unforum

[fonograph]

[Rogi Ocnorb]

Come on guys. Step back, take a breath and apply a little Sherlock Holmes to the situation. I see only one conceivable scenario that could explain what's going on and that is that the game is going as planned.

While I wouldn't put it past GMD to throttle back a little (Or maybe even a lot) to preserve their market share in a temporarily game-rich environment, there would be at least a little "Excuse our dust." or other message of some kind.

I can't even guess at the ultimate reason(s) they've chosen to do this; But if there's one PM I'd put at the top of the "risk assessment and mitigation" heap, It'd be Brian. GMD simply has too much to lose by ignoring all requests for status. Homeland Security or not, the word would get out.

Watch me be all wet when, a month from now, we find out that somebody was being held hostage and under threat of death if one word was said about the game by anyone on the PM side.

And for keeping the characters quiet:
http://paranormalrestrainingorders.com/

[danteIL]

[Rogi Ocnorb]

I'm just saying that I know Brian is at least capable of ignoring requests from players for changes to the way a game is going if it suits his purposes.
Do you remember being stuck in Craigslist Hell and threatening to quit?
You hung on long enough to see the events in West Virginia come to be.
I couldn't and stopped playing because it simply went on too long.
I always wondered if it was some kind of twisted test to see how much people would take, but that didn't make sense from a business perspective. Unable to reconcile the conundrum, I gave up trying.

[Jas0n]

I don't see GMD as an organization that would drop things and take off on another adventure without some sort of out, especially with EE. Brian loves EE and to me it seems as though his biggest love is the freedom of developing it without someone peering over his shoulder telling him that he shouldn't do this or he should do that.

I think that whatever happened, it's much more complicated than just a simple tasking on another project. I've lost contact with Brian as well over other matters (since I don't play EE I wasn't as concerned about the slowdown). With losing contact with him (don't have phone) and all this stuff happening with EE - I've personally grown a bit worried myself.

Again, I don't see them dropping off the map for another project without some sort of out unless something extraordinarily major happened.

[konamouse]

Has anyone seen imbri? Maybe she can provide us with some information.

Edit: I don't mean to bring her specifically into uF regarding this - I meant it as a question about private contact with her to make sure folks at GMD are okay (because of all the worrying about safety and such for the PMs involved).

[johnny5]

[danteIL]

[thebruce]

Well haven't been paying EE, so I may be the person least able to offer an informed opinion, but also consdering what I know of Brian, what's the possibility, in his desire to experiment or change things up (as he's shown with certain aspects of EE), that the game has broken out ofwhat we'd consider the meta shell, into the real world? That is, Brian and team are now part of EE, in that..well consider that maybe the story was more real than they had planned, and now (as linked earlier) something from the Lovecraftian universe has entered our world and something has "happened" to the PM team?

Like Rogi mentioned, taking a step back and looking at the big picture - considering the size of the team (not just Brian), and the entire lack of BTS info over such a long period of time, one might consider that they are purposely remaining silent. Abandonment just wouldn't cut it. PM apathy wouldn't imply complete ignorance of the game's existence. Those we know on the PM team have remained purposely unresponsive, and those we don't know obviously just need to 'play dumb'.

So the way I see it:
1) Something (real) has happened to the PM team and they are unable to respond entirely, or
2) Something (in a 'new' in-game theme) has happened to the PM team and they are unable to respond because it's part of the story.

I find it hard to believe that
3) the entire PM team is so adamant about erasing EE from existence and not caring about the community that they're willingly ignoring any communication about the project (with known PMs being unavailable entirely).

A lot of people are jumping on 3). I supposed it is possible, but given Brian's reputation and rooted trust in the core community, IMO, it'll take a while for that to be believable for me.

The longer this is drawn out, the harder 3) is for me to believe, and the more feasible 2) becomes. I say 1) becomes less feasible because if something did actually happen to the team, someone will find out sometime and report on it (unless a 3rd party is very good at keeping the team silent against their will, for eg in the extreme case, gov't involvement).

