Atebus Revolution Masquerade

[Kamil]

I think Isaac did it, but I think he'd been programmed to do so by Thorpe, who probably found out about the new line of robots; then he also found out about Blackmoon's interest in them as weapons, and freaked, since I'm sure he thinks such a development would damage the law and order he's devoted his life to.

He probably figured that if the prototype went mad, and killed his 'father' that the entire line would be scrapped as too dangerous to be allowed. So in the interest of the greater good, yaddayadda, he hacked the kid and had him off the old guy. Plus, every time I try to ask Isaac what it would take to reprogram him, or if he'd remember such an event, Thorpe immediately separates us, worrying about my safety around the 'thing'.

Uh-huh.

Plus there's the whole thing where Isaac's holding his bloody glove. x.x But since I can't imagine him killing his father of his own accord, and since Thorpe is so twitchy, and, as Huggles said, was on the scene likethat, I call shenaganians.

I just wish I had some way of actually accusing the people I think are guilty. If it comes to it, I'll finally accuse Isaac -- I've tried accusing Thorpe -- three times, on the theory that 'third time' and all that, but all he does is bluster. And nuke my accusation.

Poor Isaac. I don't think it's his fault, or his responsibility, but I do think he did it.

Or not. x.x

[Huggles]

I think what everyone's looking for in regards to keeping the items is simplicity. Not knowing whether or not you'll get rewarded or punished for keeping them or not isn't the type of mystery that anyone likes. Either make it so everyone has to turn them in. Or, make it so it doesn't make a difference in the final result of all this, whatever— if anything— that may be. Keeping people guessing on whether that is trivial or significant is just silly. Just like the first wave of zombie achievements and the Pirate/Islander account status, which turned out to be rather significant choices most people weren't even aware they were making.

[Teera]

...What's the point in finding them or turning them in if it means nothing? If you're forced to? I don't know. I don't see it as a punishment either way, because it's not going to be as simple as "you didn't do this, so you get nothing!" That's rather why I don't want to influence it.

I'm not going to comment on it anymore, since it'll be moot in less than an hour, but I will leave you guys with this. We're looking to make it so that a correct answer will get you your clues back. That's more than I wanted to say, more than I probably should say, but... I don't want this to leave a bad taste in your mouth. I really don't. Certainly not over paper scraps.

[Wingsrising]

I'm guessing that means I'm going to really regret not turning them in...

I agree with Huggles. "Guess what's going to get us rewarded" isn't the fun sort of mystery.

[Joey]

I think Marcel did it. Clearly the man is proud of his mustache, and he was sure that he would have the most beautiful facial hair at the ball. Little did he know that Vernon would show up with his wonderful goatee of magic and rainbows! So he killed him out of jealously. But in a shocking turn of events, Thorpe showed up with his fabulous mustache of wonder and amazement, once again humbling Marcel's mustache.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[bonecrivain]

Ugh. So now I'm probably going to regret not turning my evidence in, but it's a horrible choice to make when you KNOW you love the items you have and have no idea if you're going to get BETTER things, or dumb achievements, or other prizes you don't particularly care about. Kamil, you're awesome, and I completely agree with you. The evidence we've been given doesn't clearly lead to anyone, and all of the clicking and talking and choosing whether to lose your items has been far more frustrating than fun.

I wavered on who to accuse; my first instinct was that Garret did it for Jules, since they both constantly talk about how they'd do anything for each other. The people with the strongest tempers, though (Garret and Victoria are constantly mad at me), usually aren't the ones who actually do the murdering. At least, not in movies and books and things, and I don't know how "realistic" this plot is trying to be. I went with Marcel, like most of the people here, since I like him the least and am still annoyed that he stole my journal page 3. Also, any evidence that we actually have (which is minimal and not terribly useful in making a clear decision) seems to point to him.

Oh well. This feels like the islander plot all over again, with the lack of warning about islanders losing all their points if they tossed a flower into the ocean. I was a pirate, but I still feel like that was a crappy thing to do in that plot, and I feel similarly about this one's "prizes." Why should people get something special for turning in the evidence? We all found the same evidence. We used it to talk to people. In a real murder investigation, does anyone actually receive a reward for turning in bits of paper to a cop?

This is more annoying than the islander situation, because it's clear that I will be missing out on SOMETHING, so either way, I'm going to lose. It's not like there's any way of knowing that you've "completed" the plot by accusing the correct person, because the evidence is minimal and I'm sure is full of "clever" misdirections.

[Teera]

I've never turned in evidence to a real cop before, but I imagine the reward would be greater than if you just kept something to yourself.

or dumb achievements, or other prizes you don't particularly care about.

And THAT is why I've not been very forthcoming. It's subjective. Unless you're all wanting me to tell you EXACTLY what the prizes are, which I just can't do.

[Jessi]

I, personally, had fun with the plot *shrugs* I thought the art was gorgeous and a lot of the things have been really well-written. The turning-in-evidence part could have been handled a lot better and was a bit confusing, but overall I just really liked it. I even liked venturing onto the forums to watch the NPCs roleplay, which was fun, especially since I got to watch Jules punch Isaac in his metal face, haha.

I didn't turn in all my evidence because I... guess I'm just not that fussed about the whole thing. I turned in the evidence I didn't care about and kept the stuff I absolutely needed - like the key, which is such a lovely item, and the bookends because Fen would have seriously protested otherwise.

