I imagine this would be the case for any ARG which has a prize and 1 winner (PXC concerns me greatly in this regard). You really need to make it as fair as possible, and changed things in the middle of the gaming could screw up (unintentionally) your carefully laid plans.
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2005 11:09 pm
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Bidvision
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 		I still feel that the storyline itself is bizarrely ambiguous.

Brigid asks us to help her find Jon. Jon is our friend, we like Jon.

Brigid looks like she might be a baddie. So we don't like Brigid. But we still have to help her to find Jon.

Brigid finds Jon and everything goes quiet.

The game maeks a right-angle turn, and is no longer about finding Jon, but about getting a S&S contract in order to get the prize money.

The last part seems a bit crowbarred in for my liking. Why are we trying to get an S&S contract when we know that it means we will spend eternity in Hell? Are we supposed to be idiots or something?

The game stopped making sense after Jon was found. At around the same time interaction between us and the game characters stopped.

For me, it all stinks of an unfinished piece of work.


In other news, I've just bought 24 cans of Carlsberg.

PostPosted: Fri Jul 01, 2005 10:15 am
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lotusflower
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Joined: 21 Mar 2005
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Bidvision wrote:
In other news, I've just bought 24 cans of Carlsberg.


You know, I was only joking when I used to say I wasn't going to buy Stella anymore if this didn't pick up speed. But I genuinely have been buying other beers this last month. I just get a sour taste in my mouth when I see a stella pump now.
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 01, 2005 5:01 pm
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lepidopteran
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 		I personally think Stella should have hired someone to update their Game other than the person who updates the Unfiction main page.

PostPosted: Sun Jul 03, 2005 2:27 am
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GuyP
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Joined: 15 Sep 2004
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Location: London, UK
lepidopteran wrote:
I personally think Stella should have hired someone to update their Game other than the person who updates the Unfiction main page.


Huh?

PostPosted: Sun Jul 03, 2005 3:26 am
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dashcat
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 		I pretty much agree with Stormalong. One of the nicest things about Args that don't involve a prize is the feeling that the PMs are watching us and adjusting the ambiguous or downright impossible parts of their story line and/or puzzles if the players bog down. In this case, they're giving away 10k in pounds so of course they aren't going to help us.

I wasn't that impressed with any of the sites but I might be jaded. The Hiding Room was pretty cool. It reminded me of the PC adventure games I love to play but the false hot spots were just a form of torture. I suspect that the 10k was never meant to be claimed, or if it was, then only by an extraordinary puzzle solver, or a maniac. Actually at this time we don't know if someone solved it. Maybe some extraordinary puzzle solving maniac has claimed the prize.

Since I don't live in the UK I couldn't claim a prize but I liked the story and puzzles enough to follow this game. I really wanted to find the Book of Star and I really wanted to open that upstairs door. I hate not being able to open doors. I think the game wasn't really designed for ARGers but for treasure hunters and I think there is a difference. So I think this was a treasure hunt and not an ARG. There isn't much more to say.

PostPosted: Sun Jul 03, 2005 3:30 am
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Satyr
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Joined: 25 May 2005
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 		I thought the multi-site pages were well done and well designed - but.. the game that ties in with it is sometimes a bit too confusing.

* Until the end, Marlowe Digital (for example) didn't appear to have anything but to name the other S+S sites (though I did suspect some logos were hints?).

* The Afterdark site was not clear if it was part of the game (due to sponsorship, it could have been mistaken as a 'plug' rather than a 'look here').

* The pace was a bit too slow.

* There is lack of direction. Most of the time as mentioned, we're not sure if we missed something critical, or just waiting. I did think that we should have taken a different trail (instead of pursuing the S+S prize) like fininshing off what Jon started (he sold his soul to get the BoS so we could 'end it') - but there was never a hint if that was what we're looking to do. or just pursue the S+S prize.. obviously the questionaire and stuff like that tended to hint towards S+S (misdirection from PM is a no-no?)

* Lack of interaction - I guess a touch of the pace gripe. No emails to prod the game along.. or get dropped hints when things got really stuck. A simple "The End" would have been nice if the game ended on Brigid finding Jon.
--
On the other hand, video clips were nice - the 'hiding room' was a nice touch.

Hope to hear from the PMs

PostPosted: Sun Jul 03, 2005 7:35 am
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Wishi-san
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Stormalong wrote:
I think the fact that this ARG was also a contest wherein they were giving away a reasonable sum of money really limited the ways that they could react to the players. I'd bet that the whole storyline and progression had to be laid out in advance, and adhered to strictly, since it presumably had to be approved by the people who write the cheques.

