>>91825
nah, the reason self-defense classes teach you to go for the nuts is it's not the kind of pain you can just shrug off, adrenaline be damned

a hard enough hit to the nuts can make you vomit or even pass out from the pain

>>91851
If that is the case, I wonder if time was reversed for him to before it happened. That may be why he's a kid- it was the time of life he really truly wished to return to. Same with Kim, and Nan I guess.

I wonder what happened to Kim later in her childhood.

>>91838
Hey, didn't Pablo have janitorial duties?

>>91851
>Possibly confirmed that Santiago was essentially castrated by his father?

That sounds very brutal, his dad must be rotting away in jail for it. I don't think a kid could survive full castration. Although worth mentioning that Santiago says Nan has been bad and must be PUNISHED when he strips her, and since he's really just a kid I imagine rape wasn't on his mind.

Heh, it's actually pretty obvious when you think back, the childish way he bit her during their tussle. His way of making light of people's death is disgusting coming from an adult, but for a child it's a natural way of handling trauma.

>>91852
Could've been a miss. It's not really an issue if balls aren't being crushed. I mean, hey, if she had hit a pelvis bone when showing Henry who's boss she could've broken a toe.

>>91848
There were a few abnormalities in the Hotel that stick out from the rest.

>Anderson's cigar
>The mirror, both times
>Illusion of Kim

I think the mirror is the most interesting, because it seems to be benign at first by hinting at Henry's deceptive nature, but after it is smashed, it uses its notably diminished powers to try and kill Nan.

Kim's illusion also tries to warn her about Henry, but seems far more keen on luring and killing her. Still, if these things wanted Nan or anyone else dead, why would they be trying to expose Henry?

The cigar is trying to kill Anderson through less direct means. Or it wanted a kiss and danced with joy when he finally noticed her. Like the mirror and illusion, she ultimately dies, suggesting that they are not necessarily immortal ghosts.

So this is where the fun theories start. My favorite is that the hauntings want more SACRIFICES and are trying to recreate the way they die. Inhalation of smoke - Check. Burned to death - Check. Being cut by shards of glass makes sense looking back in Nan's visit to that other fire, there are a few glasses and people probably panicked knocking some over.

>>91856
>If that is the case, I wonder if time was reversed for him to before it happened

I think the age he's at now is before it happened, yeah. He says at >>>/questarch/645867
>When I was fifteen my dad took a knife to me and--

and he appears to be below 15 now, so it would seem he's reverted to a state before the worst part of his abuse happened.

Since we're talking about Santiago, there's something I've always thought about. His malnourishment.
Maybe he refused to eat, unless stricly necessary, because he knew the food the Hotel 'spawned' came from people's deaths, mainly from Henry's doings.

>>91871
If the hotel provides food, why did Nan and Pablo get a can from that rat that one time?

>>91872
Alan had recently died, the rat probably stole from that batch but couldn't open it.

The rat eats corpses.

>>91872
Well there were still a few cans left in the janitor's closet. It's probably just leftover that they were saving in case of emergency ("they" being Henry, Santiago and whoever else came before the group we know)

Does anyone else wonder if Helpful Rat/Mouse and Sister Maggi or who ever appeared at the end wearing repairman's clothes are one in the same?

>>646292
Good taste, as always.
>>646253
So, is that a broken cross, or a broken symbol of death?
Is a good or bad thing.

>>91890
Sorry, wrong version of Nan thread
.
.
.
Apparently you can't post in that one anymore. Huh.

Many characters died as a result of our poor decisions. What should we have done differently to get a perfect play?

I think pairing up Henry and big guy Anderson would go a long way.

>>91903
>>91903
NanQuest involved complex, troubled characters, social dynamics, dark pasts, and unspoken conflicts. I feel like the very line of thinking in these posts actually caused more damage than they prevented.

Treating every interpersonal conflict like some adventure game puzzle that had a "correct" answer, aiming for a "perfect" ending where everyone returns to their old lives happy and in one piece, trying to dig for easter eggs and clinging to diplomatic solutions even when that point has long-since passed -- all that may have worked in a Sierra Adventure, but that's not what NanQuest was. People pried rudely thinking they needed to know everything. People allowed violence because they were too busy talking to act. People took too much fretted conversation as objective narration.

