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Abraxas

Ok, it's done!

Here are the last two logs:

NahimTilean, Nilvin, Abie, Tylean

PM chat #1

Turns out that without suspecting it we asked the PM for help on the aorta/rose/quartz puzzle. Laughing

The PM will have another chat in about 7 to 8 hours from the time of this writing.

I'd like to thank the PM for this fun "test" game! I particularly enjoyed the involvement of a new language. But the best part was the teamwork and all around nice chat in #rabbitblack! Very Happy

**Posted:** Thu Jul 09, 2009 10:53 pm

AUZ505

Thank you all and especially Deald for this great game.

Some comments:
I especially liked the huge background story and I personally was fascinated by not knowing who to trust, since also TEDO had some real good arguments.

The artificial language was a interesting concept. But I am not sure if I really like it or not. On the one side it made this ARG very special and fascinating on the other side it made it much harder to follow the story. Thanks to all the translating efforts, people.

Unfortunately I did loose interest at the end phase of the game. The last few days the story got very complex and it seems that the game was more like a "online story", where one has to read (or chat) a lot without much the players could do. Perhaps I missed something, but at the end I mainly read the logs (which is very difficult) and the emails. So it was a little bit like reading a book, but due to the medium (chat, email) it was not that easy to follow. What could have been helpful, would have been an additional page/site were the main things (forbidden ritual, non linear time, ...) would have been explained by revealing pages one by one. So it is not necessary for players to try to get this understanding by reading thousands of chat lines.

Active involvement was missing a little bit.
Perhaps I am more the "puzzle guy" Wink

Coming to this topic: The puzzles were really great. I like it when puzzles involves research on the internet to find answers. There was only one problem with the three poem puzzle. It was not possible to validate if the answers might be correct or not.

@Daeld
Just don't get me wrong with my criticism. I really enjoyed this game. Since it was a "test game" I wanted to give a feedback regarding what could be improved from my point of view.

Looking forward to your next game.

**Posted:** Fri Jul 10, 2009 5:10 am

_________________
Playing:

Abraxas

I agree with AUZ and the PM probably will, as well as he already said, this was going longer than he thought it would...towards the end it must have felt like chat log after chat log, if you didn't write to TEDO or the book. TEDO had more puzzles, we apparently missed.

Also would have to say the game was lacking in parts on the puzzle side. Felt like some clues were not received or came in too late to the party. Sometimes we were not sure if there were meant to be clues we just didn't see or if it was "stalling".

I didn't think I would enjoy that many chats, but the characters each had their quirks and felt different. I am also more puzzle-oriented, which isn't to say I am good at them, though. Smile

I want more experience with them, I guess.

I loved the language, but I notice I was more reluctant to figure it out towards the end. Perhaps because there is no other way to confirm it then to ask for words and I didn't like the thought of having all those chats riddled by help on words.

While playing this game I started to listen to ARGNetcasts from the beginning. That's how I learned about Ny Takma, a game which in terms of language use is probably closest inspiration to this game. I should read up on how people figured out all those words back then. Did they use direct confirmation, could it be derived by similarity to our languages or frequency of the words...there definitely was some derivation possible in this game, especially with grammar and tenses, which we largely neglected until late in the game, I guess.

Best part: language, characters and story development, in that order perhaps

Worst part: the TEDO videos, because I am very bad with figuring out mumbling

**Posted:** Fri Jul 10, 2009 6:47 am

Tresbien · Unfictologist Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 1436

We're having second PM chat if anyone cares to join #rabbitblack now.

**Posted:** Fri Jul 10, 2009 10:11 am

Daeld

This is not my final PM message

**Posted:** Fri Jul 10, 2009 10:50 am

Abraxas

log of the second PM chat

It is quite a bit longer! Wink

**Posted:** Fri Jul 10, 2009 11:16 am

Daeld

Thank you all for playing!

**Posted:** Sat Jul 11, 2009 8:58 am

Tresbien · Unfictologist Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 1436

Daeld, thanks again so much to you for an engrossing adventure through all the dimensions of space and time. It says so much about you and your game that people stuck with it even while needing to learn a unique language to communicate. I'm now fascinated by the Isle of Man and wonder: how did you decide to use it as the base of the TEDO?

The chat logs were long. I wasn't thinking about that on a daily basis. Now, looking back, I can see that it would have been helpful if we players had posted a short summary of the high points here along with each log. Generally, I don't hang out in chat, but for this game (like Charlotte is becoming real) it was a fun group with whom to spend time and work/play. Thanks to all of you, too!

While I was away from my desk for a bit, Daeld posted in the chat for us to PM him here with any further questions. Sorry I missed you there, Daeld, but am looking forward to other adventures ahead. Thanks for the additional words; I wish I'd known the word for "mourn" before. Wink

**Posted:** Sat Jul 11, 2009 10:36 am

Daeld

**Posted:** Sun Jul 12, 2009 12:03 am

amandel

Really needed to understand the nature of my withdrawal pangs before I could properly thank RabbitBlack and all the other bunnies in the warren for an engaging, full-of-fun ride.

While all of us struggling to learn and use TEH language did create a special bond in an unigue ARG, ultimately the PM's generous character seen especially through the intensive IG characters' interaction and the entire group's sense of absurd humor and adventure combined to make this truly memorable.

Am so counting the days until we all huddle up again, as is Kosmopol whose obstacle was simply a RW time crunch, definitely not related to learning the wierd tongue. So Xenoglossophobia-free (haha Twisted Evil

) I miss you all and I thank you all.

**Posted:** Sun Jul 12, 2009 9:24 am

_________________
"I could write a hell of a paper on a grown man who dresses like a flying rodent."
"Can you hook up with a Snow Person? Can't tell you or I'd have to marry you."

Abraxas

Well, I use an IRC client and still was too lazy to remove #rabbitblack from perform...
Wink

**Posted:** Sun Jul 12, 2009 3:46 pm

kosmopol

I also want to thank the PM! I loved the trail (you were first PM using comment function of my homepage for a trail, it was really cool!).

Unfortunately I had not so many time to support and to play the game. I loved the language concept - as far as I know (correct me if I'm wrong), there weren't any ARGs where you have to communicate in completely unknown language - at least because of this fact this ARG will be in ARG history Smile

I hope next time I will have more time, because the story and concept was really great. Thank you!

**Posted:** Mon Jul 13, 2009 1:14 pm

_________________
kosmopol Merzmensch: http://merzmensch.blogspot.com
Speaks German/Russian/Japanese
Leonard Nimoy calls me by nickname: http://tinyurl.com/gvuvydr

Abraxas

Kosmopol, check out Ny Takma.

**Posted:** Mon Jul 13, 2009 5:52 pm

Daeld

**Posted:** Tue Jul 14, 2009 3:37 am

bluesylvia

Time to take off those mourning clothes for TEDO have survived!

They have uploaded a video and have also updated their blog just to let us all know that they're still happy, healthy, and with us.

Not sure if this should be posted in a new thread or not, so I'm chiming in here first. Other than TEDO I haven't found anything new.

**Posted:** Sun Aug 16, 2009 10:28 am