Best arc currently published. If you haven't played it yet, go do that now.
As in, right now.
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Weatherby_Goode - "Heck, Carrion Creepers negates the knockdown from Carrion Creepers."
-5 stars for the anagram on the Contact's name, and it went downhill from there.
If it didn't have 100 ratings I'd think I'd just been Punk'd.
Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"
Thank you to the over 90 players who have 5-starred this arc - I logged in today to a massive wall of positive comments. It is my philosophy that if you write quality material, you don't have to advertise, but rather, word of mouth and creation of a unique, memorable experience will do the job for you, and it seems it has in this case. Thank you again everyone for playing my arc, and enjoying it so much!
I'm going to ignore Venture since I'm pretty sure he just gets paid by the folks at tvtropes for the number of times he can mention something from their site in an interview. :P
His feeback was pretty much just a mild troll - nothing constructive at all - just 1 star and feedback 'too many sins to list' which not only doesn't help whatsoever, but also more or less completely contradicts almost every single piece of feedback I have ever recieved on this arc, ever. So, what can you do. 
On the plus side, I guess if I ever start advertising it, I can be all like 'Experience the player-reknowned arc that made Venture literally speechless with rage!' 
I thought there were some very clever uses of the MA to achieve storytelling effects, such as using the 'captive sees you / captive rescued / captive abandoned / captive re-rescued' dialogue to have a stationary character talk to you in a variety of appropriate ways. I actually had to stop and figure out how it was done. Obvious in hindsight, I suppose, but still very effective.
I only have one nit to pick - $himher and similar tags sometimes showed up as the $ tag instead of the proper text, and that always seemed to be because the critter was speaking too early, without having you as the focus of their attention yet.
The rotating dialog was something I was pretty proud of, thanks for commenting on it. That entire hopsital map (you know the one) was definitely tricky to make - probably took as much time as the rest of the arc combined to get right!
I tried to cram the arc as full as possible with game lore, little references to other things in game, hints, easter eggs, and clues in the same manner as in game missions, lots of things to keep the 'twist' in mission 3 both obvious in hindsight, but still keep you guessing in 4 and 5, and so on.
I've got a ton of generally positive feedback on those things, so it's nice to know they're being noticed and appreciated. I did the same thing with the parallel structure of missions 1 and 2, then 4 and 5 - I'm a fan of repetition of theme.
As far as the $tags, I am aware it happens sometimes, but it's never consistent when and where it happens. Thankfully it seems to be fairly rare though. Might have something to do with stealth powers? I've tested the arc to death and when it does happen, it's never the same NPC twice. I apologize about it, but it's sort of out of my hands.
Anything that makes Venture speechless gets my vote.
Eco.
MArcs:
The Echo, Arc ID 1688 (5mish, easy, drama)
The Audition, Arc ID 221240 (6 mish, complex mech, comedy)
Storming Citadel, Arc ID 379488 (lowbie, 1mish, 10-min timed)
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
[The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."
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I heard about Blight a while ago due to word of mouth, because you know, I know people who know people who know people. 
To this day it has made the most lasting impression of any arc I've played. Thank you Witch Engine!
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Might have something to do with stealth powers?
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Could well be. I ran the entire thing with Steamy Mist up and frequent Stealth bonuses from IO set boosted teleportation.
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I apologize about it, but it's sort of out of my hands.
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No need to apologize! Just wanting to help.
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I only have one nit to pick - $himher and similar tags sometimes showed up as the $ tag instead of the proper text, and that always seemed to be because the critter was speaking too early, without having you as the focus of their attention yet.
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I have to lay this problem squarely at the feet of the devs. The only option authors have is just to not use those tags at all in critter dialog, which seems unfairly limiting.
So when I run into this, I mentally edit the proper terminology into the text myself and just play on.
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines
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I have to lay this problem squarely at the feet of the devs. The only option authors have is just to not use those tags at all in critter dialog, which seems unfairly limiting.
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You can restrict yourself only to using those tags at places where the critter will unquestionably be targeting the player.
I noticed Venture talking about the arc in a global channel and decided to check it out. Certainly not as bad as he would like us to think but he seems awfully fixated on the sanctity of his character's identity and the necessity of every story being about the player's character, for some reason. This story is obviously NOT about my character, since my character isn't anything like what the protagonist turns out to be, so I don't have a problem with that. To avoid spoiling too much I'll just say that my character only contributed his name and appearance to this story. I gave it 4 stars because while it was very well made... well, once the twist was revealed I wasn't having much fun. Just going through the motions until the now somewhat obvious end. I loved the first two missions and the custom enemies in them, and wouldn't have been upset if the arc abandoned the twist and treated it as a straight-up zombie invasion. Perhaps you can make another arc which treats the zombies as the real threat?
