Negligence of OpAphid

ApotheosisAZ · Post by **ApotheosisAZ** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 10:46 pm

I'd like to apologize in advance for what is surely to be viewed as a negative topic.

OpAphid: The Official LG15 Alternate Reality Game and the area of the forum associated with it are being neglected.

I don't mean that this game is being neglected by the players: it has been abandoned by almost all of the players.

What I mean here is that it is being neglected by the people who made it official.

The reason I am posting this is because I am a fan. I am a fan who is currently concerned about the direction being taken regarding ARGs in this community.

There is an ARG that is active now, FacilityJ. It at least is actively being played. OpAphid is not. The restructuring of the Fan Fiction area of the forum was done in an effort to put everything on a level playing field. There is no level playing field for an ARG to make a good effort while a stagnant game is still heralded here as the official ARG.

As I have long been a fan of OpAphid, I know some people will be less than pleased that I am posting my opinion about this here. I do not play FacilityJ. But FaciltyJ doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of serious involvement while a stagnant game is still official.

I would love nothing more than to see OpAphid come alive again. If that is what is going to happen, then my post here is a mistake.

silverblue · Post by **silverblue** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 11:45 pm

I love (loved? should we all be using the past tense now?) OpAphid, and I currently love FacilityJ.

I, like Apo, would like to know whether OpAphid will ever be resurrected!

janesalteredstates · Post by **janesalteredstates** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 12:56 am

I hold no delusions that OpAphid will be back.
Op is the new Cassie

In my opinion, FacilityJ deserves its own section at this point.

What worries me (and I know I am not alone here) is what will happen since Op is so central to what I think was the plot.

As for the forums, keeping it there, just hanging... without giving any information about the future of the OpAphid ARG is unfair to the fans.

ApotheosisAZ · Post by **ApotheosisAZ** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 1:05 am

janesalteredstates wrote:I hold no delusions that OpAphid will be back.
Op is the new Cassie

In my opinion, FacilityJ deserves its own section at this point.

What worries me (and I know I am not alone here) is what will happen since Op is so central to what I think was the plot.

As for the forums, keeping it there, just hanging... without giving any information about the future of the OpAphid ARG is unfair to the fans.

I think I should point out here that my original post was not an effort to see FacilityJ have an area of the forum to call it's own.

My original post was a claim that the people here who have made OpAphid an official ARG are now neglecting it. I stand by that claim.

I also claimed that FacilityJ is an active ARG, and that OpAphid has been allowed to atrophy. I want to know why that has occured. I also want to know why it has remained official here.

janesalteredstates · Post by **janesalteredstates** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 1:12 am

ApotheosisAZ wrote:
I think I should point out here that my original post was not an effort to see FacilityJ have an area of the forum to call it's own.

I apologize if I made it sound like I thought you said that. I was merely stating my opinion

ApotheosisAZ wrote: My original post was a claim that the people here who have made OpAphid an official ARG are now neglecting it. I stand by that claim.

Who made it official? Are you talking about the creators? Or the players?

ApotheosisAZ · Post by **ApotheosisAZ** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 1:31 am

janesalteredstates wrote: I apologize if I made it sound like I thought you said that. I was merely stating my opinion

You were stating a valid opinion. I was not trying to belittle it. I was clarifying my position.

janesalteredstates wrote:who made it official? Are you talking about the creators? Or the players?

It is clearly displayed at this forum as OpAphid: The Official LG15 Alternate Reality Game.

janesalteredstates · Post by **janesalteredstates** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 1:53 am

ApotheosisAZ wrote:
janesalteredstates wrote:who made it official? Are you talking about the creators? Or the players?
It is clearly displayed at this forum as OpAphid: The Official LG15 Alternate Reality Game.

I'm sorry, I'm still confused. Who exactly are you directing this towards?

romanceismusic · Post by **romanceismusic** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 2:00 am

ApotheosisAZ wrote:
janesalteredstates wrote: I apologize if I made it sound like I thought you said that. I was merely stating my opinion
You were stating a valid opinion. I was not trying to belittle it. I was clarifying my position.

janesalteredstates wrote:who made it official? Are you talking about the creators? Or the players?
It is clearly displayed at this forum as OpAphid: The Official LG15 Alternate Reality Game.

I'm sorry, I don't quite understand either, Apo. The tone of your post seemed to suggest that players, such as myself, have neglected the boards, and that is why it has seen no action. When in fact, It is quite the opposite. Several of us are still there, hanging on, waiting for something post worthy to happen. We've started threads in general, trying to stay active.

If this is not what you meant, could you please explain? or pm me?

ApotheosisAZ · Post by **ApotheosisAZ** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 2:08 am

romanceismusic wrote:
I'm sorry, I don't quite understand either, Apo. The tone of your post seemed to suggest that players, such as myself, have neglected the boards, and that is why it has seen no action. When in fact, It is quite the opposite. Several of us are still there, hanging on, waiting for something post worthy to happen. We've started threads in general, trying to stay active.

If this is not what you meant, could you please explain? or pm me?

I don't want anyone to be confused here. I am not suggesting that the fans made OpAphid the official ARG.

