Last Goodbye - Halloween Results and Feedback

[Blake]

First up, let me congratulate the winners of the monster guessing competition! These three managed to guess every monster correctly and... Were the only ones who did so. 
 
3rd Place: British Soul
2nd Place: Sage Cow
1st Place: Tyretian

Congratulations! All three of you can now have custom membergroups of your own, and Tyretian wins a whopping 25K points, in addition!

Speak to me over PM to collect your reward(s).

Next up, the member who successfully managed to solve the riddle of Simon Keyes was...

The Riddler/(Bill Cipher)!

While it was a group effort, he was the one who actually managed to put it together, so he wins the prize of...

The Ace Investigator membergroup! This group comes as a Legendary Member group, and the color can be customized!

And with rewards out of the way... It is time to discuss the event.

What did you like? Dislike?

What would you like to see in future events?

Etc.

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

Next time, if we do a murder mystery, make sure that the "victims" are alright OOC with being the victims before making them the victims instead of just blocking them without any warning.

[Βyakuya]

Well this event certainly was surprising considering the time given and the amount of effort other members took to make realistic and likable monsters. While it was stale in the middle, I really like to have something like this again, but maybe allowing a few more monsters can be one step to ensure activity. But I was still shocked to see so much effort much more than the past few years, especially from certain members. So I think from that, this was our best year and by allowing more mini events and challenges we can make this even more livelier.

[Tesability Black]

And make sure the member group used for the lockdown works across the board!

[Blake]

And make sure the member group used for the lockdown works across the board!

i'm sorry, i am a scrub at membergroups and they have a lot of rando glitches ;;

Next time, if we do a murder mystery, make sure that the "victims" are alright OOC with being the victims before making them the victims instead of just blocking them without any warning.

I sent a PM to each victim, telling them that they could undo it if they so wished. No one was forced to stay that way.

[TF2_The_Scout]

All I can say is that next time I will attempt to be more involved in what's going on that I was this year. I still have no idea what went on. I'm already planning out my persona for next year, should I return. I guess investigation just isn't my strong suit.

[Tesability Black]

A lot of people here sadly aren't very investigative. I'm a theorycrafter, not a puzzlesolver.

And in my case, what was irking me was not being tied into the event the way I was, but the fact that the forums decided to bug out and make me the only one locked by it. I was perfectly content to watch and try to influence from the background, were it not for that.

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

i'm sorry, i am a scrub at membergroups and they have a lot of rando glitches ;;

I sent a PM to each victim, telling them that they could undo it if they so wished. No one was forced to stay that way.

Based on what I've heard, neither the "killer" nor the "victims" were happy about the situation. No one appreciates being blocked out of nowhere, even for an event. Instead, actually plan out your "murders" so you could have a murder scene and such.

 

Also, Black, this is a bit of an awkward way to ask this, here in public, but would you kindly unblock me? I did want to comment on your status.

[Blake]

Based on what I've heard, neither the "killer" nor the "victims" were happy about the situation. No one appreciates being blocked out of nowhere, even for an event. Instead, actually plan out your "murders" so you could have a murder scene and such.

Anyone could undo it.

 

Asgore and Tayla accepted it, though the former was admittedly not restricted correctly.

 

Cow accepted it, no one knows why he was magically freed from it.

 

Only one that had a real problem was Jord/Gretchen, who had it undone.

 

Yui was upset because everyone he killed had a way of coming back randomly. It is pretty obviously disheartening. All of them were supposed to be locked out, barring MODERATOR APPROVAL of their posts. This should not lock statuses, only make posts hidden until a mod checks them off, leaving PMs open as a way to make sure this occurs.

 

The killings were improv, anyway.

 

Fun fact: Simon killed Cow regardless of Chara, but this couldn't be proven. Chara only killed Tayla because Simon told him to.

[Kingdom Xathers]

I do agree, the whole deal with the Fallen Down group was quite the clusterfcuk--it either worked too well or (in my case) not at all.  I do appreciate the lengths taken to throw in that bit of in-universe flavor, however.

[King K. Azo]

This was my first year, and I had to say, it was fun. The only thing I'd like is a little more communication between the heads and the monsters if something big goes down.

