unforum

[addlepated]

Discussion topic - super-saturation of characters?

[konamouse]

I think that the game has set itself up for 2-3 starring roles, about 5 co-starring roles, 8 guest-stars each week, and a sprinkling of "one-liner" folks (aka "dayplayers" in the trade).

I think some of them are to help round out that 52 card deck and allow others to find cards. The main roles each week have helped to "tell the story".

Now, ARG characters in general? You are right in that too many to keep track gets confusing. I like just a few main, and a few co-starring. And if someone gets killed off, that makes room for a new character later perhaps. But alot depends on the story and the potential interaction. If there are too many characters, too much interaction needed, the story could get bogged down - some characters become more popular than others and critical information may be missed.

On the other hand, if there are not enough main/co-star characters, the poor PM may have too much interaction for that one character to deal with (i.e. 100 emails in one day that require some semblence of personalization) or not enough players get the opportunity to have a meaningful interaction (that causes the desireable ripple).

[MageSteff]

I agree with what Kona said. They are a way to give out bonus chips to those who find them, something to give you a thrill of discovery to keep you looking (it's a marketing gimmick to keep you thinking about GUN,sure, but a very fun one )

I think the cards from the past are only to give us background on the GUN. The characters we need to pay the most attention to are the present day and living characters. How each one impacts Lucy (or not). Some of the Living characters are there as a connection to the GUN's history. Or as Lucky has said, "the same 8 characters sitting around the table."

Good luck![/i]

[enaxor]

Addie, I'm with you on this one. I too started out as an avid player, but soon lost interest due to the large number of game characters. I had very limited time to actually play this game when it started, so as the character count increased my interest waned. I missed a couple of the scheduled updates and decided the amount of time needed to catch up and absorb the new information wasn't worth it.

When a game has only a few main characters, it's much easier for those who can't be around on a daily basis to track the games events and the character development.

This, in no way a criticism of LCP, but an admission of one of my failings. I love the back story in games, but I hate sitting at the computer reading it. AoTH had only a few characters, but tons of back story, most of which I never read. With a limited amount of characters though, it was easier to find information needed to progress in the game.

[catherwood]

There has to be a happy medium between convenient story-telling and the illusion of reality. Think about how many people you cross paths with during a single day. I myself interact with 2 family members, an ex-family member, 5 key coworkers, another 10 people in the office, and usually at least one store clerk or restaurant waitperson. Should we have to read about the life story behind each one? No, of course not. Most of the side character cards in LCP are "one offs", with a single file that has never updated. If you were reading this story in a single book, those characters might get their own paragraph or two during their interaction with the main heroes. With LCP, their paragraphs were put on a separate page.

Yes, it feels like a lot of reading to catch up in one sitting, if you miss an update, but it is NO MORE reading than if you were catching the new files in real time on update day. 4orty2wo Entertainment seems to be specializing in a style of game play which involves a LOT of story telling in prose. They may be famous for getting people to interact with payphones, but the structure of the alternate reality is revealed in a rather passive manner. Telling that story from many perspectives keeps it from becoming a monologue.

[spaceboy]

I'm yet another avid, at the beginning, LCP player that lost interest due to the sheer amount of information and characters to keep track of. Real life interfered just a couple of times, and I feel completely overwhelmed with the avalanche of updates, and I simply couldn't keep up. I don't know if it's just me not being able to keep up or if there is actually just too much. I, like addle, prefer to have just a few characters that I can actually connect with. Not many that come along and seem to serve no purpose but to provide just a couple of lines of backstory.

By the way, I'm not criticizing LCP negatively. I though that, during the time I played, it was an extremely well-constructed and intruguing experience, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was just a little bit much for me to keep up with.

[rose]

One aspect of the game I liked is that I could miss a week, just read the muck and then catch up when I felt like it. I enjoyed having the timelines be complete in themselves instead of cliffhangers for the next installment.

This approach does generate a number of characters. Still, I think that the number is managable. I do agree that the list on the top players page can give a wrong impression because the minor players stay around and the major characters get lost in the shuffle (so to speak.)

I found that usually one or two characters would get my attention enough to keep my interest in the past timeline. But the characters in the 2005 timeline are not people I find that compelling, so if I only had them, I would be less interested in the game.

I think the updates are dense with information. And that is the question, not the number of characters. The best way for me to enjoy them is to try to read through them at my own pace. I love the way they are telling this story, it is original and fresh, and I love the use of different media (not just wave files) - I think the "video" adds an important storytelling component to all the timelines. Even the recorded poker hands are a good touch. I enjoyed that the puzzles were based on codes in use in the timeline where the puzzle appeared.

So, the number of characters has been a plus for me, overall, in this game.