Return to Unfiction unforum
 a.r.g.b.b 
FAQ FAQ   Search Search 
 
Welcome!
New users, PLEASE read these forum guidelines. New posters, SEARCH before posting and read these rules before posting your killer new campaign. New players may also wish to peruse the ARG Player Tutorial.

All users must abide by the Terms of Service.
Website Restoration Project
This archiving project is a collaboration between Unfiction and Sean Stacey (SpaceBass), Brian Enigma (BrianEnigma), and Laura E. Hall (lehall) with
the Center for Immersive Arts.
Announcements
This is a static snapshot of the
Unfiction forums, as of
July 23, 2017.
This site is intended as an archive to chronicle the history of Alternate Reality Games.
  

The time now is Thu Nov 21, 2024 6:04 pm
All times are UTC - 4 (DST in action)		 View posts in this forum since last visit
View unanswered posts in this forum
Calendar
 Forum index » Archive » Archive: The Haunted Apiary (Let Op!) » The Haunted Apiary (Let Op!): General/Updates
[LOCKED] [META] Rant: Where are the puzzles? Is this ARG or ARS?
View previous topicView next topic
Page 4 of 10 [140 Posts]   Goto page: Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10  Next
Author Message
GunsmithCat
Unfettered


Joined: 05 Aug 2004
Posts: 459
Zemat wrote:
One more detail. About the slowness of the game (this is what I think is the most off-puting aspect of it).

Consider the amout of effort put on the wavs and payphone locations. The PMs probably are just 4 or 5 dudes (plus all the voice-talents) doing all this. While a thousand individuals, probably better coordinated, are finding out the payphone locations and answering them. The most probable reason they decided that we need 3 axons instead of 2 to active the axons is because they need to buy time for them to make additional material. And as I said earlier. Is quite probable the voice-actor recordings are made between transmisions to take into account our input (if they are taking into account us, which I hope is or will be the case).


The voice recordings were probably made well before a payphone rang.

And even if it was only 3 dudes, one could be trying to design some puzzles...this isn't an aspect of manpower, it's part of the design.

PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 4:02 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
Cu Roi
Veteran

Joined: 30 Jul 2004
Posts: 123

 		The Whole of the Law
While we cannot critique ilovebees until all is through, I have to agree that I would like a more frenetic experience.

If we are intended to Seek, Behold, & Reveal then we need more to reveal...Or we are missing the puzzles all together...

They need to force us to multi-task. We' need multiple puzzles to work on at the same time & they have the ability to do that. I mean, those unable to get to the axons need something to interact with.

We have too much time to catch our breaths.

I'm in this till it ends...but I want to have to exert willpower to peel myself away from the game. I don't want to sigh and walk away from the screen because I have to wait until the next update.

Just my take.

PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 4:03 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
Zemat
Boot

Joined: 30 Aug 2004
Posts: 54
farva wrote:
And I would argue the game is not on target for its audience, assuming you mean HALO fans. I came into the game because of the HALO 2 connotation, as did a lot of people I know. Now we're all at our wits end with the game. How is repeatedly chasing down payphones fun? Where are the puzzles and other fun interactive toys we've heard ARGs are famous for?


Consider instead that a whole bunch of Halo fans are also Marathon fans. And if something is essential both for Marathon fans and Bungie fans as a whole is puzzle solving. Heck I could argue that, even not being really an ARG, they started with the whole cryptic puzzle hidden in in-game content and media material, Cortana letters, Durandal rants, the whole playable Marathon Map hidden as cryptic text in in-game consoles (that one was amazing IMO).
_________________
SP's Royal Poissonier

PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 4:07 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
CoffeeJedi
Unfictologist


Joined: 27 Jul 2004
Posts: 1327
Location: Charlotte NC, USA
Zemat wrote:
...the whole playable Marathon Map hidden as cryptic text in in-game consoles (that one was amazing IMO).


i never got very far in the first Marathon, never played the sequels (however, i stayed up way too late one night a few years ago reading every single text screen posted by that really informative website though)
what map are you reffering to? how did it work?
_________________
seeker > !seek canoe
!splotch

PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 4:11 pm
 View user's profile Visit poster's website
 Back to top 
Zemat
Boot

Joined: 30 Aug 2004
Posts: 54
GunsmithCat wrote:
Zemat wrote:
Something...


