Hey, we need image license!
However article is good overall, for making riddle and page gimmick!
+5!
RPC-231 / Discussion
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This is the discussion related to the wiki page RPC-231.
I’m confused, do the glasses acually reveal that the authority can’t be trusted, or are the glasses just tricking you into being paranoid?
Anywho, this was a pretty interesting and nice read. You got a +5.
The object is associated with the Union, so I think it's just hallucinations. +5 btw.
They actually reveal the truth, but the Authority claims they're trying to make you paranoid, because when you're a secret organization dedicated to keeping an entire aspect of the universe secret, glasses that see through secrets are a massive security threat. The idea was to create something that scares the higher ups of the Authority. The three things it says the authority did are also links.
Short article done right if you ask me. Well-Written, has a reason to be an RPC and it’s a cool concept albeit simple. The mention of The Union does feel a bit iffy and shoehorned but it doesn’t drag the article down. Great tone too, but it’s hard to make mistakes when it’s an article so short. I’d like to see this idea being at least expanded upon a bit more, nothing too big.
5/5
Marco Marchi B. Mark
This article gave me a lot to talk about, to the extent that it's gonna be hard to get my thoughts together for this review. I'll try my best.
So, the first issue that struck me was the over-the-top style of writing. What I'm saying is, the twist is apparent from the first full sentence of the page. How many articles need to include a warning for personnel not to use the item on themselves? That's the thing: the writing does not have subtlety. I think it would be far more effective if the glasses were introduced as "causing hallucinations and the gradual onset of schizophrenia", not "causing people to see glowing words and become convinced that the Authority [REDACTED]". While both are vague, the former sounds like the effect itself is unspecific, while the latter makes it obvious that the Authority is being manipulative and would instantly attract suspicion. On a similar note, the object class should probably be Alpha-Red; Beta-Purple is ridiculously extreme.
The reason this RPC is great, though, is how the twist is handled. I cannot stress enough how much I love this format: Skimming is usually something that the reader shouldn't want to do, but this article takes that and makes it the very purpose. I live for articles like this that play with the way the reader engages with them. It's not just a good gimmick, though; it really does work on a narrative level. The removal of expungements puts entire paragraphs into a completely new light, and the change from "amnesticized" to "killed" is seriously chilling.
What I just said there brings me to something that I want to address in this review. I don't think I would've brought this up otherwise, but I'm aware that the author has expressed disillusionment over their own ability to write horror. So, is this article scary? Here's what the author had to say on Discord:
the Authority relies heavily on deception; secrets, false information, classification, etc. So something like a pair of glasses that can see through deception would pose a significant threat to them on a conceptual level, but is that scary?
The problem here is that the Authority is not a sympathetic entity. Though they work for the greater good and are definitely more ethical than a certain… comparable organization, they're still antagonistic (at least directly) to the average citizen, the character that the reader will relate to.
And that's actually where this article comes in. The protagonist's curiosity got the best of them, and they are now in some serious shit. The message on the case at the end is right; whether the glasses are telling the truth or not, the Authority is coming. The protagonist will most likely either succumb to paranoia or be executed, and we don't even know which one. That's kind of scary. Not "I feel threatened in real life" horror, but it's a threatening concept within the suspension of disbelief, and that's pretty nice.
Simply put, I think this is a great premise with some iffy writing. I would normally consider that to be something of a nitpick, but when my first impression is "this looks silly", my overall opinion of the article is lowered. Taking that into account, I rate this article 4/5.
Thanks to DoubleDenial for helping me improve the filter effect to both look cooler and be less laggy.
I haven't made it "less laggy", but I did create the vignette. Thank you for letting me be a part of this article!
Love how this RPC makes great use of wanting to do something, but having a fear of being disciplined by a higher authority (pun intended). Its also very clever to make the article be short and lackluster as to make the anomaly not seem interesting to anybody in-universe who may come across it and read the document. It would be fascinating to see a tale with someone using this in action.
One question.
plan to take over all governments,
Where does the Authority say they are going to do this? The text doesn't link anywhere and the author in a previous discussion post on this page said that the spectacles reveal the truth.
On the other note, epic RPC. 5 stars.
/forum/t-12528283/rpc-231#post-