unforum

[GoodChild]

Well this isn't what i wanted. Is it too late to ask for an appeal? I had no intention of derailing the game when I posted my original comment and I apologize to everyone as it was my original comment that launched Kenji into his arguments.

I beg the PM, don't stop now...this was fun, and I'm just a very impatient person and one who can easily be distracted. I guess....take my impatience as a huge compliment. I enjoyed the game enough to want to interact with it frequently. And instead of finding something else to do, i kept paying attention to the game. If you come back, I promise to be good, i promise not to be snarky about the pace. I will even read up on codes and ciphers in an attempt to be a better player. In fact, if you bring the game back, not only will I bake you cookies (or if you're diabetic, give you a nice fruit basket) I will put you at the top of the list for any of my internal organs that you may need in the future.

So....do we have a deal?

[addlepated]

We need a good meta thread about having a thick skin as a PM as well as taking responsibility for your game and the actions therein rather than blaming your players for your failure to thrive. Ready, set, post it.

[kenji]

THANK YOU PM. This is exactly the kind of notice I was talking about! Of course, I assumed it would be temporary and it's a shame that you're throwing in the towel, but I kind of thought that this was where the game was heading.
First off, one of my most basic problems with you and your conduct during the game is posing as a player, which is quite obviously one of the most dishonest things you can do (and which you still haven't apologized for).
In response to this:

[kenji]

Man, do I agree with addlepated. And hyexistenz, don't be silly, there's no need to "beg" the PM to come back. We didn't do anything wrong, criticism was warranted and thats fine. I'd like him to come back too, that'd be great, but it's not our fault he left (as much as he might insist that that's so).

[mbhulo]

You know - I didn't want to leap into this.

I've seen this kind of behavior before - on comics usenet sites. It goes like this. "I hate this comic. It, and the writer are useless. It's not how I would have done it. It sucks. I can't wait until next month when I can read the next one and complain just as loudly about it.

Kenji, I understand that you may have felt it was cool to criticize - and that's great. Once. If you didn't like the game, didn't feel it was going anywhere, wasn't interesting, whatever - you should have stopped playing.

Hell, if I was that PM and you talked to me like that, I'd ban you IP number and kill your account on my game.

If we want to play the game, and we want to ask the PM to start playing, then that's perfectly fine.

I, for one, would love to keep playing. But - dammit - I'd love a peek at the working of that code, cos I was completely lost.

This, as I said, was the first ARG I played. I think it's great. I felt that the speed of the game was, indeed, down to us solving the puzzle - and moving the rest of the cast away would have given us the perfect opportunity to work on our code without disctraction. AND we would have the excitement of finding out what they saw when they returned.

I would have thought that was...well...a little obvious from a player's point of view.

That said. You're being rude. Appologise to the PM and, if I might be so honest, grow up.

[audioslave]

Kenji, you were opining. No, I don't think the PM should have ended the game because one person had a few problems. But I did anticipate something like this, going on about this game's faults isn't doing anything. Couldn't this have been all resolved if you had just PMd/emailed one of the characters saying "hey, look, there's a few spelling errors on the main page, I wonder if somebody could fix them" rather than typing out a long winded attack on the game that does nothing to further it. Things like:

[jamesi]

I'm gonna try hard to reply to all of this without needed nested quotes. Therefore, if you think what I am saying pertains to you, it probably does. Oh, and as always, these are my opinions only, and represent no one other than me, unless others say so.

First, let's look at the game. What started as something positive and exciting has turned out to be a joke, a sham, and a mockery. What we now have is just another game that gets added to the list of "I did not think things through, but here's my game anyway" games. Had the Puppetmaster planned out their game in full before launching it, then perhaps the game would not have ended up this way. Folks, it's called an Alpha Test for a reason. You cannot expect to succeed in this business (or hobby, depending on how you see it) without first having a plan. If you cannot prove to yourself that you have covered all of the bases before launch, then don't launch. If a game is 100% tested and ready to go before launch, situations involving personal issues/job requirements/lack of time/dismemberment will not have such a serious impact on the game. And, for what it's worth, I don't see how one person can think they can go the Puppetmaster route alone without the game suffering. Now, this is not the case with this game only -- there have been quite a few ARGs so far this calendar year that have gone down similar paths. As someone who genuinely cares what happens in this little slice of the gaming world, I can't even express how disappointed and sad I am everytime something like this happens. It's been said before that when a game ends in an implosion (or, in this case, an explosion of sorts) then the entire genre suffers, but I don't agree. However, I do think the integrity of the Grassroots ARG suffers, because it seems that for every Grassroots ARG that succeeds (Lockjaw, Orbital Colony, Vaprolofts to name three), there are more and more that fail, often miserably (Secret Life of Michael Adams, Another Contest Worth Entering, and now Renata Isle in 2006 alone).

On top of all of the game-related issues, it is shameful that the puppetmaster continues to use this forum (a player's resource) to communicate to his player base. And more than that, it is pitiful that the PM can't take the critcisms for his creation, because that's the risk someone takes by becoming a PM. The person who apologized for speaking their mind here shouldn't feel that they had to -- this is a place for free discussion. The person who feels that the criticisms were a sign of immaturity missed the point entirely.

In short: Games without planning = bad. Criticisms = acceptable. UnFiction forums = player resource, not Puppetmaster sounding-off space.

I have class to get back to. The kids are wondering why I look so concerned.

[Abstract]

If it really has all gone, then could we have the answer to the composer code. I have been working hard on it, but i just couldnt see anything. Maybe I was blinded by trying to do it all the time and should have taken a break, but, even if the game doesnt start again, then, as a personal favour, I would appreciate it very much if a solution was posted.

[audioslave]

[ScarpeGrosse]

If the PM posted only as himself, and not had posted as a player for more than a month before his first post as a PM (on UF, completely ignoring the terms of service of these forums), leading the players along, I might cut him some slack.

Had he posted this second time as a PM and not totally blamed the fact that his game ended in a disaster on his players, I might have cut him some slack.

PMs are welcome to post here as themselves, but they have to get a thicker skin and not try to explain away their problems with their own follow-through on their players, nor can they blame it on the UF Forums for not allowing them to post as players or characters.

No amount of PM Posting on forums, whether allowed or not, is not going to save a failing game or make a bad PM good.

[Ehsan]

Dear Mr. Aspiring PM,

I consider your words and actions insulting and annoying on so many different levels I don't even know where to begin this.

[kenji]

First, in response to Mbhulo:

[audioslave]

[kenji]

Sorry everyone, while working on my latest post I hadn't read the last few, and I think a lot of people really summarized most of what I was getting at, so I realized a lot of it is same old same old. A huge problem for me is even with all this we STILL haven't gotten an apology from the PM for posing as a player, which for me is a big breach of ethics.

Audioslave:

[Twiler]

Huh.