The voice recordings were probably made well before a payphone rang.

And even if it was only 3 dudes, one could be trying to design some puzzles...this isn't an aspect of manpower, it's part of the design.


That the payphone stories are displaced a week in time in synchonicity the time of transmision (even if scrambled at the end). Makes me believe they weren't made beforehand. If they were, there would be no week long gaps. Or maybe you are right and everything is a cheap trick to make us believe it's real time (sort of).

But also, if all material was available before, the updates would be more continous in nature and the PMs would have started the game more close to the release date instead of 3 months back. But this is just an speculation
_________________
SP's Royal Poissonier

PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 4:19 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
farva
Veteran

Joined: 20 Aug 2004
Posts: 90

 		From a business standpoint, I think it would stupid to not have at least the majority of your ducks in a row before you open up shop. That is, this thing should have been in planning for many months so all the .wavs should have been recorded and finished before 8.24 and the site changes should have been built (allowing for the player interaction sections, of course). I could understand the seat-of-your-pants method to The Beast, an ARG really hadn't been tried before, but there is no excuse this time around. This weeklong gap between updates has to be employed to stretch the game out not because the PMs aren't prepared.
_________________
How about I Punchasize your face for free?

PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 4:36 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
dragongrrl
Boot

Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 12

 		spec on marketing
Question

ok, this is spec and maybe even trout but here goes...

someone earlier (DM?) spoke about the potential target market for Halo 2, and the possibility that the game is somewhat geared toward that demographic.

i've thought something like that from the beginning.

why are so many of the characters female? why does the SP "talk" in such an immature "voice"?

because the PMs are trying to entice more women/cybergrrls to get into (console) gaming.

why is the game playable for those who can play it only casually and for short periods of time. because the makers have realized that people are getting a little bored with games that require you to be online for hours at a time (eg Everquest). perhaps they are trying to appeal to people (like me : ) who can play console games for only short periods of time at a clip.
_________________
::raised by wolves::

PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 4:47 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
Zemat
Boot

Joined: 30 Aug 2004
Posts: 54
CoffeeJedi wrote:
Zemat wrote:
...the whole playable Marathon Map hidden as cryptic text in in-game consoles (that one was amazing IMO).


i never got very far in the first Marathon, never played the sequels (however, i stayed up way too late one night a few years ago reading every single text screen posted by that really informative website though)
what map are you reffering to? how did it work?


Weeh! Took me a while to find the link. Here you go:
http://marathon.bungie.org/story/hangar96.html
_________________
SP's Royal Poissonier

PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 4:48 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
sherpa
Unfettered


Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 338
Location: cam.ac.uk

 		Re: spec on marketing
dragongrrl wrote:
why are so many of the characters female? why does the SP "talk" in such an immature "voice"?

because the PMs are trying to entice more women/cybergrrls to get into (console) gaming.


!!!

If so I don't think they're going to do a good job, nor have much of a noticeable effect on the demographic. Most people I know the gender of playing this game are male. If a substantial number girls are playing, they're all keeping the fact well hidden Smile Making in-game characters female is nothing to do with the people who buy them - look at Tomb Raider, for example Smile

I agree on all the points about the console-gamer audience though, as I've said before.
_________________
stercus, stercus, moriturus sum!
~ a girl of many names ~

PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 5:07 pm
 View user's profile Visit poster's website AIM Address Yahoo Messenger MSN Messenger
 Back to top 
Dorkmaster
Unfictologist


Joined: 27 Jul 2004
Posts: 1328
Location: The People's Republic of Dork

 		However, Sherpa, I do tend to think that releasing a marketing virus such as this on the world does attract at least more female eyes than a poster with the Master Chief and a Halo 2 logo on it would... Not to say that it's going to necessarily reach out to get many women to play or buy Halo 2, but ya never know...
_________________
"The future is here. It's just not widely distributed yet." -William Gibson
"Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it." - PJ O'Rourke
"ACADEMY, n. A modern school where football is taught." - Ambrose Bierce

PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 5:13 pm
 View user's profile Visit poster's website AIM Address
 Back to top 
krystyn
I Never Tire of My Own Voice


Joined: 26 Sep 2002
Posts: 3651
Location: Is not Chicago

 		Re: spec on marketing
sherpa wrote:
If so I don't think they're going to do a good job, nor have much of a noticeable effect on the demographic.


http://www.clickz.com/stats/big_picture/demographics/article.php/3312301
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3496963.stm
http://money.cnn.com/2004/08/14/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/

That's just from the first page of Google results with key words, "girl gamers." I'd say the demographic is definitely something any game company would want to tap into, even a shooter like Halo.