All successful ARGs have had their storyline planned out in advance and have had much preparation as to how the players would progress and the sections where they would feel as if they were actually influencing the game (even if they are not). I'm sure they would stick just as strictly to their plans, but it is their job to create the illusion that the game is changing and being moulded by the players. Unfortunately in S&S this hasn't been too successful, but this has worked in many other ARGs regardless of whether they are giving out a cash sum or not.

dashcat wrote:
One of the nicest things about Args that don't involve a prize is the feeling that the PMs are watching us and adjusting the ambiguous or downright impossible parts of their story line and/or puzzles if the players bog down. In this case, they're giving away 10k in pounds so of course they aren't going to help us.

If the story has been planned correctly, there aren't going to be any impossible parts, and even if there were accidentally surely Stella wouldn't want this to drag on in this way. The money shouldn't make a difference to the amount of help they give us.

Think of it this way, would Stella prefer to have a winner to their game who they could present the money to and have a nice press conference about to tell everyone how well it all went, or would they want to give it away to someone who didn't quite win. They're not going to want to scream and shout about giving £11k away to someone who didn't win their game.

dashcat wrote:
I wasn't that impressed with any of the sites but I might be jaded. The Hiding Room was pretty cool. It reminded me of the PC adventure games I love to play but the false hot spots were just a form of torture.

The professional quality of the sites and the thematic elements littered throughout were fantastic, and I never doubted how well the sites had been put together. In comparison to many sites thrown around in ARGs today, it was obvious there had been a lot of attention to detail here, and the quality shows through. Even the simple format of a blog was made massively more interesting due to the Hiding Room interface required to access it.

dashcat wrote:
I think the game wasn't really designed for ARGers but for treasure hunters and I think there is a difference.

Hmm, no I feel that this ARG was more designed for a mainstream audience. If you look back over the sites you'll realise you could replay the whole ARG at any point, simply by signing up. The only thing you'd miss are a few emails but in-game sites have been updated to provide you with any information you'd need to progress. This in itself is very clever for Stella, and allows anyone to jump in, whether or not they are playing with a community.

dashcat wrote:
So I think this was a treasure hunt and not an ARG.

To call this a treasure hunt seems harsh, the story was important in this game, and we had no way of solving the game by just being better treasure hunters than others. Stella dictated when we would be allowed the final puzzle, which was after the main story had played out.

I think the final puzzle has been badly put together. Although we don't know the solution yet, it seems it has been based around out of game ideas (ie. the Stella brand) rather than requiring our knowledge and investigative skills to measure the value of the signs of the devil.

There were mistakes in this ARG, and I've covered them in my previous posts (as well as the majority of them being recovered in here by others), however it seems harsh to condemn the whole game as a failure. There were many interesting ideas, and even now it manages to hold my interest.

If the ideas had been better put into practice with a little more care, we could have had an even better time, but as it is the finale has unfortunately soured it for many.
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 03, 2005 8:55 am
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bartmans
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Joined: 30 Dec 2004
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 		Wishi-San,

I completely agree with you. And, saving my critique for another thread, I just did admire the eye for detail that the developers have had. This especially showed in the clever use of all the hints to the devil/shuck, Stella itself (1366, Dennis Horen), the use of the Fibonacci numbers (even in the price money) and so on.
The few updates that have been present in the hiding room (e.g. the ringing of the phone) were well designed and fitted very good in the overall gameplay design.

Also the start of the game had something surprising, although I started off myself from the 'helpmefindjon'-site.

I thought the use of a newspaper-site to be very creative (although I now know that more ARGs have such a site), but I guess it could have been more alive if there would have been more updates (oops, now I'm criticizing again).

This was my first ARG and through S+S I have been drawn into the ARG community. Maybe that can be considered the most precious experience from this game.
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 03, 2005 4:34 pm
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GuyP
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 		Glad to have you with us, Bartmans!

Thanks for all your thoughts on the experience. I posted a final wrap-up review over at ARGN, pretty much sinking all hope that the gods of Draft London will smile upon me for that lovely cash prize!

Just a reminder - the update regarding the winner and correct solution to the Final Puzzle will appear at Help Me Find Jon, at some point in the next five weeks.

PostPosted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 12:00 pm
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dashcat
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 		I read your article yesterday GuyP. I thought it was very good.

PostPosted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 4:30 pm
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tassie
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Joined: 20 Dec 2004
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 		article
GuyP, with your article you did (as we say in holland) "hit the nail on the head"! it was very good and I couldn't agree with you more!

PostPosted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 4:11 am
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culprit
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 		excellent review gp!

PostPosted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 4:26 am
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