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PORL
UNFORGIVABLE
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| Post #1: 26th Sep 2013 4:30 PM | |
Alright, here goes. I'll be revealing the rankings over the next few days, posting each out separately. This list is based on both the opinions of myself and Pollux based on everything we saw throughout the game.
Players are ranked on game performance, activity, journal quality, character performance, progress towards their goal, attitude to the hosts and relevance to the story. There are a number of factors to consider when it comes to ranking players, and I don't expect everybody to completely agree with the listing. These are purely our opinions, but I hope that at the very least people will read our justifications and understand why we've placed them where they are.
With each ranking we'll be talking about the positive and negative aspects of the player, discussing our feelings on the character they played, discussing our initial opinions and how they changed as well as much more. These are detailed entries that will hopefully have been worth the very long wait.
To kick-start, there are three players who are exempt from being formally ranked. In two cases, it was because the player quit. In the third, the player technically quit but in a way that had no bearing on the game. These players can't really be compared to the others, so I'm listing them first.
Sit back and enjoy the ride.
(NOTE: I'm posting this both here and on the Lab 3 forum. The thread on the Lab 3 forum will remain locked, but this one is open to discussion as they're ongoing) | | |
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Boc
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| Post #2: 26th Sep 2013 4:32 PM | |
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PORL
UNFORGIVABLE
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| Post #3: 26th Sep 2013 4:34 PM | |
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Erebos/Luminious
Portrayed By: MikeyCP
Erebos is the third case mentioned above. He technically quit, but he did so when he was already destined to die. As a result of that, he straddles an awkward zone between unrankable due to his quitting (in theory) or being rankable due to his already being basically dead when he did so. Irregardless, I don't think it matters much because his performance in this game was without a doubt the worst on show. As a result, it seems only fair to place him at the bottom of the pile.
History:
MikeyCP has technically played in all three Labyrinth games. I say technically, because his role as "Mystery" in the first game saw him getting modkilled for inactivity and missing the initial exit action. As one of the only anonymous players in that game, it was disappointing. In spite of this, I gave him another go round in Labyrinth 2 because he expressed a keen desire to play.
Around this time, Mikey left ProM and I was concerned that it would be another repeat of Mystery. Instead, I was more than pleasantly surprised. He played as "G", the mysterious silent thief who had an affinity for the seventh letter of the alphabet. His schtick was to lurk in the shadows, watch a lot, only comment when spoken to and repeatedly use the letter g when he was talkinggggg. G was a very fun character who provided several memorable moments and was probably exactly the type of character Mystery was always meant to be.
After Lab 2, Mikey was long gone from ProM and all associated sites and as a result, was completely out of contact. When it came to casting for Labyrinth 3, I was keen to ask him to play again as I was with most of the former Labyrinth 2 cast. Around a month before the game started, I got my chance when he showed up on ProM again. The first thing I did was drop him a PM and he expressed a mild interest which only grew in the upcoming time.
Sadly his heart just wasn't in it this time. He never provided me with any character information, he didn't show up on the day the game was starting and his single day of activity in the game would prove to be nothing more than a minor distraction on the road ahead. I was on the fence with regards to letting him play at all after the first day, but feeling like the Greek team needed an extra person and eager to give him a chance because of his Lab 2 performance, I threw him in as a late-comer, similar to "Brock" last time around.
Character:
Because Mikey didn't provide me with character information, and because the decision to officially add him to the mix was made late, I had to invent the character of Erebos very close to the start date. I decided to stick him with the Greeks because that side was so lacking in people as it was, and as a result I tried to conceive an interesting and original character who would be different enough from the others.
There were already a few warriors, and all of the Greeks had some kind of natural strength or heroic ability, so I decided to make him a magician of sorts. I thought it would be interesting if he was a dark wizard, similar to Willis but with the potential to align in either direction. This resulted in me making him a monk who later became an exiled necromancer. The image I used for him was taken from a news article about monks brawling for the space in a church. The name Erebos means darkness and shadow. I searched for a Greek name with that definition and liked the way it fit.
All of the creation and conception process would be ultimately pointless, however, because Mikey decided to go a completely different route with the character than the one I created for him. This was particularly annoying to both of us when in the early game we wanted people to have a consistent avatar scheme. Moreover, he changed his display name to Luminious which caused unnecessary confusion for the players in his group who were already out of sorts due to the abrupt nature of the game start.
The idea behind the change was that his character would essentially flip between good and evil depending on the way the coin was facing. Well, we think anyway. Mikey never confirmed this officially, he just asked if I could figure out what he was planning and this was my assumption. As of this day I'm still not sure. If this is the case, it was a very interesting concept that would've been cool to see in action. With Luminious being the well spoken gentleman he was on the first day of arrival and Erebos being a darker, more sinister figure.
But like I said, his activity dwindled. Erebos never had an arc or any development and just became a walking inactive for a few phases before dying.
