unforum

[Puppy_Zwolle]

STOL

[Atrophied]

STOL was an unsolved/unsolvable puzzle in the ARG MetaCortechs

See this thread.

/me waits for a MetaUrchin to come along and explain properly

[jamesi]

Usually, we don't use the Glossary section to start question threads. That's why I'm moving this to the Various & Sundry section.

[Giskard]

STOL was part of a "puzzle" from Metacortechs (Krystyn, I use the quotation marks with a certain sense of sarcasm, I hope you notice it... ). It all started with this pic:



There's a bit of text along the right side in a cryptogram, that, when translated, reads "Always to have lessons to learn". The four letters in the red box are Always to have lessonS TO Learn.

Some of the Metaurchins (the players of Metacortechs) became obsessed with the word STOL (sick, sick people ), using it for all sorts of purposes, one of them was greeting other people, and that purpose kinda stuck...

So there, now you know, and be sure to read all about it's background in the Metaurchins Book Project!

Oh yeah, and that puzzle also spawned my own webdomain lessonstolearn.net which currently still hosts Project UM, nicknamed Metacortechs Reloaded.

[Omnie]

Hahahahaha. From that thread that Atrophied linked:

[Ehsan]

stolity stolity stol

[joebrent]

Holy crap, Notes From the Underslept.

Wow.

I forgot about that.

[Omnie]

Heh, I remembered that you'd written something dedicated to Oct. 1st, and Giskard linked to the book, so I browsed through it again and aha! Awesomeness. Well, kinda scary awesomeness, but nonetheless.

Also, in hindsight, this was totally my favorite random Oct. 1st-related find. "One day he feels a scratching in his head, as tiny rats devour his brain. It is quite painful. The End."

[krystyn]

Stol!

As the creator of the um, 'puzzle,' I'd just like to say that the image itself was originally meant as a greeting, an introductory call to arms for the other hackers. Since the site was supposed to resemble some sort of photoshop-fun portal site, it's not like Caesar could just up and be all, "hay guyz my parents r missin n stuph mebbe but mebbe their ded halp me." There had to be a bit o' somethin' to catch their attention and make them feel cool for figuring something out, so he could lead them along without telling them too much (jeopardizing his search, and possibly jeopardizing their safety in terms of the Monitors who were likely keeping a lookout for any sign of Caesar's presence on the grid).

It was also, uh, really close to our launch date when someone on the Karetao team turned to me and was all, "hey, you're good at making pretty images. will you do something for Paintover?"

"Sure!" I replied brightly, not knowing that my metaphorical head would be put on a chopping block over the next two months, a +5 Stol Axe of Frustration poised and gleaming over my neck. It really was an interesting lesson, as a puppetmaster, to note how absolutely no encouragement from us translated into frenzied obsession to solve something already solved. And, because of the nature of the site, and the plethora of unreliable narrators, having any sort of, "Nah, there's nothing else in that image!" from our end would've likely made matters far, far worse.



Stol!

[Puppy_Zwolle]

It was just a question........ It just became the "It's almost Weinachtstol"-reunion.

But thanks all. Its more then I ever wanted to know but nice reading.
Almost dangerous to mention even today: This is not a puzzle..... Thats like a red flag and a bull.

[krystyn]

Hey, yerself, pally!

Mmm, nostalgia!

[Omnie]

[Giskard]

Re: stolity stolity stol

[Omnie]

Re: stolity stolity stol

[Puppy_Zwolle]

Re: stolity stolity stol