unforum

[Pixiestix]

Your enjoyment level in something doesn't change what it is. Many people are enjoying the sim game - and more power to them. It's still busy work, that they keep extending rather than giving us actual story content.

[catherwood]

The current mood here reminds me of that period of time during the "I Love Bees" days, when the updates were repetitive and players wailed, "For the love of God, please, no more payphones!"

It also reminds me of a mantra used by Game Control (sorta like puppetmasters, people running puzzle hunts), which I can't find the source for right now. Basically it boils down to watching for signs that a puzzle or a game mechanic has become a chore for the players. If it's only fun for GC, it's not fun for the players and should be redesigned.

[danteIL]

[bermudalife]

[gimlet]

[catherwood]

[hinoai]

I was on board at first, because I think that DDs are cool, but right now, I'm really over them. I don't like that there is one person that has information and won't give it out to everyone. We are all in this game together, aren't we? She won't give out Howard's number, and it's kinda pissing me off. ARG(h).

Just venting, guys. I didn't care so much before because the guy who got the DD uploaded files and videos right away, but this girl specifically won't give out information that she has. We could all try calling, and not have to rely on her.

[aromerogern22]

I would assume that the lady who found the phone needs to be the caller, cause I'm assuming Howard would expect a phone call from Megan - I don't see how this movie doesn't follow the timeline though, because if it were later we'd Still be able to use Social Media as the main game driver like we did for Cloverfield then have to depend on DD's.

[Pixiestix]

Omfg, this is how dead drops work. It's been a huge component of ARGing sing the beginning. Not everyone gets everything. Should she give out the number - yeah, after she's made her call and got her part done - realistically, these are prepaid burner phone - if people start calling the number it's going to fuck shit up. That's WHY there is only one phone, and only one person who has it.

My most prized position is a dead drop from a live meet during the ARG Urban Hunt (Dave Szulborski) - a one of a kind mask (made by Toenolla) out of a set of (I believe) 6 customer made masks. We lost one. One asshat decided to steal it, not share any info, and disappear. But 5 lucky people got beautiful artifacts to treasure forever.

[hinoai]

I get that DDs are designed so that one person or group gets information, but I don't like it when the information is withheld from everyone, when she's already called it.

I'm fine with peacefully disagreeing. I just wanted a place to rant because I felt like it's not her call to decide what information everyone else in the game gets. She doesn't get to call the shots when she's a random player just like anyone else is.

[wyokid]

[gimlet]

Ok, I just looked back through what happened, and there actually is something annoying, and people *were* withholding information.

Explanation, as far as I understand it:

I don't fully understand what Discord is or why everything seems to be routing itself through there in every arg right now, but it sounds like it's group voice chat and there's an 10 CL LN channel there.

Despite the majority of players being at the unforum and Reddit, the user who got the high score and the message was on Discord and freely shared the message there, solely. At no point did anyone think to tell Reddit or the Unforum of this development. Even just that it was happening. I understand why you may not want to share specifcs until the DD is located, but at least tell us what's going on.

Not only that, but some Discord users tried to share it, and they got told to take it down - despite the fact that it was freely available for those select few on the open discord channel. The rest of us have been sharing stuff freely back & forth between our forums and they're not. That's not playing entirely fair.

It wasn't until the girl had the phone and was already home - at least an hour later - that somebody bothered to tell the rest of us what was going on. Even then we were communictated with mostly through the Discord via the Twitch stream.

This is like the tenth time this month I've watched an Arg devolve because of people forcefully shoving all the player interaction onto Discord (which seems like an awkward clusterfuck to be honest) and not documenting ANYTHING aywhere else for the rest of us not willing to subject ourselves to that and I am NOT a fan.

[hinoai]

Huh. I thought that Discord was some sort of Reddit chat, and I was staying far away. Shows what I know, lol.

I feel like I've said my piece on the phone issue (I just needed to vent), so I'm going to go back to trying to figure things out/waiting for information now. Let's see what happens!

Fwiw on the rest, I agree. I honestly think that a message board like UF is the best place for games like this. It's easiest to disseminate information in a way that's logical, organized, and accessible to everyone. People don't have to ask "I'm new, can someone catch me up on what's happening?" because the information is all there for them at the click of a button, and easy to find. A chat by nature is a temporary-type discussion that moves quickly, and prone to a LOT of OOG discussion and random things. Plus, it's very limiting, since not everyone can log in all the time. Reddit is useful for the sheer number of users, but it's disorganized to the max, easy to lose information due to the way that posts are displayed, and just way too random. I check when I'm looking for info, but tbh if someone summarized everything on here, I'd never look over there at all.. (that's why I'm trying to help out when I notice things over there by posting them here.. and THANK YOU to everyone else doing the same!).

Also, sometimes users on UF find information first, but Reddit never seems to acknowledge it or care. It doesn't really matter, but blah. Mildly irritating. I'm probably biased too because this is where all of the real stuff happened for the first Cloverfield ARG. There wasn't even a Reddit back then (thank GOD I don't have to check 4chan for information. I'd die.)

Uhhh.. okay, signing out of here for me and going back to gameplay. Guess I needed one more little rant. I'm glad to have the board here to do so and feel validated lol.

[IronJ146]

There's a link to the Discord chat on the primary sticky on Reddit, so it's not like it's a secret location. Nothing stops anyone from going in there and sharing the info. I wouldn't exactly say it's "withholding information" by not making a point to take it out of the chat and giving play by play in a larger "forum" (To use the word generally). There's probably an equal argument that could be made for using uF exclusively being too slow or something. Most of the games I've participated in have had active IRC or Ventrillo rooms while active things like that are happening, anyway, so I don't see what's abnormal about using discord to chat.

[gimlet]

The problem is not that people are using Discord, it's that Discord users aren't sharing their information like the rest of us are, like all the sharing that's happened between Unfiction & Reddit, and are making decisions amongst themselves without the rest of us, and saying if we don't like it we should go on Discord.

Right now everyone on Reddit is complaining, and the people on Discord are saying to them:

"Well, you should just come on Discord if you want to be up to date with info."

Which I can't even begin to count the ways in which that's wrongheaded.

Like, who are these people? Discord shills? Because that's what it really sounds like. And it's not the first time I've seen exactly this happen either.

We all use a different combo of forums, and that's ok. I shouldnt have to use discord if I don't want to anymore than they should have to use the Unforum.

They're claiming it's faster to talk than type and it's just not. I read faster than I can talk, I type just as fast. The little of the discord I heard - when the twitch stream actually worked properly - was just people shouting the same things at the poor girl over and over. That is easier to avoid when you can read that somebody's already posted something. You can tackle problems collaboratively amd methodically.

It's also worth it to use text just to have documentation, to be able to read back through peoples ideas and see how they figured things out. It aso means people who aren't around when developments happen can catch up more easily (nobody is awake 24/7!).

For once this is a problem that has nothing to so with the PMs but instead whoever's trying to manipulate & funnel Redditors into using Discord.