ConSpirare

[aslog]

This post won't have much to do with EU, I just thought I'd let the ones who are interested know what is going on in "the real world". I don't work for any company who made this (as some people seem to have thought), so there won't be any clues either. Just a summary (:

ConSpirare is over. We found Maria and we guided Ingela towards the Other Side. We found out who The Others are (that's us. you, me, adrijanna, pepper, the hobo you saw yesterday, that guy over there and everybody else who feels like The Other), and we solved a whole lot of clues. We're not roleplaying any more (for this time).

And yes, it was an ARG. I'm not completely sure what was made up for the game and what was actually true. But then again, does it really matter? We had fun, we made some good friend (and girlfriends/boyfriends) and we came to some good conclusions. Hopefully the Company P will give us the full story (and the answer to all of the clues we still haven't solved (like the Enochian Angels)) eventually.

I don't think the link between ConSpirare and EU worked out as well as they (Company P and MindArk, i guess) had wished. But I do hope at least some of you had fun doing this (and if you didn't, well, I'm sorry, but there was really nothing I could do about it) and that you somehow feel that you have gained something from it. I also hope you got some good loot in whatever it was happened today, you all deserve it. (:


And yeah. Since most of you seems to have got it wrong. The ARG was not a part of the TV drama, it was the drama that was a part of the ARG. (:

[Kombinator]

I see, well that is pretty cool, ARG is a fun way to play. Glad you had fun, and let's see what MA actually does, the event today unfortunately was not really an event at all...inasmuch as nothing really happened

[Jimmy B]

Thanks for that summary aslog.

Whilst it may not have worked perfectly, it did generate a lot of interest (good and bad lol) so I don't think it was a complete failure by any means.
I think quite a number of people on the forum and in-game enjoyed trying to figure it all out.

I think the difficulties many of us had was that things were going on across multiple platforms (in-game, this forum, other forums, TV), and this made things rather difficult to follow, particularly for non-Swedes who didn't know the background story.

Many of us are regularly requesting more storylines and events from MindArk so I'm glad they're trying things out. I really think to make such things work well, more of it needs to happen in-game. Event/News/Communication 'terminals' in-game would help I think. Also I think the standard storyline event model needs to be improved. Its been shown many times that EU as it stands just can't handle the numbers of people that end up turning up in one place as a result of such events. Even when the lag is bearable it takes away from some of the fun, and often the lag isn't manageable at all leaving avatars pretty much immobile.

I think the amount of people that turn up in order to cause the lag proves there's a lot of interest in these storylines and events but the general model really needs to be improved. I'm not sure of the solution, maybe spreading events over the whole of EU rather than one or two locations would help or having more regular events but impromptu and short so just the people who are there at the right place and time get involved, perhaps with some clues beforehand but not so much that anyone knows exactly where and when it'll occur.

I dunno, there's certainly a market for it, maybe we should set a challenge for the community to think up a storyline event that MA could implement

[Haxtor moogle]

nice... so notes are worthless?

[Legion]

bla bla notes bla bla bla statues bla bla ooh globe!!! bla bla argos bla bla *SIGH!*


*walks away*

[Jenny]

Okay... that's it? No End-Of-The-World Climatic Doomsday Scenario Finale?!

[SnowLeopard]

Originally Posted by Jimmy B

I'm not sure of the solution, maybe spreading events over the whole of EU rather than one or two locations would help or having more regular events but impromptu and short so just the people who are there at the right place and time get involved, perhaps with some clues beforehand but not so much that anyone knows exactly where and when it'll occur.

Last big argo spawn at the Orb happened at the same time the ABC people were doing their thing. If you read the transcript, one of even says follow us to find out about Maria, or go there to hunt big stuff (paraphrased, quite obviously).
Spawn had the same problems as today, but wasn't announced or expected like todays, but just as many people showed up! When I first arrived, it wasn't so bad and I could make out almost all green dots on radar, but after half an hour, there was just one big green dot on my radar.

Wasn't spreading the mob spawns around tried a few months ago with the migrations (armax, exarosaurs, eomons)? That was far from perfect, but I think much better (lag-wise) than a single-location event like today.

Oh yeah, thanks "aslog" for updating and letting us know that someone somewhere got something out of this

[safara]

So the Notes event is over

It officially began yesterday with the EBN report. A total of about 6 hours

Was fun following the workings out. I decoded the first and second notes, but was then blown away by the speed of others getting them decoded, so followed instead.

I am still a bit confused, but I will get over that

Glad some people made some new friends

[Deathifier]

Originally Posted by aslog

I don't think the link between ConSpirare and EU worked out as well as they (Company P and MindArk, i guess) had wished.

I believe it could have gone a whole lot better actually.
When it started I was quite interested - it looked like a puzzle, something other than "go here, shoot that, lag to death, fall asleep" and one with some complexity.

Then it got solved in two days, and not by Entropians - but by people from the Conspirare site (employed or not, doesn't matter).
At that point the puzzle ended, which is not so bad on its own - it's just that nothing puzzle-like in-world followed.

None of the "ABC" conversations held much of interest - it turned out to be 99% babble - garbage that I see day in, day out on the web.
Event number three was funny with the whole cult ritual thing, but that's about it.

And of course three events (the first, fourth and last) ended in traditional MindArk lagfests. These have not only been done to death before, MA's servers still can't handle them and literally collapse as soon as the number of people approaches 100 (less if mobs spawn, and the loot system dies a LOT earlier).

In short it was a nice idea that was horribly implemented

But don't worry, that is quite normal when dealing with MindArk

Originally Posted by aslog

And yeah. Since most of you seems to have got it wrong. The ARG was not a part of the TV drama, it was the drama that was a part of the ARG. (:

Ah I was never quite sure what was related to what, though it makes sense for the TV to be a subsection of the game

- Deathifier

[AlphaGeek]

Well, thank Lootsifer that it's over!

I think MA forgot that their customer base is international. While a tie-in to some TV show is an interesting concept the sad fact is that unless it's some kind of world-wide blockbuster nobody will know what the fuck is going on!


While the whole thing was overall a cock-up, there were one or two elements that were noteworthy. Engaging the community in a puzzle, multiple locations and dates, and virtual items that are clues were all nice to see.

Entropia Universe has a story line of its own, MA would do well to continue developing the tale of the struggle to retake Calypso from the robot threat. That's what got us here, that's what'll keep us here.

AG