People often missed the forest for the trees.

Things could have turned out differently, but a "perfect" run doesn't even exist here.

I still think everyone would love to see the continued adventures of Nan and Lil Santiago, even if it's just their everyday lives after the incident.

>>91752
It was never stated anywhere what would happen if one escaped the hotel.

>>91798
>>91807
I think what happened is that when Santiago went to save Kim, it just sent him back to her time as well, and if Nan would have made it back inside she would've been a kid too.

>>91917
Makes sense, everyone here knows how to play adventure games but there hasn't really been anything like nanquest before. The Fat Man Trolley Problem comes to mind, nobody wants to take action in fear it might do harm, so their inaction causes worse problems.

>>91903
>>91945
While I agree on what weaver said about there being no way to make a "perfect run" I can say for certainly say we all made some silly mistakes.
For starters, quite a number of us tried to treat Nan more as some character in some interactive adventure game than what she really was; a scared, confused electrician who is ultimately a goat a human(-ish) being. No superhuman strength, no masters degree in like 75 fields.
Secondly, we were way to preachy. opting to find diplomacy in a situation where there was none. If a giant shadow monster is chasing you down a near-dark hallway would you try to use your five seconds to give it a fifty minute speech on the value of human life?

What if we had killed Santiago in rage after the rape attempt

>>91985
That would've been the biggest mistake we could have made.

...hey Weaver, what was the biggest mistake /quest/ made during Nan Quest?

>>91986
And conversely, were there any incredible strokes of genius that you could not have possibly predicted?

Would anyone mind helping out with the Wiki page? I've been trying to fix the Characters tab up some.

If anyone wants to help out with the Chapter summaries, which haven't been updated in literal years, or add more theories and fanart, that'd be great.

http://tgchan.org/wiki/NanQuest

>>92102
There's also a character sheet for NanQuest on TVTropes, and it's a lot tidier than the wiki page. It might offer some help.

>>92102
Frankly, I absolutely hate the tgchan wiki page for NanQuest (and DiveQuest, while I'm at it).

It's absolutely loaded with spoilers, many of which make no attempt to conceal themselves. As of this writing, Father Velasco's fucking portrait is his final reveal appearance AT THE FUCKING CLIMAX OF THE ENTIRE STORY and is easily one of the biggest single image spoiler you could post.
Characters fates are hidden behind single spoiler bars (sometimes) and even just trying to visit for the links in the corner you could easily be spoiled by accident. For a story built so heavily around suspense and mystery this undermines the whole quest.

Also the chapter and character summaries are an elementary-level play-by-play with ridiculous composition, bad writing, and again, way too much given away.

This irks me especially because when people ask for links to NanQuest, to see what it is and get into reading it, they're often sent this article. So their first exposure is reveals, spoiler frames, and poorly composed summaries by people who have no real grasp of the story and for whom most points went over their heads.

I know this sounds ungrateful for the people maintaining it, but fuck it. I hate it. I've always hated it.
Burn it.
Into the fire.

>>92118

I'll be honest, I did a lot of the stuff on the characters tab. Well, at least the stuff from the past 20 hours or so.

I was trying to make it more comprehensive, and was working to spoiler up the stuff later. Sorry.

>>92119
The Padre thing is just one example, but when a lot of characters are basically walking spoilers in their very identity, it seems like a fine line.
The whole article has been spoilery for as long as I can remember though, so it's definitely not a new thing.

>the darkness monster thing has a name, hidden somewhere in the quest
Oh boy, I wonder how long it's gonna take for someone to find that.

>>92126
It's prooobably somewhere in the arc where we're explained the backstory of the whole sacrifical fire, that is thread 8. Haven't searched yet though.

I think we'll never know the motivation of the sea monster (and Cjopaze's, while we're at it). For all we know, it could be random evil.

Hmm. What if Anasazi is the creature's name? The darkness was "inside" the Padre all along, so maybe the thing was that they're all part of the monster, and every now and then the monster resurfaces in one of them so the ritual must be performed to suppress it.