Like, I didn't realize until after I posted my goodbye that we were extended for an extra five days.

[Tesability Black]

Well, I had acted upon coming back because I remembered whom my avatar was.



Aka, a simulacrum or body double. If I hadn't remembered that, I wouldn't have acted the way I did.

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

...Seriously, Black, I would really appreciate it if you unblocked me.
Don't even know why I'm still blocked in the first place.

[vla1ne]

I tried to use the event to branch into other areas at first, but then life got into the way, and i had to step out of a few things before i could get as involved as i wanted to. i;m not much one for puzzles unless i can get in the mood for them though, so the end game was basically a lost cause for me. but i liked watching everybody go all in and solve it though.

[Alaina]

This was my first masquerade that I partook in, (just as a member of ycm in general,) and I can say it was pretty fun overall. It probably got boring for me in the middle mostly because I didn't actually actively participate in other events but I'll get onto something that likely could be done more about it later.

 

So as for what I liked, as I already mentioned the embedded music was pretty baller and I enjoyed each soundtrack the pages had a lot. Other thing was that I really enjoyed how everyone really got into their characters and really tried to interact with the forums. The mystery itself at the end was pretty fun as well, as despite it being frustrating and mentally taxing at times, it was a great experience to partake in an ARG and have to go combing through the forums for clues and trying to refute the claims that Simon had was pretty grand. And it was quite satisfying to finally win. I guess I'm saying playing Ace Attorney is fun at that point, though.

 

Now granted, I still had some gripes with it regardless. The whole finding Simon Keyes thing is something that, it might just be because I'm not a big puzzle solver, would probably never have occurred to me during the event itself. Like, for the most part, we knew that clues existed but that was about it. There was zero context behind them at all. I'm not sure if we were able to share the clues we had, prior to the ending thread, either which seems really detrimental to a community activity. Like, it basically would fall on a single person to get somewhere around 7-10 clues themselves and then post this answer...somewhere? It was also probably really easy to forget that these clues actually had meaning to them as well, if you weren't looking for it and were just in it for completing monster challenges.

 

As for the murder mystery itself, it kind of felt really forced. Not rushed, because clearly it was planned from the get go, but like the whole idea of it happening was really pushed to happening at the end. Now granted, I don't really blame you for this because you had like, half the time you originally had for this event due to the site exploding, but yeah. I feel like if the event had this sort of murder mystery focus a lot sooner/from the start it would have worked out better/felt more natural. After all, the idea of having to search for clues about your 'killed' forum goers was pretty a nifty and fun one.

 

The only other gripe that I can think of off the top of my head is holy funking spoilers man. So like, I started to play Undertale as a result of this event and it's a good thing that I beat it before things got really crazy, because part of the event relied on knowing about the characters, their relations to each other, the final boss of the neutral route. So yeah. Also never played Ace Attorney before, but also started to get into it because of this event, and I think revealing Simon to be some crazy murder mastermind is like a big plot reveal in the game. So yeah, if you do something like this next time, try to keep the whole spoilers of series (that really don't want to be spoiled) to a minimum.

 

Once again though, was fun and I look forward to next years.

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

I had fun. I think perhaps one thing that could be done better is to have let people know that the Monster hints were for an event rather than the identities because some might have been confused.

I think the main issue, as is usually the case, was that many people weren't as interested after a while. Or just didn't want to deal with the mystery bits. Which is understandable. Just that it's hard to do something like this without people being on board. Sadly unsure how to fix this bit.

But yes more communication between the monsters would have been good. And making sure there's a more cohesive effort. Such as the challenges. Some everyone would get once the challenge is beaten. Some only a few would get. Some anyone who got it would. That kind of thing.

Meanwhile I am extremely amused that I was freed SOMEHOW and no one knows why.

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

Which is a shame. I lived Mauvache, and I hope she comes back soon.

[Blake]

Spoilers were an issue, yeah.

 

The ending event was not entirely planned. The basic premise of catching Simon and proving why Flowey locked him up was, but not the actual content.

 

It evolved based on the monsters who joined/were active enough, and that meant that pairing with Chara was a thing, because he had expressed desire to be the Bill Cipher of the event... Despite there being an end boss nobody knew about. So I met Yui half way.