So ya, the longer the silence drags on, the more I'm inclined to believe this is all intended to be (an experimental, mind you) part of the EE experience. That doesn't negate the other possibilities, but it makes them less likely in my eyes.

[johnny5]

[Rowan in Ireland]

making this short cuz i'm at an internet cafe and i wanna catch a bus back to the hotel sometime.

been lots of games that have just died in the middle. mostly grassroot ones. like the game some of us played as pirates (with the book that couldn't be photographed). and the game where the pm was killing of people if we didnt answer a question correctly. i liked that one. i killed off the first guy, and then nothing. i just guessed that one of the captives had killed off the kidnapper. i watch a lot of stupid little games like that, and i'm never expecting much, so i dont get all sad when they die. i almost expect them to.

but this is different - and yet the same. different because i never expected this PM team to do anything like that. but the way the game has gone feels completely like all the other little imploded games i've witnessed. this isnt like reading craigslists for days on end, or answering payphones day after day kind of burn out. this is 'we have had absolutely no in game contact for 3 weeks' anger. if we didn't know who the PMs were, i'm sure we would have all given up by now. one or two people probably would have kept checking the websites now and again, but most of us would have moved on.

part of me wants to give GMD the benefit of the doubt because i adored their past games. but right now, with the lack of communication from the PMs, i'm feeling really rather taken for granted, and my trust for them is rapidly becoming nil (and i'm sure most people know my feelings on trusting the PMs). honestly, we as players aren't asking for much. even just a quick post saying 'come back on the [pick a day]' would ease a lot of tension. hell, i even 'killed off' a character hoping it would spark some interest from the PMs, but nope. even argn got blown off by them. if it wasn't for the fact we've gotten some non-official scraps of info from someone with some knowledge of whats going on, i think we would have revolted long ago. it speaks to the strength of the game and this PM team that we have held on as long as we have. but we're not saints. we don't have infinite patience. we want answers. and i think we deserve them. right now i'm beginning to feel like a bride left at the alter because the groom told me to wait for him. and then kept telling people i sent after him that he's coming soon. eventually, i'm just gonna go find a new groom. and maim the first one when i see him.

[konamouse]

Regarding thebruce's theory - it's interesting supposition - do the PMs exist as PMs in the EE universe.

Howard is MIA (our one last IG character posting on SO). As are members of Forsythe Security and DC. Is it possible that during the week before the eclipse they were "taken"? Plausible. Is it possible that the PMs were taken - that sort of META would blow my mind out of a window and really turn things upside down in the world of CF/ARG.

[mapmaker]

I think one of the unspoken problems here is that some of us know more about what's happening than others. Not just that some of us are following Eldritch more than others, but that the curtain has been at time paper-thin. For instance, I knew this post on Schmeldritch was coming up. But there are other things - motivations, locations, what have you - that people aren't talking about here because it's too public a forum.

Another thing: I know that none of the PMs have fallen ill or have tragedies this time. But what does it say when most onlookers assume that that must be what happened? I've seen again and again people concerned for the safety of the PMs. In cases like this I think meta communication can be pretty useful.

[Rogi Ocnorb]

Fear of the unknown or fear of not knowing something that we feel like we need to know are some pretty strong (almost instinctual) drivers for anxiety in most people. And there's really not a lot of quantified study in the area. Mostly the research relates to performance anxiety in situations where there is a lack of information; Addressing metacognition and introspection.
I'm wondering if EE isn't simply exploring this area of human psychology or ignophobia.

EDIT: Just followed mapmaker's link. Forget everything I've said in this thread. It appears they just forgot to keep the players in the loop. Whoops!

EDIT2: Fixed to credit mapmaker instead of thebruce for the link.

[labfly]

check it out. mapmaker posted this over on the ee thread.