Journal:
Erebos barely used his journal, but he did at least use it for more than just the occasional action. Maybe he would've done more with it if he had more time in the game. It's hard to say.
Gameplay:
There really isn't a lot I can comment on here. He provided a minor interesting diversion on his arrival phase but this dwindled into nothing. With regards to role, Erebos didn't have one so that was never an issue either. Due to his late arrival, he was actually forced into having a vanilla role because all of the others were decided before the first phase began (even though some weren't handed out until later). This may have caused a slight balance issue if it was known, but we kept it well under wraps for obvious reasons.
The only two memorable things about his journey are his abrupt arrival, causing some minor suspicion and commotion, and his explosive death in the hot potato challenge. It was moments before the explosive was due to detonate that Erebos showed up and requested a modkill due to lack of time to play. He also attempted to pass the explosive to Hobert, effectively killing them both.
Because of the late hour, we decided it was much fairer to let the explosive detonate and kill him that way. Though what he asked was valid in the context of the game, it was an incredibly unfair and annoying action that would've changed up the game dynamic for an active and invested player far too early. Moreover, in requesting to be modkilled it would've had a major impact on game balance.
If he hadn't requested the modkill along with the action, we might have allowed it to pass. This could've been fairly dramatic because it would've kick-started Hobert's zombie resurrection earlier than expected. Whilst his own group may have left him to it, many other players came through that room, including Carl. Just think for a moment on that possibility, Carl and Hobert being forced to travel alone together after their already blossoming relationship.
Whether or not this would've dramatically changed the game, it's hard to say. But given the circumstances we felt it was a very justifiable decision. We let Erebos die via explosive and he was never heard from again.
Conclusion:
All in all, a disappointing performance which was probably cut short due to the player being too busy to participate. Given that I requested he play, I can't blame him too much for this since he didn't apply formally and then drop out. Moreover, he was very apologetic and polite about his inability to continue playing which we have a lot of respect for.
It was a fairly damaging thing he tried to do on his way out though, and the result of that puts him firmly at the bottom of the list. There was some good potential here, and we would've liked to have seen more from him but it just wasn't to be.
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Korru
Shitlord
 | | Reputation: 33 | | Group: | Elite | | Posts: | 4,267 | | Joined: | Jun 26, 2012 |
| Post #4: 26th Sep 2013 4:42 PM | |
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| I was surprised that mikey was playing, I thought he left after that drama with that chick that followed him to ProM. |
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PORL
UNFORGIVABLE
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| Post #5: 26th Sep 2013 4:59 PM | |
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| I was surprised that mikey was playing, I thought he left after that drama with that chick that followed him to ProM. |
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Wasn't it due to something with 8bit and PMs? I can't remember the exact reason but it was a bit strange. He lurks around SA now and rarely leaves the site I think. | | |
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Korru
Shitlord
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| Post #6: 26th Sep 2013 5:18 PM | |
I don't remember, Mikey had been gotten himself into a lot of drama back in ProM. A couple of people despised him. I don't remember anything between him and 8bit, but I remember what happened with Ryu and henry.
Post Edited by Korru @ 26th Sep 2013 5:18 PM | | |
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PORL
UNFORGIVABLE
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| Post #7: 26th Sep 2013 5:41 PM | |
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Talion Varko
Portrayed By: Dutchiee
Talion was the first dropout. After a pretty inactive first round, he saw the pace of the Phase 3 thread and realised there was no way for him to keep up with the game. His dropping out was orchestrated well, orchestrated early and handled in such a way that it had almost no bearing on game balance whatsoever. For these reasons, and because he never did anything much with his character, Talion sits firmly in the middle of the modkilled players.
History:
Dutchiee has never played in one of the "main series" Labyrinth games, but he did play in Lab 2.5. In that game he was one of the more active players and contributed a fair bit towards the scum team before his death. He was one of the characters in that game without an earlier counterpart, so his existing in purgatory in that narrative was entirely random and unrelated to anything prior.
With his involvement in this game, he expressed an interest fairly early in playing the next. However with his inconsistent activity on FE, as the game approached I was worried about being unable to cast him at all. He had filled out a formal application but he was one of the players I was having the most trouble getting hold of just before it started. He was one of the last to show up on the first day, but he did arrive and discuss a little bit.
Character:
Dutchiee provided a little more detail for his character, in that he gave me a name. His character background and avatar were both work in progress, and he didn't update them before the final run so I went ahead and gave him a prototype character to see if he liked it or not.
Going from the name Talion, I wanted yet another unique character. Having the opportunity to do so, I envisioned him existing in the Greek era but I was struggling somewhat with the design because I didn't want him to clash with any of the others. I eventually reached the conclusion he should be some kind of rogue mercenary turned hero and set to finding an image that matched the idea.