Winner of Players' Choice Best Villainous Arc 2010: Fear and Loathing on Striga; ID #350522
You're right, Fredrik, I don't know how to say this without spoiling things, but the entire idea behind it was to have an arc in which you are the protagonist, but not the one you thought you were going in. It's all a big head game.
That said, I knew writing it that it wasn't going to be for everyone, and figured a few people would hate having that done to 'their' character, so it was only a matter of time I suppose before someone took offense.
I'm actually more worried that this thread will have hyped it up too much - it wasn't really written for a mainstream, general public audience so people might expect something else than what it is going in, and nothing will ever live up to the story in your head.
EDIT: straight up zombie invasion has been done to death. I think if the arc were just about the first two mission's events, it would have been pretty boring, really. That's just me though.
I ran the entire arc with my lvl 39 Human only PB, and I guess because I have no stealth at all, did not see any of the glitches in the dialog.
The zombies were very well done, I just wish there was a way you could get some rez action into their powers. I mean, zombies, like Freakshow, shouldn't be killed once, but over and over again. I would love to see a zombie get up after I just killed it, and make me kill it again.
I totally didn't catch the twist until the final mission. Man that was good writing to keep me distracted for so long.
-Largo
Founder of A.G.O.N.Y. Supergroup on Victory
Member of Thought Sanctum VG on Victory
Member of St0rm Batallion SG on Guardian
That was brilliantly written, masterfully executed and I deeply regret having played it.
Character index
Wow, an arc that made Venture literally speechless with rage?
More like "Venture had RL stuff to do, and didn't have this one on the review list anyway".
You want the full list? Here it is:
a) Anagram on the Contact name: throws the Idiot Ball at the character and tells the player up-front that he's on the slow boat to Moronia.
b) Throws the Idiot Ball again in act I when the player is narrated as just blowing off a leak from a biohazard container. Heroes in this setting are registered and trained; they're not that dumb. This is over and above blowing up said containers in the first place which just would not be done. The obvious retort here is that the whole thing never happened in the first place but that's just jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
c) Appropriates the character's identity, which is an unforgivable trespass. The character's identity is utterly inviolate; it is what the player brings to the story in any RPG. The writer/GM already has the entire rest of the world to play with. Yes, the devs did this in "Mass Duplicity". That was crap too.
d) The five most common words in high-school fiction are: "and then he woke up". These kinds of stories are not cute or clever: they are tired, cheap and extremely obvious. If you didn't know you were going to have your chain yanked when you looked at the Contact, the splash screen for Act II should have told you there was at the very least a Jolly Candy-Like History Eraser Button coming up. There is no trick at all to writing them, because the writer holds all the cards in the first place. Yes, Joss Whedon did it on Buffy. That doesn't make it right, doubly so given the above. Things that work in books or movies (not that I even concede that this works anywhere; it doesn't) don't necessarily work in games.
Were the dialog tricks cute? Sure. I've done things like that myself. But they don't carry the arc and they don't excuse bad cliches.
Oh, and I do enjoy having fun. So much so that I take fun very seriously. Entertainment is far too important to be mindless.
Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"
I think this arc takes a certain amount of mental flexibility to do, but it's definitely one of the more unique arcs. While it's not my ultimate favorite, Witch Engine has set out to try to do something different, and I think has accomplished that.
Live arcs: 517377 and 517381
Virtue: Quickshot. Swiftwind. Aliuneidis. Gizmodeus. Dasher. Fiver. Inuit Acer. Daniel Darke. Cerebral Flame. El Halcon.
Intel Core2Duo 2.4 Ghz 4 GB RAM**NVIDIA Geforce 9600 GT set to 1280 x 1024**Windows Vista 32 bit
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Oh, and I do enjoy having fun. So much so that I take fun very seriously.
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+1 internetz for making me snort beverage out my nose.
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines
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I have to lay this problem squarely at the feet of the devs. The only option authors have is just to not use those tags at all in critter dialog, which seems unfairly limiting.
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You can restrict yourself only to using those tags at places where the critter will unquestionably be targeting the player.
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Well, I haven't myself had much luck controlling those circumstances, so I'm not going to knock another author for it. Maybe it's just me but it seems easy enough to consider it an out-of-context game glitch and not an authoring mistake.
It happens in canon arcs, too, by the way. I think the devs broke something in the general spawning/dialog code when i14 was released.
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines
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I think this arc takes a certain amount of mental flexibility to do, but it's definitely one of the more unique arcs. While it's not my ultimate favorite, Witch Engine has set out to try to do something different, and I think has accomplished that.
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Except it isn't. It is different for the MA, but as Venture pointed out, they already did this on Buffy, right down to the "which scenario is more plausible?" dialogue. The whole "superspeeder causes a global pandemic" thing has also been done.
I'll admit I didn't catch the anagram, so the ending was just a case of "oh no, not AGAIN."
Good use of mechanics though.
Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
Excellent arc. Had a ton of fun playing it. And appreciated the little touches.
(Haven't particularly agreed with Venture - style and intent squashes any viable value most of the time - so its a bonus this way.)
City of Heroes was my first MMO, & my favorite computer game.
R.I.P.
Chyll - Bydand - Violynce - Enyrgos - Rylle - Nephryte - Solyd - Fettyr - Hyposhock - Styrling - Beryllos - Rosyc
Horryd - Myriam - Dysquiet - Ghyr
Vanysh - Eldrytch
Inflyct - Mysron - Orphyn - Dysmay - Reapyr - - Wyldeman - Hydeous
I'll admit I didn't catch the anagram, so the ending was just a case of "oh no, not AGAIN."
We're at a point now where every time I see a name that's the slightest bit out of place I look for the letters E, I, M, N, and S and then start counting how many....
Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"
If I may deconstruct this a little, you seem to be ignoring a lot of things here.
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a) Anagram on the Contact name: throws the Idiot Ball at the character and tells the player up-front that he's on the slow boat to Moronia.
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This was done specifically with this contact, and for this reason, because there is precident in the actual game for the exact same thing happening with this exact same sort of anagram, and, it hints that something is wrong to the observant right away. Not to meniton, if you play the arc through, depending on your interpretation of it (of the two possible interpretations), it's more likely than not even him at all.
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b) Throws the Idiot Ball again in act I when the player is narrated as just blowing off a leak from a biohazard container. Heroes in this setting are registered and trained; they're not that dumb. This is over and above blowing up said containers in the first place which just would not be done. The obvious retort here is that the whole thing never happened in the first place but that's just jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
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If you actually read the mission dialog, the clues state you very carefully incinerate the canister, anything it came in contact with, AND the surrounding area. And then when you leave, you and the contact send in biohazard clean up crews in case you missed anything. It's right there in the mission text.
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c) Appropriates the character's identity, which is an unforgivable trespass. The character's identity is utterly inviolate; it is what the player brings to the story in any RPG. The writer/GM already has the entire rest of the world to play with. Yes, the devs did this in "Mass Duplicity". That was crap too.
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This is literally the entire point of the arc. If you don't like it, that's fine, but giving 1 star for personal bias is a little extreme. The whole arc was deconstructing and pointing out the insanity of the entire superhero mythos and how absurd it would sound to a 'normal' person.
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d) The five most common words in high-school fiction are: "and then he woke up". These kinds of stories are not cute or clever: they are tired, cheap and extremely obvious. If you didn't know you were going to have your chain yanked when you looked at the Contact, the splash screen for Act II should have told you there was at the very least a Jolly Candy-Like History Eraser Button coming up. There is no trick at all to writing them, because the writer holds all the cards in the first place. Yes, Joss Whedon did it on Buffy. That doesn't make it right, doubly so given the above. Things that work in books or movies (not that I even concede that this works anywhere; it doesn't) don't necessarily work in games.
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There is no 'waking up', the entire arc has you bleeding on various levels in and out of lucidity. Every step of the way, up to, and including the ending, is left ambiguous as to how much of it exactly is 'real', specifically because a story that permanently changes the game or a character in a way that player doesn't approve of is bad form, so it is constructed in such a fashion that a player can take what they want from the finale without invalidating the story of the arc, or their character. You get what you put into it.
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Oh, and I do enjoy having fun. So much so that I take fun very seriously. Entertainment is far too important to be mindless.
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I'm sorry your definition of fun seems so different than majority of players who have played this arc, but I'm sticking to my guns on this one. when over 90% of your feedback is overwhelmingly positive, I think the person must be doing something right.
Like I said, the arc is definitely not for everyone, but really now? Wishing you could have given it negative stars?
In an architect completely overwhelmed with farms, impossible to read grammar, broken enemies, and worse, this is really the unforgivable sin of arcs? I mean, I'm no shakespeare, but at least the arc has a cohesive story, is balanced to be playable, excellent grammar and spelling, and tons of clues and NPC dialog.
You speak of wanting quality on the AE, but taking arcs that are actually trying to present a quality experience and shouting them down as the worst of the worst doesn't really endear people doing them to make more.
I haven't played the arc, but it sure seems from context like you managed to push two or three of Venture's hate buttons at once.
The ongoing discussion is probably not too valuable. I would venture (ha ha) to say you're not going to make Venture happy with this arc without throwing away its core concepts, so at this point it seems like it's better to be satisfied with the demonstrably large number of people who got a lot of enjoyment out of it.
It's on my list to play, btw, right after I finish the newly updated version of "The Case of the Late Richard Faraday".
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines
This is, without a doubt, the best MA arc I've played to date.
Thank you Witch Engine
-Largo
Founder of A.G.O.N.Y. Supergroup on Victory
Member of Thought Sanctum VG on Victory
Member of St0rm Batallion SG on Guardian