unforum

[ReaderGirl16]

Karma and the big picture

[notgordian]

In brief: we're not sure if green karma (getting positive karma) or red karma (getting negative karma) is a good thing or a bad thing. However, it will influence how the characters interact with you.

CHARACTERS WHO TAKE KINDLY TO RED KARMA: Foo, Lex, AgentLex, Kropp, ADPrince, TaraMercer, cfreak
CHARACTERS WHO TAKE KINDLY TO GREEN KARMA: Theophilus, Chris, RLSeger, eldoradowatcher
CHARACTERS WHO DON'T MUCHLY CARE: Lisa, Father Ziod, willforth, slewth

That's just off the top of my head, there's probably more I'm missing.

As for the plot stuff / bigger picture, there are these factions that generally guide character's interests/motivations. Everyone claims they want to change the future, but it seems like everybody wants to do it a slightly different way.

Plot stuff that's going on: I think most of it is covered with the ongoing plotline section...

General things to look out for, though? RLSeger hides stuff in the news posts periodically--he was part of an experiment run by Foo to create a super-sekrit security force of some sort, but he and a bunch of others went rogue. Jenna Jansen was recently taken in for training with that group.

Adam Brackin (Theophilus in the future) and Ethan Sedgewick (eldoradowatcher) every now and then give us hints towards folios--those are confusing, but have recently hinted towards the G-d Killer Murderer who's been knocking off people in the future. It also talks about Phil (and his daughter Tara may be tied up in something).

And then there's Will Forth--he found out his future self, slewth, is going to be taken in for trying to contact his past self. We still don't know what he told himself, but now we're supposed to help him help himself-- info found on the blog www.4th07.blogspot.com , although we really don't know what's up with that.

Really, at the moment I feel like we've got hints of future plotlines rather than something substantial to go on. Hope that helps. It seems that the big thing in a grand story-arc sense that Red District people are charged with recently is finding out information on the other people...I could be missing something on that though.

[plikma]

Bishop, despite being the green karma handler also doesn't muchly care.

[ReaderGirl16]

Okay. I've finished all the Grey District puzzles and I still have green karma, so I can't do any of the other White puzzles. I had the brilliant idea that if I answered Sign Language incorrectly (which isn't hard, as I can't solve it!) several times, I might get red karma -- but it gives positive karma! Help! What do I do?

[DetectiveHollings]

Well, glad I found this. I think I'm just as lost as anybody else. I've done all the Grey District tasks I can before I ran out (I've only got 88 credits) and I'm aching for more.

So what I understand is, we're just waiting for the next big thing to happen while people try to figure out "Sign Language"? Now what my question is... how is this an ARG? I'm kind of new on the whole thing, but I thought it was supposed to be things like people getting contacted in multiple media outlets, like internet, phone, e-mail and such? So far all I've seen is the character's blogs and what goes on inside the game itself. Not that it isn't cool, the level of interactions is INTENSE and I'm excited to play, but it seems more like an interactive online game, less and ARG.

Of course, I probably don't know what I'm talking about...

[notgordian]

The game has its periods of activity and its periods of inactivity. Possibly moreso than many other games, although afaik this has been the longest grassroots game to date, so there are no real benchmarks. However, it has been extremely multi-platform.

So far, the following things have been utilized -- traditional mail for physical puzzles, Skype, AIM, email, deaddrops at libraries, audio puzzles, video puzzles, blogs, etc. For quite some time, the interaction level was extremely high.

The difficulty here is numbers--I don't think the PMs anticipated a playerbase this large (over 900 accounts, with Bishop receiving over 400 private messages within the span of a week) so they're scrambling a little to find a way to handle that on their limited funds and staff size. The recent post in the Bishop thread seems to indicate they have a solution of sorts, so we'll likely see a change soon.

If you're having trouble keeping up with the plot end of things, I'd suggest checking the Wiki. As for everything else, something I read in the Iris forums comes to mind--as much of ARGs is waiting for updates and poring over existing stuff.

[ReaderGirl16]

All good info, but not really an answer to my question... how do I keep doing puzzles when my karma is green?

[notgordian]

If you're asking how to do the White/Red puzzles, you really can't without doing something drastic--there is a way to "buy" your way into the other district by taking a task that will give you negative karma and repeatedly getting wrong answers until you change, but if you've solved all the Grey/Blue puzzles that's impossible (and if you solved most of them it would take a heck of a long time)

Basically, there are two paths to walk in this game--one lets you do the White/Red puzzles, the other lets you do the Grey/Blue puzzles. If you really want to try the puzzles yourself, you can create an additional account. Or you could send suitably incriminating information about the Underground to Foo/Kropp and beg them to change your karma color. But the choices in which puzzles you solve and how you solve them (who you send the information to) influences which areas you can access in the game.

That's part of the teamwork aspect of the game--we post all puzzles in the UF forum so even if you can't access the puzzle yourself, you can still work on it.

[WolfHawk]

Gosh notgordian, you are looking a little blue there.

And TGI Fridays? Yellow?

Me wonders what's been going on behind the scenes to make such changes?

[TGI Fridays]

[WolfHawk]

Ah-yuh. If it was that easy I would have been turned purple a long time ago!

[WolfHawk]

DAG!!! What the heck did Hook do???!!! She's second only fo Foo now!!!!

[Silent|away]

Only through the revolutionary support of the People!

And maybe a couple of Edit clicks?

[TGI Fridays]

[UnimportantHero]

Muahahahaha!



Just monkeywrenching the system. SABOCAT! ACTIVATE AND GO!