unforum

[faeryqueen21]

I'm just happy Pancito said I was one of his favorite people!

*bats eyelashes* I like you too Pancito...

[The Mirror]

Don't most PM's do this for FREE? As a PRESENT? I'm grateful, even if the game isn't perfect. Has there been more conflict in games than before? I've only been playing these for a little under a year, but I feel like we are more antagonistic than when I joined up. Something in the water? Winter blues?

[anony645]

Okay :rolleyes:

Back to the topic original post...

Yes, this kind of thing happens all the time with ARGs, and with life, duh. But there's a time and a place for bitching. The complainers are usually aggressive loudmouths, bullies, or both. They make some sweeping criticism and there's really just no way to respond, and when someone's pooping all over a forum or IRC channel just because they can it ruins the experience for the rest of the gamers.

It happens all the time but it's really bad with the Lost Ring right now. There's a couple of players who just stated outright that they don't like the mythology and they're not interested in the offline element which is the main focus of the ARG.

So there's constant mocking in IRC, references to the PMs and picking apart their motives and reminders that this is a game, but never in a way that helps forward the plot. They've even moved their ridicule to the in-game forums and to talking with the characters. There's almost zero sense of immersion because every day these people are whining about shit that should really be taken to meta if they can't keep it in.

And yeah, a part of this rests on the PMs. There are a lot of dry spells in the Lost Ring and there aren't many net-based puzzles. Maybe there's a lot going on behind the scenes, but there's nothing happening on the player end to reassure anybody of that. Sometimes the game feels like they already have a clear idea of what they want us to create and are just trying to push us in that direction, so there's not a lot of motivation to churn it out just so they can use it to demonstrate later how creative and well-organized the community became.

But then again, this is what happens when you serve up a new game to a community with so many pre-conceived notions of what an ARG should be. There's no constructive criticism or even discussion of the above points, just bitch bitch bitch.

You have to wonder why they're still playing if they don't like any part of the game. Are they just hanging around to ruin it for the others? It's bad enough when most of the group is close to apathy already, without these jokers polluting the vibe with their negativity.

I guess because things are pretty quiet right now there's not much else to do but complain. We'll see if things pick up as the timeline gets closer to the Olympics, and maybe everyone will shut up for a while.

[faeryqueen21]

That's exactly what I was trying to say. If these people hate the game so much, why do they continue to play? It doesn't make sense but unfortunately we can't tell them to get lost. So we just have to ignore them and hope they'll leave of their own volition.

[danteIL]