unforum

[imbri]

[META] I'm Sorry

[DarkWings]

I thought that was what happened. Thanx for the heads up.

[BubbleBoy]

Yeah, I was reading it when it went down. Got through 32 pages until in went POOF! Just to try and clear things up... Normally a thread will just get locked in these instances. Was it removed completely because UnForums could get in trouble for reprinting (for lack of a better word) the information? I'm just wondering...

Also, I'm not 100% convinced that the game has ended, only begun moving into Chapter 2. I did happen to read the last 2 pages before starting from the beginning and the end of the conversation with the "PM" seemed a tad bit suspicious too me.

However, that being said, all of the pages disappearing so suddenly like that does give one the impression that there is a problem. I hope that there will be some clarification as too what happened from their end as well as I am sure that the players have some questions that they would like at least some answers to.

I'm not saying there has to be a Q&A or anything like that. A simple "I'm sorry about this. Really, I am. Knowing what I know now, I will admit that I was irresponsible in my approach to creating this game and take it upon myself to handle the situation that is before me. I didn't fully understand or fully consider the consequences of my actions, and for that I sincerely apologize. I am currently in the process of resolving any and all issues and will inform the community as to the progress of said issues. I thank you all for putting in the time and effort into participating in this game. You have been an inspiration to me. Again, this is completely my fault and for that I'm Sorry."

You know, something short and simple like that.

However, it does seem quite fitting that the game should end in an apology.

[classical]

Here is the last transcript we had with Brian Bricker, where all this mess originated from. If you are at all familiar with recent events, people have noticed that Bricker writes a whole lot like Ron, but hey, we're not gonna speculate anymore on this, right?

Greaty mourning the loss of the thread, here, because that was the only form of semi-complete documentation we really had due to the nature of the offsite pges constantly changing (and I'm a documentation whore, what can I say?). Despite the fact that Bricker decided that it'd be okay to keep our thread and wiki live, well...

Anyway. I, for one, remain unsatisfied by this 'closure'. Which is why I feel there is still going to be a part two, a something more...

Any of you folks are welcome into the chat, since that's where we'll be until we get a new thread or something: chat-solutions.org/chat, channel #imsorry

[snorkle256]

Just read the chat log. Tragic!

[Merago]

Wow. I feel for you folks that invested so much time in this. But I guess it's for the best as far as the real Brian Bricker's peace of mind goes.
[SPEC]So the gamejacks that we thought were in game were probably Ron trying to 'jack his own game because he knew things were going too far? - So I guess they were both IG and OOG.

[paperbound]

I actually found the I'm Sorry thread by accident and ended up being a regular lurker, following the group's journey through all fifty-something pages (I think you guys were on 53 at my last check). I just wanna go completely off-topic and say I'm very impressed with all of you, so much so that (obviously) I joined the forum, in case I want to be part of later games.

Now that I've gone off on that little tangent, I have to lean toward agreeing with classical about the part two. Even after reading the chat log, something just still feels off about it all. But maybe I'm just projecting. It was becoming great late-night reading for me and I'm sad to see it end.

[natas]

[kosmopol]

I found this thread aftre the original was gone... Can somebody explain in little summary, what's going on with this ARG in it's ingame and meta levels. I know, for people, who played it, it could sound redundant, but I just have weird feeling about it.

(And as I am cursed by the addicting ARG illness, I cannot be pacified till I know, what's going on).

Thanx in advance.

[Agent Lex]

[classical]

Hahah, oh dear. I'll try my best here, but... /inhale

"I'm Sorry" was kind of a "Stranger than Fiction" sort of thing--not that we realized it at first. We got to know a couple of characters through blog posts and emails at first. Even though we had Arlen Rage (also "Jack DeMolay" or "Lenny") talking about murder and our ex-detective Port King being followed by a ghost, it was all really unassuming at that point. Except for the fact that we were having problems with OOG intereference--certain people believed that this game was being run with malicious intent. If you know the story behind Dream's End, then... you'd understand the kind of crazy we were dealing with. Had these gamejackers were flooding our thread and our heads with absolutely meaningless meta, about Freemasons and Scientology and Theresa Duncan and we all got totally distracted for a while.

Then, someone picked up a drop--a jumpdrive, with an unfinished manuscript on it. That described basically everything we'd already encountered with these characters. So we had all these fictional characters that were all suddenly "real", from where the focus shifted from them to the writer of the story.

Who, as we slowly began to realize, was even more real than these characters. We started talking to a "Brian Bricker", only to later learn that he was being puppeted by one of Rage's friends. So we focused on trying to find the real writer, because we were all totally convinced he was in on this.

The characters were all dropping IG hints left and right pointing to information on this real, actual person named Brian Bricker and yet, all the while, saying to only contact him 'as a last resort'. Because it would change everything.

But then I got this ticket in the mail... and knew it wasn't mine to have. As far as we knew at that point, Rage had stolen it from Brian Bricker. So I sent it back to Brian Bricker--the real Brian Bricker--and that's where everything changed.

The "PM" behind the game came forward to us a few days back. "Ron" fessed up that he'd stolen all the material he'd used for this game from Bricker and that the game was over, because we had 'contacted the writer'. It exposed him to the person the source material actually belonged to. Then I got a phone call from one very confused Brian Bricker about this ticket he'd gotten in the mail and that led to the chat last night ... and yet, no one really believes that this "game" is quite over yet.

In short: this has been a month-long mindfuck of epic proportions.

Funny that no one seemed to see it. We really had a hard time finding new brains to pick and keeping players involved--probably because of all the lines this game crossed. And how utterly confusing everything got.

So if the curious have any other questions, ask and I'll do my best to explain with what we got. A lot of this seems meta-y, but it's really all been "in game".

For now, really, I think I'm done with ARGs for a while. This is the first game I've actually become active in, but the second one I've really attached myself to only to watch it tank. I must be bad luck or something, heh. It broke both established and unspoken rules of unFiction and ARGs in a lot of instances, but... I think that's where I learned to love it, you know?

[The Mirror]

WOW. So the author Did or Didn't know I mean, I know you said he didn't, but you suspect that he actually did?

[classical]

Personally, I think he's been in on this from the start... but god knows how many times I thought otherwise. Can't prove anything, of course. No one can, really. We're stuck just taking it at face value at this point.

[Agent Lex]

[kosmopol]

Oh, that sounds like postmodern entertaining for me. Thank you, classical, for the summary!

With all the irritating aspects, the story makes me sad that I haven't followed this thread sooner...

It reminds me about a great ARG I played for a while (Conspiracy 08 ) where the meta level became ingame level: Firstly there was a nice conspiracy ARG, which collapsed after the PM get some problems with people, who thought it were for real. Many players thought, it were over, but we didn't gave up - and finally we were contacted by a guy, whose friend was player of this ARG and disappeared.

So begun the major part of the ARG, which was on the one hand weird, on the other hand we've got some emotional involvement.

Was Brian Bricker also "ingame OOG"? or was he really OOG? (I know, perhaps this question is the mostly unanswered one).