[BIG DEAL] We want your Interest Curves!

[Connor Fallon]

I can't believe I didn't think to ask about this earlier. Here is the deal:

An interest curve is basically a plot of your engagement over time, with major events marked to show key shifting points. See the example below, and imagine each letter was something like "The Cabal Shows Up:"



This sort of thing is actually some of the most useful and direct feedback we can get as Game Runners in regards to when you really felt engaged, and when you didn't, and can allow us to find commonalities. I realize that trying to plot this for a multi-threaded, 4-month ARG might be difficult, but honestly any approximation would be useful.

If you want, you could chart your interest in individual arcs alongside your interest in the overall ARG, but I'm already asking alot when I ask for a single line =) And of course, if you have any question, let me know.

I'd also ask you try not to look at other peoples interest curves. And be honest. =) We won't cry. Much. You can either post your interest cure here, or email us and post here to say you did it. Let's make it OneAboveTheWall@Gmail.com for old times sake.

[Pixelmage]

Very well... I'm going into Excel to plot some graphs.

I'll have a scale from 0-100% in values of interest and mark up arbitrary points in time labeled by events. Either new post or editing this one when I'm done.

Well... For my ominous talk my graph sure is quite simple. I'll wall of text the explanations here as opposed to trying to work them on the graph and make it even longer.

It does not fit the width of the board so: http://i.imgur.com/AAdoQ.png

First, it's really linear, instead of multifaceted. That's because of one simple reason: I never spent time in the ARG because of one aspect or another. It was the whole package, with all the story lines even if I didn't actively participated in them, or nothing at all. So the points I make note of are only the Major breakpoints. Of course, I had a very heavy spike of lack of interest during the DQ Echo's event where I almost ragequit and ended up sending a threat email to Morgan (sorry Dana!), but that was quickly fixed and not lasting so not worthy of a point in the graph.

Well, on to the points:

• ARG Discovery: I'm familiar with the concept. Always wanted to play one. The moment I found that one was going on and I might just be able to join? Awesome.
• AJ Channel: Good. But, lacking in content... Ok, I'm watching the videos... But there are only a few videos.. Just waiting, purely waiting and nothing else.
• Downtime 1: I absolutely forgot about the ARG. There were no updates or I simply didn't remember to look for them. I let it fall to the background and went on with my normal day-to-day.
• Megathread: I had never used the TvTropes forum. Even though I was a known troper back then, it just seemed lacking somehow, and I didn't join.
• Downtime 2: Again, lack of flashy things. I wasn't in on the talks going on in the megathread, nothing to do. I just forgot about it. Then one day I saw that youtube had updated.
• Forum Update: So I caught up on the videos, Joe was running and there was a forum now. Well. I can lurk there, see if there's anything interesting. Lurk I say. I only joined to watch and nothing else!
• Start of Interaction: I simply started talking on the forums. That was bump to my morale. It made me stick around.
• Character discovery: Oh god the anxiety to figure out who was the next character to discover! It was exciting, very much so. It was also when I got the rush of finding the blogs and felt awesome for actually contributing!
• Echoes and Layar: That was disappointing. I expected to be unable to do anything being in Brazil. Victim of my own stereotypes, I say. But I had the feeling that I was actually contributing and then suddenly it hit: No, your country is not on the game for this. The hit wasn't so big though. The playerbase was accepting of it. I looked up to Dryu from the moment I joined for his work on the metaverse and all around awesomeness and then he was cut off from Layar as well... I felt I was not alone and that I could still help out, a bit down for it but still good to go.
• Writing Assignments: Ok, now that's awesome! Admittedly I didn't write a lot, only one Anansi Fic, Don's Fic and my single C!Fic. But still, that premise by itself boosted my humor a lot.
• The Cabal starts getting real screen time: Yes, I loved Erik and Morgan's characters. We didn't get much interaction with Juan or Moriarty, but still they were an awesome and interesting team. But I got a nagging feeling that I was in for trouble soon. And I was right.
• Broken Base & Secrecy: That was beyond tense. I wanted to quit more often than I wanted to log in. Really I hated everything about that idea. I was nearly breaking by then.
• Tram Wreck: Then I broke. Simple as that, I had no motivation whatsoever to stay here anymore. I didn't want to be here anymore. I told in my post explaining why I got so down that I don't know why I came back... Well, I don't, but I'm glad I did, because...
• Unified Ending: That was awesome. It was everything I wanted to happen, a single unity, everyone working together. It overshadowed everything I had thought in regards to leaving. Made all this time worth it.
• Post-Mortem: Then you come along and start being awesome and talking about everything with us openly, it might seem from the 120 that I'm liking this more than the ARG itself, but that's not what I'm trying to say (the two are incomparable due to being different in nature anyway), what I want to say by that is simple: For all my opinion is worth, everything you did and this whole package is one of the best experiences I've ever had. And I'm proud to be a part of it!

I can do something similar for each arc, a review of sorts about each character's plotline... What I though were the good things and the bad things of each one. If you do want that sort of thing from us. But as far as engagement goes, I can only give you the view of the ARG as a whole, because that's the way I view it myself.