Me, I'm still playing levels of Halo over and over again, even though I won the game (finally!) over a year ago. I definitely see myself being marketed to more than ever before, and it's becoming less rare to find other women who also love games of any kind.

PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 5:21 pm
 View user's profile Visit poster's website
 Back to top 
sherpa
Unfettered


Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 338
Location: cam.ac.uk

 		Oh yeah, I don't debate the existence of said demographic, and I've been to several women in gaming events and things. (In case you hadn't figured it out by now, game design is one of the things I study, and I'm a woman Smile)

I just don't know how effective this campaign as a whole - or specifically the fact that the AIs are female - is going to be on girls - the biggest form of publicity has been the payphones, which just rings of 'sad nerds' in many ways! But as Dorkmaster says, at least it's better than a poster of Master Chief Smile

Hmm. AIs serve humans. Jan needs an injection to be special. I get it! This game is a misogynist paradise, showing the inferiority of females! Right.

*gets back to her sewing and knitting*
_________________
stercus, stercus, moriturus sum!
~ a girl of many names ~

PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 5:32 pm
 View user's profile Visit poster's website AIM Address Yahoo Messenger MSN Messenger
 Back to top 
Aelith
Decorated


Joined: 21 Jul 2004
Posts: 153
Location: Missouri

 		here's another female gamer. but small time because I can't afford a real gamming machine. I like this ARG stuff because it's free and it's way more challaging than constantly wacking something with a sword or gun. Doubt I'll ever play Halo.
_________________
Looking forward

PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 5:58 pm
 View user's profile Yahoo Messenger MSN Messenger
 Back to top 
Macavity
Entrenched


Joined: 25 Jul 2004
Posts: 883
Location: UNSC Comm Relay Station Alpha, West Shokan, NY
Zemat wrote:
CoffeeJedi wrote:
Zemat wrote:
...the whole playable Marathon Map hidden as cryptic text in in-game consoles (that one was amazing IMO).


i never got very far in the first Marathon, never played the sequels (however, i stayed up way too late one night a few years ago reading every single text screen posted by that really informative website though)
what map are you reffering to? how did it work?



Weeh! Took me a while to find the link. Here you go:
http://marathon.bungie.org/story/hangar96.html



Something I noticed about that page (and which is way OT, but I thought I'd bring it up anyway):

Hamish Sinclair (by way of the agent poena.dare) mentions that 117 is 819 divided by seven.

[OT Spec] Perhaps the Master Chief's designations (SPARTAN-117 and JOHN-117) are one-off references to the Marathon Infinity map - and thus to Hamish Sinclair? [/OT Spec]
_________________
You are likely to be eaten by a grue. If this predicament seems particularly cruel,
Consider whose fault it could be, with no match or torch in your inventory...
NP: Erase The Truth

PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 6:29 pm
 View user's profile AIM Address Yahoo Messenger MSN Messenger
 Back to top 
Atrophied
Entrenched


Joined: 29 Aug 2004
Posts: 1133
Location: 53742E 4A6F686E27732C 4E4C00

 		Indeed. There have been multiple references to Marathon through Halo/2 117*7 is just one of them.
The Cortana letters were another (the whole Durandel thing).
There are probably many others aswell, but not being a Marathon player, I don't know of them.
_________________
"It will be happened; it shall be going to happening; it will be was an event that could will have been taken place in the future." -- Time travel, as explained by Arnold J. Rimmer

"The Future's bright, the Future's Cuboid" - Juxta

PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 6:32 pm
 View user's profile Visit poster's website
 Back to top 
Display posts from previous:   Sort by:   
Page 4 of 10 [140 Posts]   Goto page: Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10  Next
View previous topicView next topic
 Forum index » Archive » Archive: The Haunted Apiary (Let Op!) » The Haunted Apiary (Let Op!): General/Updates
Jump to:  


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum
You cannot post calendar events in this forum



Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group