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4th Chronicles of Babbage Comes to close…

So another year, another story and although i may have stopped the story telling for a while, that does not mean you who took part have to stop talking about it or stop roleplaying the aftermath.

Looking back over the past month or so i’m quite pleased with how things went. The Slow build up to the Archaeologist going missing and the subsequent search to uncover the story of the Statue and its occupant.

To be different from last year i tried to split the story into three parts, and it did not matter which part of the story you uncovered first, only once you had uncovered all three parts would you know the complete story. Some had mentioned that the complete story did not give enough of a closure which is something i should think about in future for self contained mystery hunts. Although some might argue that that sense of none closure compels people to explore and ask more around the town.

Outside of the Mystery hunt itself people reacted well to plot points, some even taking it upon themselves to create their own tangent to the story which i loved. The Beast Trap was never planned by me, the amputation of Nat was not planned by me. Thank you to all those who took the experiences from the Black Heart mystery and made it their own.

I tried to keep a pace with regards to plot points escalating towards the final confrontation but unfortunately i developed a cold and was bed ridden for almost a week. During this time i think the story went quiet and people started to move into other events. Thank you again to those who kept the story alive during that time :)

I had no idea that being listed in the SL destination guide would bring SO many people into the town. I was unprepared for the sort of people that would arrive. Many new people who still had not got used to moving arrived and the Clues on the hunt prooved for many to simply be to difficult. It showed that we as experienced SL residents take alot of things for granted, we know when to click and object, we know how to address people, we understand the scale in which a town in SL can be.

Lastly thank you everyone who took part, got involved and enjoyed the Story. I would love to hear you feed back. Please feel free to write and blog about all that has happened. 

Loki

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14 Comments

  1. Avariel Falcon Avariel Falcon December 19, 2010

    It was most impressive!

    Maybe the lack of closure is more like a story yet to be told? If this were a movie we would already be asking when the sequel is coming out!

    I loved seeing all the new people visiting New-Babbage and getting involved with the interactive story. If anything you have spoilt SL now as the rest of the world will struggle to meet the high standard set by this years story quest.

    I guess on the topic of hardness vs. the new player one possibility is to have an relatively easy core story quest with sub quest elements that are harder and provide bonus content. But I expect you are already thinking of this for next year.

    All in all its been good fun. ^_^

    • Yang Moreau Yang Moreau December 19, 2010

      Indeed so! I think we all thought Jason Moriarty escaped! We were all fearful and wondering what he’s going to do on the loose! It was quite climactic! And I must say once more, I was listening to the Tron Legacy soundtrack and it made it all the more dramatic!

      • Avariel Falcon Avariel Falcon December 19, 2010

        The Tron Legacy soundtrack is indeed epic!

  2. Glaubrius Valeska Glaubrius Valeska December 19, 2010

    Such a display of weapons and ordinance on the fly!  One cannot say New Babbagers are defenseless!

  3. Gadget Starsider Gadget Starsider December 19, 2010

    ((This mystery has been, without doubt the most fun I have ever had in SL. I have known about Babbage for some time, but knowing Loki was basing a new mystery here was the spur I needed to jump in and I am so glad I did. It is rare to find a community so rich, vibrant and deep with multi-layered RP played out with such wit and humour.

    To Loki: Like any perfectionist, you are examining the fine detail of what was an extraodinary achievment. Games companies with budgets and teams of specialists fail to pull of what you do single handedly. As for the small army of NPC’s, speaking as someone who gets confused by two simultaneous IM windows how the hell do you do it??? Men can’t mutlitask! If you do have secret collaborators then my thanks goes to them also. From the immersive storyline to the professional artwork to the intricate builds and media content (created with the production values of a movie) you have excelled. Your flexibility to work with your players RP (the diagram of the beest trap with barbed wire appeared in your story the SAME DAY I built it!) allows for a truly engaging interactive experience. Your reward is a bill from Linden Labs. I just hope your sense of achievment is some compensation because you have given us hours of the best RP and fun that you can get in SL. If Gadget ran a games development company he would build a beest trap and lock you in it with a difference engine.))

