unforum

[jarnaez]

[quitthecarnival]

I think a family stalking could be cool. Not necessarily mother/father/child though. It doesn't have to be a little kid either. I could see maybe a 20ish year old main character with maybe an 11 or 12 year old sibling. That's young enough to go with the Mythos, but not young enough to scar some poor kid/make it super messed up.
It'd be interesting if it started off as a kidnapping then slowly changed. They could find crazy drawings and shit too.

[Lunasa]

[quitthecarnival]

[Lunasa]

[SolDL]

Protip to all prospective Slendy Puppetmasters: There are far, far more creative ways to get some exposure, other than "I heard a rumor that this was a slendy story," post on Unfiction, and let it go. >_>;

[DMPowerade]

Honestly, I like the idea that the different Slender Man Mythos Attempts are so wildly variant. I mean, besides being very much in the spirit of Slendy (if there are so many conflicting stories, who's to say which are true of him?), but also because it allows for the creation of so many different, rich canons. I mean, we're all going to discount the Slender Attempts which don't even come close to our desired Slendy, so to get so much variety in attempts mean that there's going to be both a wide variety of well-supported interpretations, as well as a wider body from which to form those interpretations.

As for my personal Slendy, I like what's been done with MH/TT/EMH. I really like the electromagnetic interference, and the Slendy Sickness. I also like the fact that Slendy isn't a static-in-time being: we've seen the use of video, YouTube, and cell phones to further his manipulation of his characters and while that can seem contrived, I like it. Further, I love the idea (and would love to see more) of Slenderman's diurnal presence. Anybody worth their salt can be menacing in the dark, but Slenderman's continued public appearance during the day is so much moreso. I'd also like to say that I'm firmly in the "Slendy as incomprehensible force" camp, rather than desiring any explanation/rational.

On the negative side, I'm tired of the characters being aggressively oblivious. How many times to I need to read about a character getting pissed at the Slender Man suggestions? "THERE'S NO WAY IT'S THAT, GUYS. I'M NOT EVEN CONSIDERING IT, WHICH IS WHY I'M TAKING THE TIME TO REFUTE THAT POSSIBILITY BUT NO OTHER ONES". We get that it's silly to have your character accept the Slender Man off the bat, but there's no need to have them get so worked up about denying it. Why can't anyone just shrug that off? In addition, I'd like to see a little bit less author focus/surprise about the pictures which inevitably accompany Slender Victims. I know they're pretty standard stuff, but how many blogs/vlogs need to show me the same pictures before I'm allowed to just say, "I get it" and move on? Unless you're going to do something new, just mention them and get on with it, please.

[awakeasaurusrex]

OK, my thoughts:

1: Absolutely gamemakers mustn't feel constrained by the existing mythology. Throw in a few references to other stuff, sure, that helps create the impression that we're making this huge connected experience, but do your own thing. Variety is the spice of life, and ripping off Marble Hornets or EMH is just going to drive people back to the real thing. The last thing I'd want to see is things get homogenised. Some people like tentacles on Slendy, I think they're a bit goofy (because seriously, how overused are tentacles these days, both in Slendy ARGs and in weird horror in general?).

2: On that note, do come up with your own mythology and cosmology. The thing which both EMH and MH do very well is giving the impression that Slendy, Masky and the Rake are operating by a set of rules, with an agenda. It's not just "weird stuff happens... then keeps happening... then just sort of keeps happening"; there's an impression that things are going somewhere. Trust me, people can tell when you're being weird for the sake of being weird. This is why David Lynch's films are more successful than so many people who try to mimic him - contrary to appearances, there is an underlying structure and reason behind everything.

3: That said, the one thing you mustn't do is actually give people enough information that they can work out what the rules are; things need to stay unpredictable. Getting a feeling that Slendy is operating according to rules which you can't see is spooky; working out what those rules are isn't, because then he becomes predictable and that's not interesting.

4: I agree with DMPowerade that excessive "Scully-ism" is irritating. Remember on the X-Files where it eventually became ridiculous that Scully kept denying the existence of the supernatural when supernatural stuff undeniably happened to her every single week? Yeah. It looked stupid when professional TV people did it. You can guarantee it will look more stupid when you and your buds do it.

5: If you insist on having a totheark type character, take a hint from MH: don't have them be too sane and coherent - at least not when they are acting as a Slendypuppet, obviously if they have a cover identity they should seem quite reasonable when they're using it (in fact, they should seem completely sane and sensible so when they trick people into a Slendertrap it's believable that said people would have trusted them). I gave up following the whole The Stopping Lights/The Master Comes thing because Michiru in that was far too coherent on the one hand, and too obviously mad on the other - she wasn't crazy enough to be properly scary, but she was just crazy enough that there was no hope of her character being able to win Chase's trust or do anything especially interesting. Slendypuppets, if you use them at all, should seem as mysterious and inhuman as Slendy himself. TT did this quite well with the phone call in their latest video.

6: Engage with the audience, don't shut them out, and above all take the No Wifin' jokes with a sense of humour. People joke to cover up their fear, after all, so if they're joking that means you're getting to them - and that's what you want. Yes, a clip of one of your videos with Gimme Twenty Dollaz blaring out whenever Slendy appears isn't scary. But wouldn't it be creepy to have your main character driving along listening to the song on the radio, talking about how the song makes them feel safe and they're thankful their followers have been able to help them make light of their situation, just before an especially harrowing Slendy encounter? One of the things I love about EMH is that the guys have a sense of humour, and they know exactly how to use to to reinforce rather than undermine the scares.

So, to summarise my 6 points:

1: No plagiarism in the club, gimme $20.
2: No random in the club, gimme $20.
3: No transparency in the club, gimme $20.
4: No Scullies in the club, gimme $20.
5: No mundanes in the club, gimme $20.
6: No killjoys in the club, gimme $20.

[SolDL]

I love the 20 dollars meme. It's kinda lame to see Troy and the like downplaying it; they clearly don't realise that people use it as a defense mechanism when they get scared. It's an attempt to make Slendy's motives seem mundane. Which just plain works for them.

I've always wanted to see a Slendy story where they actually self-consciously work that into it somehow. Or even ruin it. Show there's no escape. XD

[NoMoreGaems]

I do like the idea of someone listening to Gimme 20 Dollars just before he shows up, or having it as the ringtone on their cell phone, or something. And the EMH guys really do have that down, look at what they did to Dixie_wolf. She posted a dream she had where the EMH guys handed her a note with "VII VII VII" written all over it, and the next game object found was a letter mailed to who they thought was her with "VII VII VII" written all over it. That's hardcore.

[Guest]

Could someone explain?

[NoMoreGaems]

It doesn't really. Best I can tell, someone just posted a youtube video of a clip from the song played over a part of a Marble Hornets video, then it spiralled out of control.

Personally, I liked when they added Masky's theme as well: Ah, Come On by Chuggo. Because in 17, when Tim and Slenderman are both on screen... horrible rap mashup commences!

[SolDL]

[NoMoreGaems]

Yeah, though it's easy to miss it in that mess of a thread. She asked Cactus where he lived, he said he was in Oklahoma. She figures they picked the only HYBRID who sent in an Oklahoma address and hoped for the best.

[awakeasaurusrex]