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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: The Art of the Heist » The Art of the Heist: General/Updates
[Update] - May 5th - Virgil's rant and roll
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HitsHerMark
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Joined: 22 Aug 2004
Posts: 1521
Location: Austin, TX

 		When you work in the game industry, you live deadline to deadline...

If you are having your game published by a company not your own, there are these things called "milestones". A milestone is a list of things about the game that must be done by a certain date if you're going to keep getting money to finance development. For instance, By June 1st all the physics in the game must be working, models for primary characters finished, and the first three levels mocked out with placeholder art... Or something like that. Miss a milestone, and you don't get paid until you make the next one... Unless you can work something out with the publisher.

Virgil seems to be funding this whole thing himself (wow, that's a lot of dough), so I don't think the deadline is a milestone.

E3 is fast approaching... So it's possible he's either trying to finish, or at least have a playable demo, to show off. Unless you're Microsoft, the proverbial 800lbs gorilla, E3 is more or less where you want to make your big announcements.

... Or something. Smile

As far as Virgil's consern for Nisha... I think he's more conserned with E-Nisha then the flesh and blood who lives and breathes. E-Nisha lacks that certain something that makes her a real to the player, so Virgil thinks... Perhaps he's starting to realise that the real thing is more important then the one he creates... But, being Virgil, it's getting all twisted.

Virgil has said it in his rants, he cares about Nisha because she is evocative. She reminds him of his wife, and inspires him to create games again, but he doesn't feel the need to feed anything back into her. With out real Nisha around, it's even harder to channel her carisma and all around "X factor" into E-Nisha.

Virgil appears to be what ya might call a a baby grinder. So without his muse to help him get the job done on time, he's freaking out a bit.
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PostPosted: Thu May 05, 2005 9:01 pm
Last edited by HitsHerMark on Thu May 05, 2005 9:12 pm; edited 1 time in total
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GateKeeper
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Joined: 22 Apr 2005
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 		Nisha: you got a better idea
Ian: ye...uh.. No. I guess not.


Not sure what that means, but it seems to support the 'Ian is holding back' theory.

PostPosted: Thu May 05, 2005 9:10 pm
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Cookster
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 		Just speculating about what Mrs Banderwine may look like, so Nisha knows who to look for.
mrs banderwine.jpg
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PostPosted: Thu May 05, 2005 9:54 pm
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GateKeeper
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 		LOL! Is that gunter and a wookie mixed?

PostPosted: Thu May 05, 2005 11:56 pm
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Cookster
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GateKeeper wrote:
LOL! Is that gunter and a wookie mixed?


Yeah, that's what Chewbacca looked like when he blow-dryed his hair Smile

PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2005 1:02 am
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rose
...and then Magic happens


Joined: 26 Nov 2003
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 		deadline
You guys know that I think the game we are really playing is the Electronic Ouroboros game, of which the development of the Nisha Chronicles is a part. When I read anything in the game, particularly what Virgil writes, I look at it from that perspective. I am still looking for a clue in that entry, but there may well be none.

I understand that the "make-or-break" deadline can be explained in terms of the Nisha Chronicles, and maybe that is all it is. But we also have to get Nisha to the car, or at least get the SD card before this game can progress. Maybe we are way off track of where we need to be in his timeline of the Electronic Ouroborus game. And, if Virgil had anything to do with planning the theft from the Uffizi Gallery, there may be a deadline involved with getting critical information in order for that to succeed as well.

About the Sword of Damocles, I think Virgil is using it as an analogy to explain how pressured he feels about this critical deadline. Virgil is analogous to Dionysis, who set up the sword to show Damocles the inner cost of wealth and power ... by the way, Dionysis was quite a paranoid guy. Does that sound familiar?

The fact that Nisha hasn't contacted Virgil implies that she doesn't trust him. He must suspect this (being paranoid) as part of the reason why her eyes, they do not sparkle.

Somewhere there is spec that Virgil is himself an art thief, the one called the Loser, that Nisha mentions on her list of suspects. I am starting to like that idea.

I don't know. I am at the point in this game where everyone seems capable of doing anything. (Other than the Atlanta retrievers, the NY package getters, and the Coachella 5 who are above reproach; and Myke, who is, tragically, dead.) We still don't know what Ian is doing and why he is going wherever he is going; we don't know where the goons are (I always like to keep track of the bad guys); and we don't know what is really going on with Gunter and the Pa house. I guess we have to wait to find out.