    Bugger me, does that mean I don’t ‘ave to keep me blunderbuss stuck down me trousers all the time now?

     

  4. Jimmy Branagh Jimmy Branagh December 19, 2010

    This was the most widely played RP since “The Eliot Affair” three years ago.  It was great to see so many people involved and adding more grist to the Babbage legends, and that two somewhat disparate stories now have a strong connection (in the form of the resurrected Jason) adds a nicely convoluted background for what may yet come.

    Applause, Loki!

    An’ ‘ay Gadget?  Oy’d keep th’ blunderbuss ‘andy ifn Oy wos you.

  5. Orpheus Angkarn Orpheus Angkarn December 19, 2010

    Loki,

    First off, let me once again congratulate you (and any silent partners you may have had) on a wonderful story! This adventure really let me get drawn into the RP aspect of the sim in a way I was comfortable with, and it has allowed me to meet some very interesting people.

    I have been involved with other RP sims, and the problem I have always felt with these is that either they are designed for brief single-serving RP outings or they have been really immersive, but if you aren’t one of the “core players” on the sim, or in a certain group of people, there is no way to really develop a character or feel involved in the world you are trying to RP in. I enjoyed the way that this RP was immersive enough to allow for some serious story development, both large scale and individually, and also done in a way that it was self guided. I didn’t feel left out of the overall story, even if I didn’t log in for a whole week. Also, even though I realize that I was not a “core character” in the story, I don’t feel my involvement was unimportant. I hope to see more events like this, and other RP sims should take note of the model.

    On a personal note, I would like to share an experience I had with this adventure, which gave me an interesting take on the story. While exploring the Malkuth crypt the first time, I began to take notice of the clues pertaining to Willard Steamweaver and his experiments, which I began following instead of the Malkuth clues. It was quite by chance that I still found the secret room in the seawall, and only after talking with other players did I realize that I had temporarily shifted to the 13 club mystery. I realize the purpose for keeping old clues active, and for reusing “sets”, but perhaps make a way to distinguish between active and inactive storylines? Although, for a while I thought they were more closely linked, and perhaps this was intentional. If this was the case, it shall be interesting to discover how else these, and other stories, will intertwine.

    Thanks again for a wonderful story and a wonderful way to encourage good RP in the sim.

  6. Sheryl Skytower Sheryl Skytower December 19, 2010

    *wild applause*

    Thank you for all the time and effort you put into this!

  7. Skyler Gant Skyler Gant December 19, 2010

    I regret missing out on all the fun this year with the story, would have been great to have taken part in it. Good job, though, Loki…although I have missed out on the fun, it did look to be quite a fun plot.

  8. Lans Starsider Lans Starsider December 20, 2010

    Personally I very much enjoyed myself. This was only the second time I’ve managed to really get involved in New Babbage RP, and I love the chances to do so.

    Plus, while running the course of these mysteries, you really have to think and be observant. I missed one whole third of the main clue paths til very near the end, only to find that the link, several of them actually, I had been missing had been under my nose the entire time! I love puzzles like that.

    Another great factor is while investigating, you never know who you might run into or interact with. I managed to make a few new friends that I might otherwise have missed out on during this whole affair.

  9. Loki Eliot Loki Eliot December 20, 2010

    Thanx everyone :-), next year will be difficult, I’ve run out of places to put secret laboratories XD

    • Bookworm Hienrichs Bookworm Hienrichs December 20, 2010

      *laugh*  I’m sure you’ll think of something.

  10. Elilka Sieyes Elilka Sieyes December 21, 2010

    Another bit of New Babbage legend. I love it when the city itself gets to tell a story, and this tale naturally dominoed into a lot of other things.

    As before, I appreciated the chance to opt in and out without feeling overwhelmed or cut off.

    I’m sure a way will be found for future secret labs and hidden deeds!

     

     

     

  11. Orchid McMillan Orchid McMillan December 21, 2010

    Brought back memories of Moriarty planting mines on the front doorstep.

     

    Thanks for another excellent story, Loki!

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