A couple of hours searching yielded unsatisfactory results but I came across a picture of a masked warrior and decided to go the "son of the desert" route. The picture that I eventually settled from was from Sinbad I think (I can't remember entirely). It seemed to fit the name, the mental image and so I constructed the background around that. Dutchiee was happy with the character so we settled on the final result.
Talion was one of a few who didn't technically fit into the Greek era at all. It was a bit of a stretch really, but I'd already gone down a strange path with filling it out and I decided that striving for complete realism in this was a tad ridiculous and boring. I did quite like the character and his portrayal was fine. It was just a shame we couldn't see more.
Journal:
He never posted in it, so no comment.
Gameplay:
Again, the gameplay portion is too non-existent to pass fair comment on. Talion pulled the Medium role to begin with, something that wasn't going to get any use in the early game to begin with. He put in a little bit of effort, starting a rift with the mod-controlled Theseus before it became a bit too overwhelming for his schedule.
With regards to the mod-kill, we were unsure initially what would be the best way to handle it. We decided it was best to announce the fact it was a mod-kill in order to avoid any needless speculation and suspicion on the matter. I was also happy to inform people of the reasons, because it would avoid people worrying about bringing about a modkill themselves.
To keep the status of his role ambiguous we decided to post a standard "if he had a role" message and pass it on to a random vanilla player. This process was entirely random and only "rolled" once, so whichever player's number came up had the potential to become the medium. I excluded Erebos from the list due to his worrying activity level and fearing it'd only be handed off again.
This left any of the following: Balagor, Dern, Katy, Origo, Rita, Scott or Culo. Rita pulled the role and made very good use of it, but the other possibilities could've proved interesting, particularly when you consider how game changing that role proved to be in the Scumpocalypse.
Had he dropped out much later in the game, it would've been unfair to pass it off at all. But considering the timing, it was just right to avoid any sort of complications.
Conclusion:
We enjoyed the character, and Dutchiee is a great player to host for when he's active so it was disappointing he didn't have the time to play this one. Irregardless, the way he handled it was perfect really. Whilst keeping him around as a "walking shoe" may have been beneficial to the group, it would have also wasted what was a useful role in the calculated game.
As a result we were very grateful that he did what he did rather than merely becoming a no-show. He was very polite and apologetic about it all and we have no ill feelings. I think he would've been an interesting addition to the game if he'd stayed on a little longer.
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Quizmaster Vern!
Of the people for the people
 | | Reputation: 57 | | Group: | Godfather | | Posts: | 28,173 | | Joined: | Jun 28, 2012 |
| Post #8: 26th Sep 2013 7:57 PM | |
Prediction: I happen to get 17 or 34 -_- | --------------------
Of the people, for the people!
YAW YAW YAW WINNER OF FELL GUYS! |
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mal
Pronouns: they/them
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| Post #9: 26th Sep 2013 9:11 PM | |
Nice to know exactly what Talion had as a role as I don't think it was revealed anywhere before (or maybe I just missed it) | |
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Curtis
First Place Dick
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| Post #10: 26th Sep 2013 9:23 PM | |
I had no idea Rita was originally vanilla | |
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Korru
Shitlord
| | Reputation: 33 | | Group: | Elite | | Posts: | 4,267 | | Joined: | Jun 26, 2012 |
| Post #11: 27th Sep 2013 3:52 AM | |
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| Prediction: I happen to get 17 or 34 -_- |
You're 51st | | |
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Zersch
birdhouse love
 | | Reputation: 527 | | Group: | Overlord | | Posts: | 15,899 | | Joined: | Jun 25, 2012 |
| Post #12: 27th Sep 2013 5:03 AM | |
I vaguely remember something about 8bit angering Mikey, but I clearly remember the explosive way he handled the whole "anime club friend follows him to his online hangout" thing. It seemed like everything was fine until she hosted a Mafia game, and then you would have thought she had decapitated his twelve year-old dog.
I seem to remember an "it's me or her" ultimatum, and a resounding lack of care either way from the denizens.
Post Edited by Zersch @ 27th Sep 2013 5:04 AM | |
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Korru
Shitlord
| | Reputation: 33 | | Group: | Elite | | Posts: | 4,267 | | Joined: | Jun 26, 2012 |
| Post #13: 27th Sep 2013 5:32 AM | |
Mikey got mad at her because she was elected president of some anime club and not him. Mikey was as irritating as what he watched. | | |
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Zersch
birdhouse love
| | Reputation: 527 | | Group: | Overlord | | Posts: | 15,899 | | Joined: | Jun 25, 2012 |
| Post #14: 27th Sep 2013 5:41 AM | |
Oh, god. Yeah, that was what it was. I think I purposely block that out of my mind every time there's a conversation about it, just so I can rediscover the anime club president plot point for a good laugh. | |
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Teos
Host Syrio
 | | Reputation: 50 | | Group: | Elite | | Posts: | 4,494 | | Joined: | Jun 25, 2012 |
| Post #15: 27th Sep 2013 4:07 PM | |
anime is serious business you guys... |  |
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