[narrativedilettante]

It'll be tricky to pull this together, but I'll see what I can come up with. It'll probably have a lot of accompanying text and explanation, and have lots of different colors.

[Dryunya]

Ooooh, neat graphs! I'll definitely make one. I need some time for that, of course.

[Scarab]

*Gulp* Oh dear... graphs.

Uh. This may take a while... (How the heck does Excel work again...)

[Endless Sea]

I was fairly active on the megathread, but that took a nosedive from the forum switch up until, oh, the Cabal's intro? I think? Well, anyways, I took some downtime to attempt to finish some essays and stuff (that failed miserably), then was purely active on the off-topic forum until refics were well underway, with Adam's blog being a slight exception. I actually got genuinely involved again when Cthulhu popped up, only for my fic to end up, like, half unfinished by the time the deadline rolled around. My internet capabilities had been restricted for a week or two before then, which certainly contributed to the prior lack of action- that and all the stuff I was already doing at the time. But yeah, after Cthulhu I just went back to doing random stuff in the off-topic areas and some General Discussion stuff- not that there was much left in the ARG by then, of course. :\

[screenstorming]

*Gulp* Oh dear... graphs.

Uh. This may take a while... (How the heck does Excel work again...)

You can always open up a Paint program or use a marker on paper and take a photo!

This sounds like a fun project, with very interesting feedback. Maybe someone could release a template, that could be filled in by those with less time or inclination to start from scratch?

[RotavatoR]

Here's my Interest Curve.
But seriously, I really don't remember stuff like this >.<

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

Okay, I tried to make an actual thing, but graphing is really not for me, and it keeps on getting messed up.
So instead, here's the best I can do-- the chart I made to base my graph off. (Please keep in mind that some of the descriptions I wrote are arbitrary and/or wrong; I just wrote something so I'd have a fake number for my interest level for that day. Also, charting day-to day has so many problems, but I couldn't think of any other rational way to do it. And the numbers don't mean much. But, you know, with elephants.)

[Dryunya]

Okay, after being all talk and no play, I'll make one before the post-mortem closes. Having a timeline sure helps, it will be all nice and neat and mostly accurate.

[Scarab]

Okay I don't think this makes sense ans is probably useless to you guys, in general, but I figured I should do one anyway. My interest curve.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BxH5gn ... U8zMWZQVHc

Uh, also not saying the Post Mortem was LESS interesting than the overall game, just that I was less tense throughout it and was actually able to step away for two minutes without feeling I was losing really important stuff

[Tom]

That needs to be made public before I can see it. Thanks!

[Dryunya]

First, the forum is stupid and doesn't allow me to attach my graph in an xls form, so below is a nice handy lime. Rename it to *.zip, and it should open.

Now, on the chart itself.

1. I had some problems with actually making it. First, I have a crappy memory, so I don't remember a lot of my impressions. Second, it's sometimes hard to separate the emotions in the game with the actual desire to play. I hope I got it right.
2. For the same reasons, the graph may be pretty inaccurate. I'm mostly guessing how I would react at the time.
3. I followed the timeline, so the graph mostly doesn't take some behind-the-scenes stuff, like IRL or the chatroom, into consideration. Taking it into account would require for a total rereading of the forum.
4. I found out that everything started to fade into blurry mess sometime around the locator puzzle.
5. My dwindling of interest is mostly due to general fatigue, it's not your fault. On a side note, I saw some of our earlier discussions - damn, I was energetic at the time. Feeling so old now.

[Scarab]

That needs to be made public before I can see it. Thanks!

Whoops, sorry, visible to all with the link now!

[Dryunya]

That's funny, your interest graph is almost an inverse of mine.

[Tom]

Dryu, I can't tell if you're trolling me, cause when I try to make it a .zip, it just keeps opening more copies of itself. Then again, I'm on a mac. Is the chart really hidden in a lime image? (I can build puzzles, but I'll be damned if I can solve them...)

[Dryunya]

It worked in Windows, and I checked it in Linux just now. So yeah, I'm pretty sure it works.
Looks like you got yourself infinite limes. ^__^

[Scarab]

That's funny, your interest graph is almost an inverse of mine.

Honestly what I did is less an interest graph and more a graph of how tense and involved I was at any given moment: hence why it goes down for the post mortem. I was CALMER for that.

[Dryunya]

That's exactly what it should be. I defined it as "the desire to play".
Yeah, it felt more like a job as the end approached. Couldn't leave the reality hanging.

[Sicon112]

Don't have the time, programs, or know-how to make a graph of it, but I'd say I was mildly interested in the beginning, then as the mega-thread got closer to it's end point I became more and more interested, and once I joined and WTF was made, I was running at about maximum until we finally got everything done.

[narrativedilettante]

Well, it took me AGES, but here it is. It's comprehensive because that's the only way I could figure out how to do it. If I tried to do a more general one it would just go "Curious, intrigued, SUPER INVESTED."

And I'm making you read a few thousand more words of my writing, to boot. I wrote at least a sentence for each point on each graph because I felt that was the easiest way to keep track of the notes I wanted to make.

Anyway, there you have it. Enjoy!

[Connor Fallon]

Narrative, those are awesome! Just for the record, we are still VERY much interested in any interest curves from people who haven't done them yet!