unforum

[UberTaco]

Hey guys, I'm near Atlanta.

Here are my only hang-ups:

1.) Lack of time.
2.) Lack of equipment
3.) Inexperience within Atlanta itself.

I could try to recruit someone; the best person I know is incapacitated for a while though due to trouble with his baby daughter.

Are all of the GPS missions necessary?

[Nyst]

Yes they are necessary, unless Essy rehides more of the pieces.

OPEN
Philadelphia -
San Diego -
Atlanta -
Berlin -
Vancouver -
Portland -
Chicago -
Miami -
London -
San Francisco -
Las Vegas -
Toronto -
Saint Louis - Nyst

COMPLETED
Hollywood - krystyn
Los Angeles - krystyn
New York - halo422mjk


I've posted to to the Bnet and the GPSMission forums, as well as four other global communities, one of which who was playing an ARG that has come to a standstill.
If anybody completes one of the missions and isn't related to this game, I'll be messaging them asking for help.

I'm looking for more forums to post to as well, because currently the response is very limited.

[krystyn]

Nice work, Nyst!

[xomunkixo]

Essy should rehide some in houston so I can play. XD!

[halo422mjk]

i suggest that if you're not dedicating time to participating in the missions then you spend time inducting new people into this game

right now we're to comfortable waiting around until the next wednesday hoping that we'll get more clues then

we need to start spamming sites for support: such as B.net, gpsmissions.com, heck even this site, its a necessity in order to progress

[enaxor]

I'm going to try and get the Portland mission done in the next couple of days. Unfortunately I've got a couple of full days ahead and it's not in the most convenient place for me.

[anaerin]

I see krystyn has done the Hollywood mission (So sayeth her twitter), though I'm not seeing the puzzle pieces on BROKEN-PIECES yet...

Care to post the URLs?

[edit]She's on a second mission right now, and will post them as soon as she can[/edit]

[drizjr]

The top of the BROKEN-PIECES page has changed to read the same thing as the top of the STREWN-ABOUT page.

YAY, krystyn and enaxor!


halo422mjk, while I agree with you that this game could use more players, I don't like the sound of "spamming sites for more support"... but that's just me.
I've let arg_deaddrop know about the gps missions, and Rowan has done a great job writing up the details on the blog, twice.

I noticed that someone in the UK ran the mission and the gps site shows that he finished it. What I don't understand, is why the BROKEN-PIECES page or the STREWN-ABOUT page don't automatically update when someone has completed the mission (like answering the phone in ILB automatically updated the radio drama).

[Kilination]

@Anaerin: They aren't on BROKEN-PIECES.
The ones that Krystyn completed are on STREWN-ABOUT, although it hasn't updated yet.
Maybe they only update on activation days?

Thank you Krystyn!

[anaerin]

I think the pieces aren't showing automatically because people aren't actually visiting the URLs they are given (As hinted at by Essie's talking about Nyst's run on BROKEN-PIECES). Once someone actually views the images at the URLs, they appear on BROKEN-PIECES (I think).

I could be wrong about that, though.

[enaxor]

[krystyn]

I tried to visit the URLs when I was out and about, but the URLs were failing on my phone - the domain wouldn't resolve. I will go do this now, and then share them all with you! You should have something like 14 pieces, I think.

edited to add:

Hollywood Mission:

http://thewaytheirworldended.com/clip-box-and-she
http://thewaytheirworldended.com/clip-could-around
http://thewaytheirworldended.com/clip-as-fast-as
http://thewaytheirworldended.com/clip-to-get-out
http://thewaytheirworldended.com/clip-over-through
http://thewaytheirworldended.com/CLIP/shrinking-light.mp3

Los Angeles Mission:

http://thewaytheirworldended.com/clip-great-flying
http://thewaytheirworldended.com/clip-not-calling
http://thewaytheirworldended.com/clip-wait-and-watch
http://thewaytheirworldended.com/clip-would-rise
http://thewaytheirworldended.com/clip-fiery-wings
http://thewaytheirworldended.com/clip-be-so-bad
http://thewaytheirworldended.com/clip-tugged-at-her
http://thewaytheirworldended.com/clip-mother-warned
http://thewaytheirworldended.com/CLIP/dont-go-far.mp3

[anaerin]

[krystyn]

I think I really like gpsmission.com, but I do think there's some issues with the interface and the way reality tends to shake up the best-laid plans.

I did both the Hollywood and Los Angeles missions today, and in both cases, I ran into some minor problems that were so close to being big problems I nearly gave up on both of them.

Generally speaking:

- my iPhone was not always perfectly responsive to GPS signal, and the gpsmission application would often automagically place me as being up to a full half block away from where I actually was. The spot it often pinned me at was usually a place I hadn't even been to yet! The first mission took me 42 minutes, and a lot of that was trying to get the system to respond in a timely manner without freezing the phone. (I had to hit the little 'find me now now now now' button a lot, too, which was frustrating)

Specifically, I felt like the waypoints were either so far and unrelated from one another that it felt random, or they kept doubling back so it felt like I was being made to run around in circles for the pleasure of a character I don't currently feel much of a meaningful connection with inside of the Intimation game. I was glad to work with the gpsmission app, but I really don't have much of a sense of why I am doing this in the first place.