 

Hell, it wasn't meant to be a murder mystery, simply a logic puzzle. It's why I dropped hints and references (even had Omega Flowey "juggle temmies while shrugging") to make the incoming answer to the puzzle more clear.

 

Simon, however...

 

It's a 5-year old game that's Japan-only, unless you're actively seeking the translation patch for a rom. Don't feel too bad about that, or I wouldn't have gone ahead with this.

 

Answer to the puzzle was meant to be PMd. It was incentivized with a group (See: OP), so it was meant to be something you won. I didn't crack down hard enough on challenges, though.

[Yui]

The only other gripe that I can think of off the top of my head is holy funking spoilers man. So like, I started to play Undertale as a result of this event and it's a good thing that I beat it before things got really crazy, because part of the event relied on knowing about the characters, their relations to each other, the final boss of the neutral route. So yeah. Also never played Ace Attorney before, but also started to get into it because of this event, and I think revealing Simon to be some crazy murder mastermind is like a big plot reveal in the game. So yeah, if you do something like this next time, try to keep the whole spoilers of series (that really don't want to be spoiled) to a minimum.

To be totally fair, a lot of the Undertale spoiler-related stuff was most likely my fault since I had to go and be Chara of all people, who is a spoiler simply for existing. I'd initially wanted to be the Happy Mask Salesman, but his challenge would have been way too gimmicky (good thing I didn't do it; could you imagine having to loan and sell masks on top of all the stuff that went down in the event?) and I saw that our host was Flowey and I knew Sans in advance, so it was a fun chance to get some interesting interactions in. Ultimately paid off.

 

Yui was upset because everyone he killed had a way of coming back randomly. It is pretty obviously disheartening. All of them were supposed to be locked out, barring MODERATOR APPROVAL of their posts. This should not lock statuses, only make posts hidden until a mod checks them off, leaving PMs open as a way to make sure this occurs.

I was fine with it happening actually; Chara was the one who didn't like it. If anything, I was happy the kid wanted a couple days off. Posting as Chara took waaaaaaaaaaaaay longer than a regular post, so his little ragequit gave me a couple days to breathe before needing to pick up the guise again. Sure I was a little salty (who wouldn't be when your surprise step into the spotlight gets a lil' snuffed out?), but I was mostly cool with it unlike my monster counterpart =w=;

[Darj]

So, which are the identities of all the monsters?

Yeah, I didn't participate this year, but I'm curious regardless.

 

EDIT: Never-mind, I found the thread with this list.

[Blake]

So, which are the identities of all the monsters?

Yeah, I didn't participate this year, but I'm curious regardless.

You may find them in misc.

 

http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/358508-bring-it-in-guys-monster-unmasking-and-poll-2016

 

Also, I want to bring up something important:

 

Each year, from what I've been told, the actual people involved in HUNTING the monsters has decreased. Some people have expressed distaste with the roleplaying, as well, but that seems to be the minority.

 

5~ members attempted to hunt the monsters, and only 3 of which, our winners, even gave it their best shot.

 

Between the dwindling hunters and the enjoyment for just about everything else (barring the midgame lull), I'd suggest the following:

 

No Monster Hunt next year. Continue the Masquerade, but have the identities being unknown be something for fun, not for winning.

 

If the pitch I've received is still valid by next year, I believe this event would easily be adapted into many mini-events, with a potential payoff, capitalizing on what people felt were the stronger points of this year's event. Thus, rewards would be gleaned from participation, instead of hunting down the monsters.

[Tesability Black]

I can absolutely get behind this concept.

[Yui]

I already know the pitch you're talking about (I was the test dummy to make sure the BBCode worked right) and if that's still vaild by next year, it shouldn't even be a question. Do it. It's got all the stuff people like, minus the stuff they aren't so crazy about, as you mentioned. Plus it means I pretty much have my monster locked in a year in advance so I've got an absurd amount of time to practice and perfect my monster's portrayal.

[Tesability Black]

That and if the monster portrayals are for fun instead of for prizes, it would have less of an influence on whom participates and as what, which is better in the long run.

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

Also, out of curiosity, what would've happened had we not figured it out?