We are already seeing an influx of new agents. And I foresee that this trend is not going to slow as a matter of fact I anticipate more and more agents getting on board. I think we are approaching a time where we need a dedicated "Repository of History". Let me explain. Starting fresh today with no prior experience with what has happened in the Kickstarter campaign, A Skim mission, characters and maybe the new agent has not even played The Secret World, where do they start to immerse themselves in the reality of TBW. The forums of course. But that is a daunting challenge to read through in one sitting when what you really want to do is get your boots on the ground and be caught up sufficiently enough to do so. So I suggest we make it easier. Make it Agent-friendly so to speak. A Repository that is a read only. Character profiles for the NPC's for lack of a better word...who is Agent Msika, Gladys etc. Mission summaries for the new agent to quickly understand what happened two weeks before they arrived...What happened at the Barbizon for example. Armed with the snapshot information a new agent can easily jump in and start to play with a nice comfort level AND hit the rest of the Forums with the tools to seek out the threads that will lead them to the all the guts, glories, false leads and theories, wild imaginings and what not. It turns what clearly is daunting into very manageable. Gives a new agent the requisite information to jump into community with a nice level of confidence. Give them a sense of belonging right out of the gate! And I think this is really important moving forward. How to do? Create the Repository. Have it maintained as a no chatter thread, just succinct information. Give it a moderator? Give it a moderator who takes agent submissions? Make it HQ run. Make an agent a 'Librarian' who maintains? That part I will leave to greater minds than mine! And this has gotten way toooooooo long. Agent Rowyne retreating back into the shadows.
I agree, we've tried to make the ongoing missions subforum an archive of information and more readable by creating threads for each mission, but as chatter increases ability to parse information goes down. If we don't want to institute a whole new framework of the depository for keeping track of these missions, then I think the original poster of the thread should maintain in the first post a record of progress and notes. I think even with the Repository we should start doing that because it's hard to keep track of the most recent developments in the flurry of posts.
I think that's a great idea. I just jumped into the forums, I don't know much about the background and this would help. Good idea!
Currently, the best resources are wiki pages on CryGaia: -"A new mission" wiki (first TSW's ARG dealing with The Black Watchmen): -"End of days" wiki + http://wiki.crygaia.com/view/End_Of_Days -Division 66 missions/background wiki (up to date until march 2014) Also, Division 66's wiki would need some update, and specific informations pages, but I think someone had started creating a dedicated site/wiki before (to confirm). Recent resources: -Rosenberg clinic website -Barbizon hotels website Recent characters: -Gladys : HR director for division 66, started working with Division 66 in 1976, real appearance unknown as the footage seem to be stock (the flower could be an hint?) -Dr Nathalie Lacoste : formerly working in the Rosenberg clinic (found dead) -Mr Whitechapel: Thought to be the ex-Dragon agent who convinced an Illuminati and a Templar to defect to his cause, to create the Black Watchmen (not enough info to confirm). Msika was sent to investigate about it during the Gate 33 events (Courtesy of agent DeepThroat). Possible link with Barbizon hotels, involved in agent casualties and weird cases (everything is to be confirmed, seeing how he plays with BW agents and operations). Known alias: Mr. Patch Hewlie -Captain William Abraham Patrick - in charge of Division-42 - 1982-2014: MIA since september 2014 (updated to FUBAR, because of the quantity of blood found in his home after his disappearance; but missing body) -Msika (Georgia Msika): Novice Dragon agent sent to investigate on Mr Whitechapel's and the Black Watchmen's activities during Gate 33 events. Mission contact (as a Black Watchmen's agent?) managing our infiltration into the Situation Room during EndOfDays events, sent in Russia to investigate on the clues obtaines. MIA from december 2012 to september 2014 (kidnapped, sold to various intelligence services, and retrieved after a "human auction" managed by "Barbizon hotels") Retired. -Gwendolyn Carlyle: Engaged with Msika. Potentially involved in TheBlackWatchmen's operations. -Phoenix: Field agents manager (contact: [email protected] ) and main contact to manage the retrieving of Msika during september 2014's Barbizon hotel's auction. Additional informations: Knowing of the "Yellow curtain" (+blog link) ( and trying to access the Qadhos system) could be interesting for newcomers too (this ARG was also heavily followed on UnFiction forums). It seems that the Black Watchmen organisation was born from remains of Qadhos, and also from former TSW's factions agents (to confirm). Nb: After checking topics, this content is quite similar to Nikel's "Who are the blackwatchmen?" topic, pinned into the general section. Probably only recent events have to be documented it seems.
I've updated the block, but are you sure that you aren't mixing up things between Whitechapel and the Black Watchmen? :/ I thought that it was only told that the Black Watchmen were created by an ex-Dragon agent (who convinced the two other agents), and that Whitechapel was mentioned to be from the same organisation, but with his own agenda (going rogue, using serial killers, to get a manuscript). And according to what you say, Msika was from the Dragon, not from the Black Watchmen? (Which would mean that it has been modified for EoD?)
Msika was the Dragon agent assigned to monitor the Black Watchmen, presumably at some point she went full TBW. The other stuff I can't really comment on because it's not to clear to me either.
Great idea! Especially for someone like myself who has been off and on since heavy involvement with TSW due to time constraints this would do wonders. It would serve as an archive to bring some of us who can't (at the moment) dedicate the time we'd like to due to work/classes/etc. I'm in full support of this.
I definitely kept wanting some kind of summary (in one place) as I was trying to catch up on the story. And would still find one really helpful. I do have to admit I've never been a huge fan of wikis. When involved with investigations similar to this in the past, I always seem to end up coding my own "repository' because it gives me so much more flexibility with displaying the information. What I think would be interesting would be to have a site presented as a sort of filing system, with agent files (one for each of us, or at least the agents heavily involved and named in the summaries of who found what during investigations), intel on "persons of interest" (characters) and mission reports. I keep imagining a theme of what appears to be typed-out reports and pages, images presented as being paper-clipped to the pages with the bios, that kind of thing. (With whatever embedded media is necessary, of course. Obviously there would be some "suspension of disbelief" involved with a concept of an online simulation of a paper filing cabinet.) Granted, paper-looking files might not be appropriate for a group who is so online-centric. The same could be presented via some kind of terminal log-in. Then again, they may be perfect for a group so familiar with how unsafe electronic files are. (I keep saying the more I learn about hacking, the more I want to destroy all my electronic files and put everything back in my filing cabinet.) Anyway, whatever the visuals, the actual information uncovered could be summarized in a sort of story format for people who just want the information, with the actual spoilers related to puzzle solves linked separately ("for details, see attachment 1382-A") for people who want them.