I get the feeling that none of these missions have been scouted on the ground, at *all*. I had to cross many busy streets at weird intersections (several in the second mission had me navigating on-ramps for the freeways, on foot, which is, well, time-consuming, and a little bit risky).

With the first mission, I am glad I decided to end up in Hollywood before heading to the Los Angeles mission, because I very nearly got shut out of making 2 or 3 of the checkpoints. Graumann's was set up for a red carpet for The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, and so much of the actual plaza was completely cordoned off and set up with light stands and such for the press that once it was completely barricaded, it would've been impossible to see the theatre itself except from across the street. I picked up the first checkpoint, and then made my way around to 2 or 3 more, and then came back and saw that they had completely barred all access to the theatre, except from the far side which was not anywhere near the checkpoint I needed at the beginning. Whew.

It's VERY lucky that gpsmission is a little bit forgiving, too, as the puppetmasters made a pretty big mistake with the starting checkpoint - they indicate that you should start in the parking lot next to the theatre, but that parking lot only exists on Google Maps now!:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=orange+and+hollywood,+hollywood,+ca&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=34.313287,72.861328&ie=UTF8&ll=34.101802,-118.341554&spn=0.001095,0.002224&t=h&z=19

What is there *now* is a lot of construction or renovation of a very large building. I don't know how long it's been there, but I would definitely wager it's been more than a few months. I was really dismayed, and if I hadn't accidentally discovered how forgiving the application is, I would've gone on to the other mission and ditched this one completely. As it was, I was trying to go into the gift shop and go into the very furthest corner towards this mythical nonexistent parking lot, to no avail. Somehow, when I exited onto the sidewalk, and walked out into the street (on Orange, where the pedestrian walkway was built), I somehow got close enough and triggered it.

That's two close calls for one mission, so I was very glad to see only 6 total checkpoints, all in fairly close proximity to one another.

(Oh, and that was another thing, too: the checkpoints seemed to be saying, 'hey, look at this cool area! from here, you can see the Hollywood sign!' -- but they did not LITERALLY say that. The actual text you receive at each stop is generic, except for the URL it reveals. This was a little disappointing, since in-game I am not sure why I am even doing these missions! So yeah, I mean, walking from Hollywood onto Highland and going half a block down is pretty boring, as it's parking lots there and traffic, but it's also where the big mural portrait of John Ritter is, too. Why doesn't pricklypear mention this in her checkpoint success messages?)

In summary: The mission for Hollywood was a bit of stumping around mann's theatre, up to the deck above the fountain to see the Hollywood sign, and then around this one block that was pretty boring, except for Huge John Ritter.

So then I got on the train and headed all the way down to the end of the Red line at Union Station.

At first, I was absolutely positive that I was going to be led around Olvera St., as it's a super-picturesque place and there are several landmarks there. (I designed a live event for an ARG there myself, so I was probably just projecting my desires, heh). Instead, there was a path from the front door of the Station to this strange halfway point between a statue and a freeway entrance (see?), and then another checkpoint on a street that was almost completely blocked off ... by construction. I went around the long way, and even considered trying to sneak into the hard hat area, but workmen were nearby, and I was getting a bit footsore navigating all this street traffic in pedestrian-unfriendly L.A. I ended up walking allll the way around the New High Street and then sidling my way alongside a parking lot, hoping for the application to have mercy on me.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=republic+and+n+main+st.,+los+angeles,+ca&sll=34.056677,-118.238951&sspn=0.002191,0.004447&ie=UTF8&ll=34.057353,-118.239713&spn=0.008764,0.017788&t=h&z=16&iwloc=A

It did.

And then it was a total of 9 steps all around the Civic Center/ City Hall/ The Times Building area, which was neat, but stressful, traffic-wise. It felt like it took a long time to cross streets and make my way, especially since I got turned around once or twice. I was uncomfortable with all the freeway on-ramps and busy intersections, too.

Argh, OK, I am looking back at all I am writing, and I know it looks like I am totally complaining. It was NICE to get to see more of the city I live in, and I think the gpsmission app has a lot of awesome potential as a storytelling tool.

But I am more than a little dismayed at two missions that clearly were not scouted out ahead of time, and whose checkpoints were placed based on faulty or out-of-date information. Sure, I had a free day to roam around, but I made a good faith effort to drive, take the bus, take the train, and walk a whole heck of a lot in order to do this. I felt like I had to work a lot to 'correct' the missions, and this took a lot of time and energy.

I am hopeful that many of the remaining missions have no issues at all, and that L.A. is just one of those places with lots of traffic, lots of construction, and lots of red carpet galas.

I am just worried that other missions may be compromised by some of the same issues. It's a really nifty idea, but in reality, there were some pretty serious design issues.

[Erca]

I'm sure I'm trouting, but what is it that we're looking for on the GPS missions? I can go to the Philly one.