unforum

[SpaceBass]

[META] Moderated Updates Blog

[Alex Smith]

Helpful! Cheers Space'.

[Gemini]

Most excellent. I was hoping one of these would come up, it's a good way to keep up with the game when you get too busy to go on the forums.

[badger_burrow2005]

yeah

[jalapeno_dude]

Any plans to update this soon? It's been almost a month...

[Alter Ego]

Time to update the updates, It's nearly been FOUR Months......

[Juxta]

Well...I'm not "involved" with the updating of this resource, but I know from discussions with the authors of various ARG "guides" and "trails" that whilst they can be an invaluable resource, and help people to "dip into" the storyline, without them having to devote regular time to keeping up with it, they are also, by necessity, something of a "labour of love". Not to mention a huge timesink.

People have real lives, circumstances change and whatnot, and I think that the following, written nearly five years ago - referring to the Guide for A.I. - is a good indication of what may be occurring with the ModBlog updates...

[Atrophied]

I'd just like to echo Juxta's thanks to all the writers who put effort into updating the ModBlog over the past year, year-and-a-half (has it really been that long since Syzygy endeed and PXC began?). So to BriEnigma, GuyP, SpaceBass, aab_123, yanka and Wishi-san, thank you all, you've done a splendid job with it.

~Atrophied

[BrianEnigma]

I have to say that having some sort of blog-like resource is vital. While the wiki contains a great depth of knowledge, it reads like the index at the back of a book. Or an encyclopedia. A blog/guide/whathaveyou is important for its contiguous flow and narrative style. It is linear and easy to follow.

That being said, SpaceBass started the modblog forever-and-a-day ago to fill the gap because there was no other guide or blog around. Now that the UF modblog has languished for a while and Mind Candy set up a great site for updates (blog-ish) as well as the story-so-far catch-up summary (guide-ish), I have to admit that the incentive for maintaining the modblog is greatly reduced.

Some might argue that a player-run guide or blog is important because it is more open, off-the-cuff, can be critical if necessary, and is not run by "The Man." Yes, Mind Candy has their own motives for setting up these resources. Namely, they want people to easily grok the story so that new players can get sucked in, participate, and buy cards. In this case, I don't see a problem with it being run by "The Man" because we all know the folks involved (either by reputation, via email, or in person) and they are not likely to take it in a crazy direction, deliberately cover stuff up, or otherwise sell out. If it looks like it is starting to head in one of those directions, we can always re-evaluate our position.

So I guess, in summary, that my opinion is:
Perplex City ModBlog, R.I.P.
(kept online to preserve history, but no longer updated; possibly taken out of cryogenic storage, if need be, at some unspecified future date)

[Scott]

I sort of waffle on how well a wiki meets the demands of PxC, vs a blog. As a universe, the Perplex City fFramework is massive. There are pieces which get referenced regularly, and pieces which pop up months apart. In this way, a wiki is exactly what is called fFor. New players can rapidly get all the information on any topic which might suddenly appear, and link across topics to related concepts. Exactly what is called fFor. Sometimes. And then there are the times when a subject is invented as a device to express a goal, and then quickly go away. Or linear story concepts which evolve and unfurl. A wiki does no good in these cases. Nothing short of a trail is required.

Proper compilation of any such creature takes time. LOTS of time. I spend at least an hour every day on the wiki, often closer to three hours. Partly this is due to fFinding minor adjustments to tweak or corrections to make or old pages to improve, or else general administratia. But most of that is new stuff going in which wasn't there before. And at the end of the year, I realized something which no ARG has ever had before: An on-going plot. Year-end was interesting because it fFelt like a big ending .. but then it wasnt over and simply kept on going. To be honest, I lost a little steam around that time (and quickly picked it up again in NYC).

So it's really easy to understand why the blog has lingered and languished: It's demanding. Very Very Demanding. And it never stops. And it gets more and more entangled every day.

I probably would be otherwise willing to say I would be open to write fFor the blog, except I don't have time, and my brain is so wired fFor wiki I would wind up simply referencing and cross-linking to a hundred other articles.

I will say, I have been keeping a mini-update on the fFront-page of the wiki, the "Hot-Topics" section (I believe the "story so fFar" page borrowed this idea from me), which is an attempt to have a sort of quick reference to what's new in the world. Essentially meeting the most basic need of a blog.