The Week Fimfiction Saved a Life · 12:18am Oct 8th, 2018
ARG's are tricky business. If you do one, you can't say "THERES A DEEPER GAME TO THIS." You need to motivate someone to act. You can't tell them "hey do this," because then they're just following instructions. It has to be from the heart and their own natural curiosity. Then, when they find that they've triggered some sort of in real life event, then they feel like they've actually earned something.
I've been fielding the site, running search parameters every hour, hounding my inbox for replies to Melody, waiting for a very specific quota of responses. Not just how many responses, but HOW you responded.
If you responded to Melody privately (via PM or Email), You would have gotten this message:
Hello New Participant!
Thank you again for enrolling in the Equestrian Connection project. We're afraid that due to complications your penpal,
Melody Breeze
is no longer a part of our program. We can happily connect you with many of our other participants throughout all of Equestria! There's no better way to learn about the world than with a penpal.
Thank you for your part in our wonderful outreach program.
The Equestrian Connection ProjectCongrats on being the [Number Here] to find the secret conclusion to Just Reply. It's a secret that this is the way to get the conclusion to the story, so please keep mum for the word until I display the experiment results when the timer is up. :) Thanks! Hope you have an awesome day.
However, those who responded publicly got a bit of a different response, sent privately:
Congratulations on being the [Number Here] to publicly respond to Melody. There's a special reward for when enough people respond to Melody, but only those who publicly respond get to know that. All of those who respond to her privately believe that the message I sent you is the end of the game. But that of course, is a secret.
There's still time. She can still be saved. You've done your part, now we must see if others will.
This was tricky business. Now that these people knew what it would take to do... something. It created a sort of Hype state, to encourage others to join in the letter writing. However, those who got the private reply got the most hurtful, subtle response, leading them to infer there was nothing more that could be done.
And that was the entire goal the whole time. To make the reader, penpal, YOU, to feel as helpless as Melody feel hopeless. To put you into her shoes. To hurt.
However, I wanted to make a special reward for there being enough people to try to fight the system, to say "No. I can change this. I can make a difference if I try."
And you did. You really, really tried.
And you did. You saved Melody's Life.
At Thursday, October 11th, 11:59 PM CST, a chapter would have autoposted detailing her final message to the penpal who never replied. The final message she would ever send. That chapter no longer exists.
You did this, Fimfiction. All of you, working together, impacted this story. I wanted to put up every barrier possible to try and stop you from trying to make a difference. And all of you still found the ways to respond to Melody.
Congratulations Fimfic. I'm happy you enjoyed the Just Reply ARG.
(This is the true end. There's nothing else.)
Admittedly, I havnt read it yet, but thats a interesting way to go about a story
This was absolutely thrilling to watch. Thank you, Flutterpriest, for putting this together and letting me be a vicarious part of it. Thank you, everyone, for your responses. I know it meant a lot to Flupri, and that means a lot to me.
xoxo
I-
I just wrote my reply last night.
I was going to put it off until today, but I didn't.
I'm kind of glad I didn't.
This
wasiswas amazing.Thank you.
I'm glad to have been a part of helping Melody (though admittedly, I would have been too late to save her, which makes me feel awful).
But I think it brings out a fact that most of here know already: we are here for each other. I cannot imagine that if this had been a friend or a follower or even somepony we didn't know, there would have been an outpouring of support and love from everypony that heard about this persons situation.
I don't believe for a moment that this isn't so. This is why I love this fandom and each of you here. You know the magic that friendship can perform. You are the best!
Even though the ending is a bit... well sucky i still like it... It's fresh and an original idea gg dude...
4949910
What I didn't count into the ARG were the NUMEROUS replies to ME PERSONALLY that were people just concerned about me and my well being. It was unreal the amount of support that came out for this story. I think you nailed it on the head, simply because I personally got more questions and responses about my well being than Melody got privately and publicly combined.
4949912
Sucky? How so. I'd love your feedback on what was dissatisfying about the ending. I was aiming for a realistic approach rather than a Happily ever after type approach.