Edit: Does anyone else think it is odd that neither Ian nor Nisha has commented on Myke's murder?? I mean finding the cars is important, but how about figuring out who killed someone you worked with and, the question that is bothering me, why?? We were worried about the wrong person getting killed at Coachella, but at least we were right that some deadly purpose was intended by getting them all together in one spot.
I liked Myke even if his name was annoying. And it bothers me that he is just forgotten.
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PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2005 9:23 am
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lazarys
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HitsHerMark wrote:


If you are having your game published by a company not your own, there are these things called "milestones". A milestone is a list of things about the game that must be done by a certain date if you're going to keep getting money to finance development.


Deadlines and milestones are terms frequently used in any project managed to a schedule, regardless of whether its internal or external, and extend beyond just the gaming industry.

Deadline is the date/time of a delivery of the project, usually the final one, while milestones are goals indicating you are "at the right place on the right path" to meeting the delivery date.

Whether Virgil is working for someone else, or doing this internally, it just goes to show he is a well-organized sociopath, rather than a fly-by-night one. Wink

PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2005 11:20 am
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lazarys
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 		Re: deadline
rose wrote:

Somewhere there is spec that Virgil is himself an art thief, the one called the Loser, that Nisha mentions on her list of suspects. I am starting to like that idea.

I think he's an art thief as well, but the unknown one identified by "???" in Nisha's list. The loser was too disorganized, and from the description accomplished his crimes through physical feats (slipping through air ducts, hiding in them for hours, etc.) while "???" planned and left no trail behind for around ten years (coincidentally the time since Virgil gave up on Naoko's professorship project of getting her higher posthumously (man the guy makes me cringe.))

PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2005 11:32 am
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clalonde
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 		A dozen years
12 is a number that seems to be coming up again and again in regards to Virgil. 12 years since his wife's death. Numerous rants about 12 long years. And now a male friend that has reappeared after 12 years. I have a feeling that this "friend" from 12 years ago is going to end up being pretty significant and I wouldn't be shocked to learn that it was Gunter.

- C

PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2005 12:11 pm
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Cookster
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 		Re: A dozen years
clalonde wrote:
12 is a number that seems to be coming up again and again in regards to Virgil. 12 years since his wife's death. Numerous rants about 12 long years. And now a male friend that has reappeared after 12 years. I have a feeling that this "friend" from 12 years ago is going to end up being pretty significant and I wouldn't be shocked to learn that it was Gunter.

- C


I have a feeling that the 'friend' he is talking about is Emile - after all, stolena3.com has video of Virgil talking to someone at the Coachella after-party who Nisha later confirmed to be Emile. We know very little about this guy, but one thing for sure is that he is not Gunter. Whether he is linked to Gunter in someway is another question...

PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2005 12:30 pm
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HitsHerMark
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Joined: 22 Aug 2004
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 		I got the impression from Virgil's Blog that Emile is a programmer... And a really good one at that.

Perhaps Emile is CG?

Or maybe Emile is just Emile...

Sometimes a cigar, is just a cigar.
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PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2005 12:35 pm
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Cookster
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HitsHerMark wrote:

Perhaps Emile is CG?


This is what I keep thinking. There is a possibility that CG is in the USA, and the two of them are French...

Can the guys who picked the package up from Will Star work out where it was sent from? If it came from inside the US, we could be on to something

PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2005 12:58 pm
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GateKeeper
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Joined: 22 Apr 2005
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Cookster wrote:
HitsHerMark wrote:

Perhaps Emile is CG?
Can the guys who picked the package up from Will Star work out where it was sent from? If it came from inside the US, we could be on to something


I was on IRC the night they got it. It had French markings on it such as 'By plane air mail' in French. They had pictures of it online as well, it definitely came from France.. in fact, they're on the NY Pickup Wiki page

PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2005 1:16 pm
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Cookster
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GateKeeper wrote:
Cookster wrote:
HitsHerMark wrote:

Perhaps Emile is CG?
Can the guys who picked the package up from Will Star work out where it was sent from? If it came from inside the US, we could be on to something


I was on IRC the night they got it. It had French markings on it such as 'By plane air mail' in French. They had pictures of it online as well, it definitely came from France.. in fact, they're on the NY Pickup Wiki page


Oh well, bang goes that theory Rolling Eyes

PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2005 1:23 pm
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HitsHerMark
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Joined: 22 Aug 2004
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 		Re: deadline
rose wrote:
You guys know that I think the game we are really playing is the Electronic Ouroboros game, of which the development of the Nisha Chronicles is a part. When I read anything in the game, particularly what Virgil writes, I look at it from that perspective. I am still looking for a clue in that entry, but there may well be none.


I have to agree with Rose here. We're playing a game about the guy who's making a game. Which is about the game that we're playing...

If that isn't a snake eating its own tail, I don't know what is. Smile
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PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2005 1:26 pm
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