Consider the origin of the name. "Ancient enemy". "You are not Anasazi" means you're not part of the monster.

>>92134
To them, "the darkness that came from across the sea" would be a pretty apt way to describe the European settlers.

>>92126
Maybe it's "Naaloqomvi", from panel 794, Chapter 8.

>>92137
Okay, I did a little research and I think that's our guy. From what I could find, "naalöyö'" in the Hopi language means "four". Dark thing has four tentacles coming out of its head. "Qömvi" means "black", and it looks pretty black to me.

>>92118

You mean an entire re-write of it all?

>>92128
Wait a second. Isn't Cjopaze under the sea? What if Cjopaze and Ananzi have the same source, or are even the same being? There is that one pic of Ace emerging from the furnace, indicating a link between nanquest and rubyquest. There's spooooooky stuff under the waves, and its up to weavers heroes to find get themselves and their new friends!

>I know this sounds ungrateful for the people maintaining it, but fuck it. I hate it. I've always hated it.
>This irks me especially because when people ask for links to NanQuest, to see what it is and get into reading it, they're often sent this article.
Honestly, there aren't a whole lot of us maintaining the wiki. A lot of that content has been sitting there untouched for years.

Wish you'd mentioned you hated it earlier. Covering up / commenting out / removing a bad article until the day if and when it gets rewritten is easy.

As far as I'm concerned, the primary purpose of the wiki is to provide easy to find links to threads. Character lists and summaries and other things to aide readers are secondary. If the secondary stuff is negatively impacting the primary purpose, it loses.

NanQuest spoilery character lists and summaries removed per author request.

Is your complaint with the Dive page the same thing?

>>91992
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

oh whoops that was me btw

also i was totally in favor of killing santiago. anti-santi league 4 lyfe

>>92139
That's probably it then. Congrats!

BoxDog 2015/06/21(Sun)01:04 No. 92163 ID: 15fae4
File 143487389697.png - (21.83KB , 1096x491 , 757285.png )

BUT WHAT IF

sweet fucking christ that santiago is bad

BoxDog 2015/06/21(Sun)01:14 No. 92164 ID: 15fae4
File 143487444384.png - (35.54KB , 1096x491 , 37572387258.png )

and another

To be perfectly honest, I think the problem with NanQuest was that it was a little too complex. When there are so many crazy things happening and reality is so unstable, it's natural for people to be extremely cautious and uncertain of their actions. Weaver criticized the players for "finding easter eggs" and prying for information, but, like... how else were they supposed to figure out what was going on? I think the reason people were so obsessed with the flashbacks was because it was one of the few things that adhered to a coherent set of rules and could be experimented with. With everything else, there were too many moving parts. Like, Henry -- sure, it seems obvious now that people should have jumped down his throat immediately after seeing the inconsistency in his backstory, but, like... at that point Nan has three mutually exclusive backstories and has seemingly jumped through alternate realities. Maybe it's just more hotel weirdness! It's made clear that normal rules of reality don't apply, so nothing can be assumed! I thought it made perfect sense for people to take things slow and wait until they had enough information to make an informed decision. That's the responsible thing to do in any situation.

I'm also still waiting for the explanation on how Henry had skeletal hands that were pointedly drawn in a different style from human hands. Were they really just gloves?

Granted, I'm an observer, not a player, but while I greatly enjoyed NanQuest as a story, it looked far too difficult as an interactive adventure. Players couldn't isolate variables, so figuring things out on their own was borderline impossible, at least in the timeframes given.

>Players couldn't isolate variables, so figuring things out on their own was borderline impossible, at least in the timeframes given.

I'm not sure. In retrospect there was plenty of warning for Henry although I do think it was quite a leap in logic to assume he was one of the monsters since obtaining the supplies to become one seemed rather unlikely.

It's a difficult case to make. In Yahtzee's "7 Days..." he gets rather defensive about the twist and never quite admits it's pretty stupid. The foreshadowing doesn't matter, it's the context that's completely out of place because it has nothing to do with the theme and threat the player has been dealing with meantime.