4949930
Umm... i don't like sad endings... they are sad...
But it is a good story... Made me feel really concerned about the well being of the charater...
4949929
I was actually thinking that may have been the situation rather than it being a reader response type story, which is the reason I feel bad about writing sooner or just writing you and asking. I've been in the situation where I should have asked and didn't.
I think I failed this friendship test. Twilight would be as disappointed with me as I am with myself.
I am glad you're alright. I'll do better next time, promise!
Damn this has been an interesting weekend
4949929
Ay man, better safe than sorry
4949989
Right, and I totally agree with you. Just looking back, I wish I had designed the game a bit differently that would have removed the vagueness from the equation.
Oh. Just though it was because we didn't know the mailing address (user?). Also, this was a game? That explains the message I got. Oh... still confused but fictional(?) person not going to kill herself and maybe have a better life is pretty much what I want. And help other people. ugh... I need to dial back the thinking. Also I thought... wait... wait... I'm not suppose to do anymore thinking a say something that would spoil something, something...
I mean... YAY!
*yays externally*
Since I got the first PM, I was debating the next story about Dawn to be her going maniacal and hunting down the employees of Equestrian Connection Project *chuckles* Thanks for making that happen not.
Never have I been so pleased to be woken from slumber. If I can ever find that grey mailmare I shall reward her as befits a hero.
And in the meantime? I shall sing a song of bells, in the light of this glorious new dawn.
Honestly, the main reason I went with a PM was because this felt like a private thing, (and not because I have no idea how to post a story...) displaying my efforts to the world felt, wrong somehow. In any case I am pleased and relived to have had a part in this happy outcome. One should always respond to a cry for help, no matter the source. Never despair. Fear perhaps, sing perhaps, love perhaps, hate perhaps, but despair? Never despair. There is nothing so useless, no greater waste of time. It shall not do!
As with everything in life, accepting one choice means turning away from another.
Because we got the good ending to this, we will never know what the bad ending was.
And I can't help but feel...wistful about it. I'm not sure "regretful" is the right word, but "wistful" sounds about right. Curious, too -- I'd dearly love to peek at the other timeline, to see the choice we declined.
Bravo, Flutterpriest. This had a lot of impact in a small amount of space, and that's not something everyone can do.
Provenance: I hit this from Anonpencil's reply, having already experienced Broken Bindings. You two make an excellent team, even when you're not directly collaborating.
Can't wait to see what you come up with next.
Why this particular distinction between public and private responses?
I see that in this case, it really was quantity that saved Melody's life--by catching the attention of a third party. The content of the letters didn't really matter much, did it? Because she was so far down we couldn't convince her of anything by ourselves. But...
Look, I would have posted that story if I'd known it would help her. I would have attached author's notes every way I could have--in the descriptions, in the story, in blog posts, in the comments--to try to get other people to help. For a fictional character. If only I'd known.
So... why?
4950795
Because in terms of the "Point" counter that was used for # of responses that were required to save melody, private responses were triple points.
It's easy to get people to bandwagon to do something. It's much harder to get someone to reach out privately. I wanted to reward that private response, even if they didn't know it.
As for why it wasn't more explicit? Well, when dealing with these sorts of subjects, those whom are at highest risk of suicide don't always let on to the fact that they need help. It's never always cut and dried and in your face. It was a test of character for the reader.
You don't always know when you'll lose someone you care about. You don't know if just a simple message, or comment, or smile could save someone's life.
I hope that answered your question.
4950827
I think so. What I’m getting is essentially that two separate tests were running at once: a test of “the bandwagon”, of a community’s ability to group together based on the encouragement of people in the know to save Melody’s life; and a test of individual people, who had no other motives to what they were doing (attention, knowing it would have an impact)—and who couldn’t interfere with the numbers of either test afterwards by encouraging others to do as they had done.
And, of course, the whole empathy thing.
4950833
Exactly :)
What a shame that I couldn't make myself time to read it at the moment, makes me wondering if I would have done nothing. And knowing me, it seems the most likely.
You really made something amazing! Can't say I saw something like it.