I put Marcel as the killer, but I think Isaac did the actual killing and was reprogrammed by Marcel... which makes Marcel the murderer in my book. Though I like Joey's explanation more, haha.

Also, just to add, you might not get money or a reward for evidence (I'm not really sure) but I'm kind of a cop show addict (as in.. shows about real cops, not Law and Order. though i watch that too) and there's so many cases that have a "$_____ reward for information leading to the return of So and So". So yes, you can get rewards for that sort of thing.

[bonecrivain]

Also, just to add, you might not get money or a reward for evidence (I'm not really sure) but I'm kind of a cop show addict (as in.. shows about real cops, not Law and Order. though i watch that too) and there's so many cases that have a "$_____ reward for information leading to the return of So and So". So yes, you can get rewards for that sort of thing.

Yeah, but in those cases, it's something that was clearly presented from the beginning. You came to the police because they were advertising for evidence, and you knew exactly what you were going to get. They don't post things saying, "Possible reward or possibly nothing at all if you bring us evidence leading to the arrest of Bad Person #8! Wait a few weeks to find out which it is! Hahaha!"

[Teera]

That's not what I said.

I said you could keep what you had, or turn it in for the possibility of something better. Possibility here meaning it was better to you. Because, like I said, it's subjective what is or isn't better.

[Bacon]

I'll be extremely pissed if you had to give him the correct items to accuse the person you wanted to accuse, cuz i never was able to get the note about Marcel being poor and Vernon not accepting the Blackmoon request.

[Huggles]

You don't have to tell us anything here. At all. I don't mean that in a spiteful way. I mean, you can read and lurk and choose not to post at all if you're not sure it's something you can say. We're okay with that. We obviously don't know what's going on, but that's the crux of the issue here. Something bad? Something good? We don't know and can't judge whether or not it will be important. Even if someone doesn't particularly want the items, someone else might, and keeping them to sell, if that's possible, would be desirable to some. So, either it should/should have been mandatory for everyone to turn everything in or the option to give them to an npc permanently shouldn't be there.

The whole point is that we would like to keep the shinies without it having any sort of effect on the outcome. Period. Unless, there's a news post on Subeta telling everyone what the results of their actions will be. There's no sort of precedent for us to go by and Subeta in general has a habit of leaving us in the dark for no good reason after the fact.

I don't understand why this is confusing.

[Teera]

I know I don't have to post here. This event means a great deal to me, and to know that others are unsatisfied makes me unhappy. And in general, I just feel a need to explain things.

I guess I am confused because you're saying it should be mandatory to give up all of your items, but then you say you'd like to keep them. After seeing you all wanting to keep them earlier, that's why I even wanted to make it an option. I don't understand why it would be better to dangle these items in front of you and then force you to give them up.

Edit: This event was supposed to be shorter. That's on me.

[Ierosbats]

I turned in everything except the cogwork key (because it's pretty) and the windup key (because I have a friend who needs an extra). The evidence situation is such a mess and at this point, I just don't care. If turning stuff in means I get other things then yay (I can't like them any less than the pages), and if not at least my inventory is finally less cluttered. I'm just glad this event is almost over. Soon it will be Vesnali and lots of pretty flower items will come out. My pets can't do a thing with steampunk junk. It's pretty junk, which I think I've said before, I just don't have any uses for it. Except the pilot hats. I love those and bought them all and plan to wear them frequently.

I accused Jules because he seemed least likely. I probably should have gone with Marcel like everyone else did, but... he seems soooo obvious. I kind of expected the plot to have a clever twist or something at the end but maybe that was silly of me. Again, I don't really care, I'm just glad it's all ending.

I guess I would call this event a success, even if I didn't really enjoy it. The art was gorgeous, of course, and set a new standard for events to come. The ballroom looked great, the NPCs were amazing, and the menagerie and lounge were packed with lots of neat new things. A job well done, artists. Hopefully they're not all totally burnt out after this.

The writing was so-so. Definitely an improvement over things like the Subetapedia entries, but I think I preferred the islander/pirate story. I preferred that event more in general, though, even with its terrible goof of an ending. It had a nicer flow to it, and a wider variety of things to do. This event just felt like a lot of mindless clicking, even more so than subeta usually does.

The pacing, I thought, was what really killed the event. The plot steps weren't interesting enough to be dragged out as long as they were. Clicking around an office for journal pages? Fun for like... well, never I guess, but certainly not for days. The NPC-talking was a neat idea, but again, not entertaining enough to merit the amount of time it went on for, especially with how buggy it was. The whole thing just seemed to go on and on and on, with a new chore coming out every few days. I certainly appreciate the effort that went into it, I just thought the content was too thin to be stretched out for so long. It started out strong but got boring.

It's been years since I quit Neo, and normally I don't miss it, but the Subeta "plots" always make me ache for the great Neopets events. I don't know if another pet site will ever be able to top the Altador constellation plot; it was the perfect mix of fun, challenging and pretty. The Masquerade certainly had the pretty part down, but the rest of it left a lot to be desired.

[Huggles]

Have everyone turn them all in and give them back later in a murder mystery evidence kit?

Have Thorpe and the the other npcs return all the evidence once he's/they're done? (People who didn't have an item wouldn't get it back in this scenario.)

Tell everyone, or make it so, that turning them in permanently or letting npcs keep them will have absolutely no effect whatsoever on the outcome?

I dunno. I'm just the hall monitor.