Henry being a guy in a costume did feel a bit 'Dark Twist Scooby-Doo'; the costume seemed contrived. It would have been far simpler to simply kill people off screen and just blame it on the Padre or the Beast rather than play dress-up. So the concept of a traitorous survivor was just fine, the execution (pardon the pun) was the problem and therein may be the reason why players had issues solving it.

It's a hard call, because sometimes players can be very clever too such as planting the photo with one of the subjects in Ruby Quest. In Nem's Quest, the fact that Nem and Macha were gradually changing throughout the adventure seemed completely lost on the participants, and yet Kome turned around and made the connection that Macha was just an aspect of Nem, which was actually supposed to be a big twist reveal as a side-effect on solving a puzzle. People had just assumed my colours were inconsistent, and given my less-than-consistent style it was reasonable but obvious in hindsight.

Apparently I can even repeat this in another quest and nobody picks up on it there, either. In Nem's Quest here eyes shifted from bright yellow to orange to red at the very end. In the other quest I've done it in, I not only changed the colour but the pen used to make it rather bright. I've actually revealed it to one person because I was curious about this very element and he hadn't noticed in the slightest.

In conclusion, writing solvable mysterious is very difficult.

it seems to me that the final page suggests our nan was "originally" the nun, nancy, and that the memories of repair-nan were just one of the hotel ghosts (whom we observed at the climax). we played through the opening electrician sequence, but if you reread it it seems extremely surreal in tone -- i think we might have already been inside of someone else's memory at the start of the quest

this is because of a dual meaning in the padre's journal. "nan, i won't let you leave," could also refer to the nun, nancy leaving the mission. nancy leaving is depicted in the Thing's rant ("Are you simply the one who left, when I needed you the most?") and is distinct from all the other scenes depicted in that it is the ONLY one we did NOT encounter in a light-
induced faux-flashback. we DID encourage Maggie to leave the mission, but we did this AS NANCY -- at no point did we inherit Maggie's memory

"I won't let you leave" -- because of the upcoming ritual. "When I needed you the most" would be another dual meaning insofar as the Padre needed Nancy FOR the ritual (because she is not Anasazi and therefore a candidate Stranger). this would also explain why Lorenzo got so close to us despite meeting Nan only a few times -- Maggie implied that Nancy had been getting very close with Lorenzo

Henry observed that the Hotel "draws in" anyone who a current occupant calls out for. Henry insisted that he had called us (as an electrician), but we also know that both the Padre and Lorenzo were connected to Nancy (the Padre didn't want her to leave and Lorenzo was emotionally attached to her), and that she was not present at the sacrifice (if she left). so by Henry's logic, Nancy would have been drawn back into the Hotel.

ultimately this leads to the core paradox -- if nan has the memory of someone who abandoned the mission then how did that memory come back to the hotel if its owner wasn't present for the sacrifice? clearly whoever had that memory (of abandoning the mission) had to come BACK to the hotel. i think it was nancy -- because both the Padre and Lorenzo were calling for her

also did we ever get a year that Santiago entered? if not then the best explanation as to why he's a kid is that he entered at a later time (like Kim)

Weaver 2015/06/23(Tue)09:03 No. 92221 ID: 4ec5ce
File 143507540182.gif - (3.23KB , 350x350 , OH HO.gif )

>>92199
>To be perfectly honest, I think the problem with NanQuest was
I honestly didn't have a problem with NanQuest

Obviously if I went through it again there are some things I'd do differently and some suggestions grated after a while but overall I'm very pleased with how it came out and I like how the players went through it

Weaver 2015/06/23(Tue)09:15 No. 92222 ID: 4ec5ce
File 143507614660.png - (54.19KB , 689x652 , rubynan.png )

>>92199
To actually respond to your criticism though, I think you completely misinterpreted what I was saying. I don't fault players for wanting information and I don't think it was unreasonable to look into backstories and flashbacks. I encouraged it. It turned out to be instrumental in the way the quest resolved.

What I had an issue with was people pussyfooting around when it finally came time to act, always hesitating. Always "wait and see" even when death was staring them down in the face. Always overestimating Nan's strength, always overconfident, always too unwilling to flee or admit they were outmatched.
What you're addressing is not what I had a problem with at all.

