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[Just~Can't~Wait]

 [META] Evaluation of SaveMyHusband

[Alundra]

I agree with you 100%!

[Phaedra]

Since your post is mostly a reaction to/evaluation of the game, and not as much speculation about the final location, I'm not going to lock it. We do already have a thread for speculation about the final location here -- please use that thread for speculation and discussion of the final answer.

Also, the forum doesn't recognize HTML in posts, just BBCode, so I'm going to remove your paragraph markers and edit the topic to more accurately reflect what your post is about.

[Remmiz]

It was an interesting game, but I think the PMs have a bit to learn. First off - proper indexing and preparation. Google is a smart engine...it will go to any links founds and index them. It is best to test everything on a close machine and then only upload things as needs. If its on the web, someone will find it. Second, the puzzles and daily tasks were horrible. I completed the puzzle and wrote my summary for the day in under 5min, without looking at any threads on this forum.

And last, which I might be alone on this, it feels like we haven't accomplished anything in the past 7 days. We solved useless puzzles which in the end, didn't give us any real hints as to who did it. Someone could jump in on day 8 and solve it just by watching the last videos and matching voices/Google searching.

I do admire the PMs in the time they have put into it and fixing of problems. I was very worried at first that it would be completely computerized and all the errors would remain unfixed; but the PMs have been very responsive at changing puzzles and fixing errors. It is unfortunate that their first arg-ish advertisement had these problems but hopefully they have learned and I look forward to future puzzle solving from them.

[dixiedooh]

too much sensorship

[Phaedra]

I'm not sure what you're talking about.

We don't have time to censor: we're too busy trying to keep the place organized and keep our site from crashing. We don't tell you what you can and can't talk about (beyond stopping flamewars) -- all we do is try to keep the number of redundant threads down. That is, we don't tell you what you can talk about; we just direct you to where to talk about it.

The only "censorship" I can think of is our request not to continue to harass the employees of Deep Focus. The owner of this forum requested that we ask players to stop attempting to contact them, and we passed on the request.

Beyond that, I'm not sure to what "censorship" you could be referring.

[dixiedooh]

free speech

[OhDonPiano]

I do have to say that it's a bit silly for people to be upset about how little their prize share is likely to be. I mean, they're offering a total of $25,000 to be shared by everyone who solves it. Even if there had been no snafus and no forums like this one that allowed people to crib answers, there were bound to be a LOT of folks who figured it out. I participating knowing full well that at best I'd get a coupon for a few cents off at Applebees.

That being said, the game was pretty simplistic. The clues were ridiculously easy to solve, and there were plot holes big enough to drive a truck through. They might benefit from having a real mystery novelist help them plot the next one. Or, shoot, just steal a plot from Agatha Christie, or something.

Oh, and my 80-year-old father could have faked better textspeak than we got from the characters. Det. Kinlan and Christina I could understand being a little shaky with it, but even Max's textspeak was crap.

P.S. dixiedooh, that's not how internet forums work. This isn't your private chat room. What kind of forum would this be if the moderators let everyone talk about whatever the heck they wanted to whenever and wherever they felt like it?

It sure wouldn't be a game discussion board, and the people who wanted to talk games would stop coming because they coudn't find anything for all the selfish chatters who want to talk about whatever they want to talk about.

If you think that's rude, that's too bad. That's just the way internet forums have to be handed.

[NYwizard]

 

[konamouse]

Censorship?

Ditto to what Phaedra posted.
We've been trying to keep stuff organized so it's easier to follow a conversation. We've been busy clarifying thread topics, encourage people to post their specs and keep the spoiler tags for puzzle answers, discourage harmful/libelous/slanderous/snarky posts (without deleting any of them). Duplicate threads are locks with redirecting links to the previously started thread for the same topic.

I don't understand your beef with unFiction. We've enjoyed meeting new folks. I hope those who enjoy Alternate Reality Games, real puzzle solving & interactive stories stick around and play a real ARG. Come into the irc chat (chat-solutions.org #unfiction, or click on the java chat applet link on www.unfiction.com).

We have plenty of areas for "social conversations", including our chat room (where we have many very off topic sessions). All we have done is try to keep repeated thread topics from growing like weeds. And provided links to those topics for those who keep posting new threads rather than replying into existing threads. We have never told anyone to "stay on topic" within any thread, we have never told someone that they can't enjoy some fun posts (in fact, there are plenty of off topic, social posts in the main trailhead).

However, if you don't like our yard, please feel free to play somewhere else.

[Phaedra]

You want to use the house metaphor?

See the rules and guidelines for posting here. They're from the guy who owns this site. It's his house, his rules. You don't like them, go elsewhere.

We are not primarily a social site: we're here to play these type of games. Socialization and chatter are acceptable, but their priority is secondary to that of the smooth functioning and easy navigation of the forums so that people can quickly and easily find the information they're looking for.

If we hadn't been on top of keeping these threads organized, this place would be unreadable. People wouldn't be able to find any information, and our forums would be useless for collective puzzle solving. You want to have a conversation that's not on-topic, either start an "off-topic" thread for it, or, if it's just between you and one other person, take it to Private Message.

Or, for that matter, use the trailhead thread, which we haven't tried at all to keep on topic, so there'd be some outlet for chatter. But pick one place for the off-topic chatter/socialization, or you'll make the place unusable.

This isn't a chat room. It's a forum. If you want to chatter, find somewhere to do it where it doesn't impede other people's ability to use the forums and raise the noise-to-signal ratio outrageously.

And if people had been courteous enough to their fellow posters to post in appropriate topics, not start duplicate threads, etc. we wouldn't have had to lock as many threads. See, for example, all the other subforums on this site where people are using decent internet etiquette, and the moderation is nearly invisible.

[jp.diddy]

Re: free speech

[Just~Can't~Wait]

Thanks, and

[Transtar]

Speaking of keeping threads on topic.......

For the posted topic: I think the sucess of this game depends on what the goals of it were. If it was to create a challenging game for people of all skill levels, they failed. If it was a way to get advertisemet for the sponsors then Applebee's got more than their money's worth. (I count at least 4 cheezy applebee's ad placements ) as for court TV and Suzuki... ehh not so much, they might as well have taken out some google ads.

For the unposted topic:

I was a fourm moderator once (luckly for just one game in a massive gaming fourm) and I was ALOT stricter that the people here. I let an off topic tread be created ONCE a day, and kept all the chat there. But what alot of people (not just people on this topic, I have run into this problem before) have to realize is that fourms are not AIM... If you want to chat about everything and anything goto your local neighborhood chat program... If you want to discuss a topic, and your ideas around said topic, use a fourm. Thanks mods, and keep up the good work

[SMHPlayer]

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