unforum

[Phaedra]

[krystyn]

Hmm, Phaedra, your point is a bit clearer, but I think it would be really, really difficult to pull something like that off without putting too much of your own spin on a game, or possibly selling the game short.

Most of the major structure and information delivery of ilovebees involved those damnable payphones (sort of kidding! ha! ha! ha. ahem.), BUT there were also puzzles that suddenly cropped up as the game shifted to accomodate the frustration levels experienced by those who felt the payphones made the game inaccessible to them. Additionally, there was the whole Widow's Journey story/SPDR code puzzle, which, when I explained it to one guy on August 24th as we were running around chasing payphones, was completely new information to him -- even though he'd been looking at the website and reading the text bits everywhere. I think we'd all have a different 'reason' for liking ilovebees, or a different description of it.

One of my favorite things about working on Lockjaw was to have that world-famous codebreaker guy come in and solve that cipher that was plaguing everyone for days on end, and then he STAYED and continued to analyzed the hell out of the STORY. I think he caught every last reference and joke at the Moreland website, stuff that most of the players never, ever remarked upon.

I dunno. It seems like a Rorschach effort, as noble as it is. You know?

[krystyn]

Also, ummmmmm, I neglected to include Andy in my earlier list because he was too busy working on Labyrinth to come pose sexily and then run away.

I'm actually not kidding about that. He messaged me this weekend, and wouldn't even tell me what new stuff he was working on, but he's super-excited. How cool is that?

[vpisteve]

[krystyn]

I think maybe I'd be leery of some mechanism where you'd have leetle icons for categorizing the games. A smiley face for happy games, perhaps, or a goth smiley for those dealing with the occult, or h4x0r topics. Maybe, you, know, a little envelope to indicate heavy e-mail interaction, with flames coming off the top if it's essentially role-playing through text exchanges with characters. A leetly round cartoony heart if you like romance, a tire-shaped artifact for Halo-related ARGs, and then a cookie-shaped icon if you're required to roll confections along sidewalks or something.

[Varin]

[Phaedra]

[Phaedra]

[krystyn]

[Phaedra]

[Dorkmaster]

"Pre-emptive Slippery Slope Attack!" From Whammo! ^(TM)



Admittedly, I edited the hell outta this post. But I had to maximize for comedic effect. Nothing says comedy like "whammo!"

[Incitatus]

Good points and interesting ideas all around.

[Wolf]

[imbri]

Like Wolf, I have to disagree with the notion of grassroots games hurting the genre. It's not grassroots games hurting it, it's people that do not properly develop their games (whether they have $$$ behind them or not) that are hurting it.

[Incitatus]

Wolf, you misunderstand. I do not think ALL grassroot games are hurting the genre. Sure there have been many successes, I'm not arguing that at all. But I point to the dozens and dozens of failures, failures that have all poped up since the last major audience influx (ILB).
And I am going to have to stick to my guns on this one. Great stories do not make a great game. I think Imbri is more towards the point I was trying to make. Game development and organization, in many, not all, cases is dirrectly proportional to the amount of financial backing a game has. Sure, there have been several great stories organized well with minimal financial investment, and these games stand as true triumphs in the genre. That is not disputable. But one cannot simply ignore the fact that so many zealous people are jumping off to make their very own home-made ARG and having it consequentially flop.

That also brings forth the question: Is there a corelation to making your game great by spending more time for less money to develop the game?



(And I know I can't spell for beans, let alone when I'm typing in a rush. Since it seems to offend, I will copy/Paste to word for analysis in the future. But much appologies applied, I am running on a fresh install without Office at the moment, so if you will bear with me for this post aswell, I will begin this practice from next-posting-out. It's all good. )