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[Shad0]

Re: [META] Rant: Where are the puzzles? Is this ARG or ARS?

[ThunderRazor]

Re: [META] Rant: Where are the puzzles? Is this ARG or ARS?

[Gimme Gimme Octopus]

Re: [META] Rant: Where are the puzzles? Is this ARG or ARS?

[clamatius]

[Gimme Gimme Octopus]

[MusicToEat]

I just want to go on record and say I am enjoying this. I think the idea of hundreds of payphones ringing all over America is incredibly cool. I think the story so far is very interesting and well done. I can't wait to find out where it's going. I just wish that there was more for me to do then sit and wait for someone else to make an Axon hot. So far the only real puzzle has been the "fun stuff links" puzzle, IMO. That was really cool and original, and I guess spoiled me into thinking that there would be more moments like that. It seems that the SP riddles are the PMs throwing us a bone, when what we really want is some meat to sink our teeth into.

[clamatius]

[rose]

Here's a question:

Has there ever been an ARG or ARS or alternative interactive fiction thing of any type in which the players have been content with the pace throughout the game?

My sense is that we know one speed -- hyperdrive.

This game is unfolding in a way that is appropriate for the story. It makes sense that a confused Melissa would be trying to reach her crew through contacting them in a way that requires a password, discarding unusable roads and trying new ones. (how she decided where to build the roads in the first place is still debated)

It also makes sense that her sense of urgency is increasing, requiring more people to activate an axon and setting up multiple sites in the same city to ensure at least one contact will be made there.

It also makes sense that the Sleeping Princess doesn't just blurt out its' whole purpose and intent to us. We are discovering it through the information it chooses to share with us. Maybe it doesn't want the information to be too hard for us to find? Maybe the simplicity of the puzzles are based on its' assessment of what we can do?

Another thought: this format also allows new players to be involved in activating axons. We made be bored with it, but not everyone has been doing this as long as we have. And, as harsh as it may sound, the game isn't designed just for us.

[clamatius]

[3rd]

Maybe I'm totally wrong here, and feel free to trout me severely if I am, but isn't there a chance that we're the ones stagnating, rather than the PM's?

As it stands, the scenario seems to be:

A group goes to the marked payphones and gives the most obvious answers from the website.

Another group goes to the next payphones and gives the same answers as the previous group.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Has anyone tried giving different answers? Seeing eight out of nine axons go hot and nobody saying anything about trying different answers tells me that we're not. Once we get a code group to go hot, the other payphones in the group continue to ring until the next batch of axons gets put up, right? So why continue to give the same answers over and over? Just because they work doesn't mean they're the best possible answers.

A small square peg may fit in a large round hole, but that doesn't mean you should give up on trying to find that large round peg. Once we get the required number of axons in a group to go hot, maybe we should become a little more experimental. Giving the wrong answer isn't a big deal. If all else fails, I'm sure the PM's can find a reason to give us the wav files or give us another chance at them.

I suppose this post could also go in the axon forum, but my main point is that if we don't play, are we right to accuse the PM's of not making things fun?

[clamatius]

[3rd]

How many names do we have?

Queen
Seeker
Pious Flea
Sleeping Princess
Command Process
External Process 0

We don't really know the relation of the different characters involved in the axons puzzle. They could all be the same character, or they could be as different as they appear.

I could be wrong, but it's not like we can't afford to try. With the current level of redundancy in the axons, screwing up on one or two won't hurt anything.

My biggest concern is that if we keep accepting that it's the simplest solution, we'll get blindsided when the simplest answer stops being correct. According to the story we've been following, we're dealing with a badly damaged AI. Evidently, badly damaged AIs can't make very impressive puzzles. But what happens when we start trying to repair her? What about when she's repaired and we have to get her back where she came from? What if we have to combat her or the Pious Flea? Are we going to continue believing that it's going to be a simple solution?

<sigh> I sound like I'm seriously bitching about this, but I'm really not. I'm just trying to suggest some alternate possibilities we could try. If we're really getting bored with all this, then why not start having some fun with it? Maybe we'll stumble on something new.

Maybe there's nothing more. Maybe the axons originally had another puzzle planned around it, but having to change so many sets of coordinates prevented that puzzle from being used. We don't know. And we won't know if we stop looking.

[Hawkeye]

I'd like to try Pious Flea, but unforunatly there are no payphones that are ringing here in Canada.
It is an interesting idea though.

[johnny5]

3rd,

"Queen" is a metaphor used by the Sleeping Princess to describe the AI known to her crew as Melissa or Operator.
"Sleeping Princess" is a metaphor used by the Sleeping Princess to describe herself. Since she knows no other name, that is what she is called.
"Pious Flea" is a metaphor used by the SP to describe the Seeker.

"Seeker" is what the pious flea know itself by.
"Command Process" is what the Seeker calls Melissa/Operator/Queen.
"External Process 0" is what the Seeker called the Sleeping Princess before it interacted with her.
"Princess" is what the Seeker calls the SP after interacting with her.

The voice on the payphone asks either "Crewman, what is my name"
or "Crewman, what is my nickname". "Melissa" is correct for the first
query, "Operator" for the second. If the voice had asked "Seeker, what is my name" then perhaps "Command Process" would be the correct response.

IMHO, though it may be redundant activity once a .wav is unlocked, I don't think anyone is going to miss an opportunity to "enhottenate" an Axon just to try out different answers to an obvious question. It's not worth it.

--john--

[SuperJerms]

State of the Apiary Address