The fans have not neglected this. romanceismusic is correct. There has been no neglect by the fans.

imagin · Post by **imagin** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 2:15 am

I don't think Apo was confusing at all.

I'm still a bit dumbfounded at the chain of events.

1. A fanfic (OpAphid) gets going really good (which they say they desire) and they officially adopt it and begin incorporating the storyline.

2. So then they advertise it, and get even MORE people interested.

3. Just as those newbies are showing up and driving the regulars crazy, they "break" for the holidays, with promises to be back soon

4. And MONTHS go by.

5. As we began to realized that this ARG isn't by lack of player interest, or someone who wasn't really capable of being a PM taking on the job, or by being so commercial it was derided, or what-have-you,

6. It's promptly murdered by what was apparently a very minor issue (technically within ARG rules, because it's the PM that MAKES the rules, not some arbitrary "this is what other ARGs do") that seems to have been blown WAY out of proportion, obviously causing the forums to over-react (Yes, we did. Go re-read it now and see how ridiculous it was.) which may well have caused much more powerful people to over-react... which is the only logical reason for this continued silence, IMO.

7. And it was such a darn good game that there are still tons of us here, wandering the forums, grieving it's loss, because while J might be interesting, it just doesn't feel like the same caliber (again, IMO) story-wise and interest-wise, that FOUR MONTHS after things really stopped, we're STILL hoping?

8. And if the creators had any sense at all, they'd be jumping on that ready-made audience in hurry.

It's sort of like having a hit TV show the first season, you know the kind, the ones that could go on for 10 or 15 years... and instead, it's randomly killed just as it gets it's groove. Makes as much sense.

So yes, neglect. I think we're all aware it isn't player neglect. We're here, still reading, just with nothing to say... because there ISN'T anything game related, very little speculation as to what is going on is allowed without being shut down, and heaven-forbid anyone wander into off-topic land... which pretty much leaves us with nada to talk about, because there isn't a game TO talk about.

ApotheosisAZ · Post by **ApotheosisAZ** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 2:50 am

I want to reiterate that I did mention a majority of fans abandoning the ARG.

I will state my opinion here in no uncertain terms, just so that friends like romanceismusic, janesalteredstates, and imagin will fully understand my opinion:

As far as I am aware, the fans of this production are not capable of declaring anything official: my perception is that the power to do that lies squarely in the hands of The Creators of Lonelygirl15. I am suggesting that they are neglecting the ARG, OpAphid. If the power to declare fan contributions to be official lies in someone else's hands, then I am wrong.

I am also suggesting that a majority of the players have abandoned OpAphid. This does not mean that there aren't some active players. I would never insult them by suggesting they aren't standing by for some action in the game.

janesalteredstates · Post by **janesalteredstates** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:41 am

I agree fully that the Creators are neglecting the ARG.

I will add that this is very unprofessional and that they are being unfair to the fans.

I also think there should be a decision made. Get rid of it or do not. But do something.

I am still shaky on this:

I am also suggesting that a majority of the players have abandoned OpAphid.

How can anyone abandon something that does not exist?

tigerlilylynn · Post by **tigerlilylynn** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 6:00 am

Apo:
"I am also suggesting that a majority of the players have abandoned OpAphid. This does not mean that there aren't some active players. I would never insult them by suggesting they aren't standing by for some action in the game."

To which Jane says:
"How can anyone abandon something that does not exist?"

And I can't help but agree. The game was dead well before getting the ax and we all stood by. We got shit on by main stream LGers but we stood by. We waited for months and when push came to shove on major issues, major players did leave but this was only a dozen or so MAX.

At that point we had days of fighting, flameing and name calling. We weren't able to discuss the future without self-righteous interlopers dancing on the game's grave. We had the most amazing influx of people who hadn't posted on this topic in months (or since, I might add). Gee, wonder why we all shut up and sat back.

To say "abandon" is unfair. You abandon something frail and helpless that you are responsible for the care of, not some 30 yr olds interweb game that supernova'd all over your monitor.

Kasdeja · Post by **Kasdeja** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 7:17 am

I see the point clearly and choose not to nitpick little phrases and wording.

If it's done, get rid of it.

If it's not, DO SOMETHING.

Pretty simple.

Killthesmiley · Post by **Killthesmiley** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 7:17 am

Apo,

Like tiger said, we far from abandoned OpAphid. The Creators abandoned us.

We waited, and waited, and waited some more for action.

We waited for videos, that were months apart from each other, when they used to be 2 or three a week. We waited for a drop for month and month (and were sadly disappointed by the lack of knowledge, education and ... well... [sorry miles and greg] intelligence behind them) when they used to come almost once a month. We waited and waited for a puzzle for months and months, when they used to come once a week.

OpAphid is truly like CiW in a sense. We, as fans, were left High and Dry.
And now, by the looks of things, we are getting a completely new ARG, new title, and probably new characters. This is upsetting and disappointing. It feels like a waste. Like we were cheated. Like we were used.

We, as fans, didn't abandoned OpAPhid at all. We gave it the benefit of the doubt, only to be completely slapped in the face.
It's can't be saved, it can't be resurrected. And I'm hoping the creators realize that. And I'm PRAYING (something that doesn't happen often) that they close OpAphid better then Cassie closed herself. With an ending.