Also, until very late in the quest, most players did not seem to recognize even the most simple clues or patterns.
When Nan had "white flash" flashbacks early on, people became frustrated with the quest. Spatial teleportation and leaping in a way that could not be fully understood was taken by some as proof that their actions didn't matter. Yet no one seemed to be asking even the most obvious question: what was causing the flashes? There absolutely were patterns to how things worked in the hotel, there were reasons for everything that went on. It seemed chaotic but the more we learned and the more we probed the more we (should have) understood. If anything I feel one of the biggest weaknesses of the audience, in addition to perhaps being too ginger with their actions, was a lack of critical thinking. So few people bothered to just stop and analyze what they'd seen and heard, and instead of working with what we had ("okay, what's the pattern here?") people were instead leaping off to wild and baseless speculation ("but what if this is an alternate reality in the future because time travel was discovered IN THE PAST??")

> it looked far too difficult as an interactive adventure
See, this mentality is the exact problem I addressed earlier, and even warned people about repeatedly in the early quest.
RubyQuest was much more like a traditional adventure game: most puzzles were lock-and-key, you had to find the important items and information, and then use them on devices.
NanQuest is more an ontological and social puzzle. It's not about locks and keys (though those certainly did exist).
Looking at it as "difficult" just proves you're thinking about it in too goal-oriented a way, that you're trying to shoot for some good ending or some plot reveal secret. Just focus on what's right in front of you instead, and worry about surviving, not getting 182 out of 182 points.

I've got more to say on other points but I'll split it up

>>92222
>NanQuest is more an ontological and social puzzle. It's not about locks and keys
probably not the best person to argue here seeing as I was more of an off and on player at best but the thing I remember hearing most about Nan quest (at least at the beginning) was that it was the spiritual successor to Ruby quest. Which in my mind mean similar but with different characters and in a different setting. Just saying that and with that mentality it would make seance that people where more goal orientate. That and from ruby quest I know people even today look at some of the crap that was never explained and scratch their head trying to piece it together so some people probably would/did try to get that 182 out of 182 simply in the hopes of not leaving any unanswered questions again.

Just how I see anyways.

>Also, until very late in the quest, most players did not seem to recognize even the most simple clues or patterns.
I feel like players lacking pattern recognition is to some extent inherent to the format, since the posts being spread out over time means that players don't perceive what they had seen and heard so much as a vague summary of past events if they aren't actively searching the (possibly large) archive with some idea of what to look for.
I also feel like people kind of expect horror stories in general to have small creepy details that (as far as the audience can tell even after seeing the whole story) are there more for a menacing ambiance than for any particular plot reason. (For example, I still have no idea whether the mouse in the bell or the plant looking like a hand that one time represent anything.)

>>92222
>Always overestimating Nan's strength

I don't know if it was just because she tended to be drawn to look relatively stocky, but I always got some impression off Nan that she was pretty stronk, comparatively speaking. A lot of the other characters looked more stickish than her, and the wearing of overalls is also often associated with physically strong characters. So, although logically there wasn't that much evidence for Nan being too strong, the visual cues may have been a subconscious influence on the suggesters when they considered how physically capable she was.

> Always overestimating Nan's strength, always overconfident, always too unwilling to flee or admit they were outmatched.

TGChan as a community seems to suffer from binary thinking. If the protagonist can win one fight, they think the protagonist can win ALL the fights, no matter how ordinary or unprepared you depict them.

>I don't know if it was just because she tended to be drawn to look relatively stocky, but I always got some impression off Nan that she was pretty stronk, comparatively speaking.

She's a lazy electrician and a goat. Neither are known as pillars of strength or ferocity.

>I feel like players lacking pattern recognition is to some extent inherent to the format, since the posts being spread out over time means that players don't perceive what they had seen and heard so much as a vague summary of past events if they aren't actively searching the (possibly large) archive with some idea of what to look for.

I have to agree there. It's more difficult to do a quest when details are strewn about and nobody updates the wiki.

>What I had an issue with was people pussyfooting around when it finally came time to act, always hesitating.
>Just focus on what's right in front of you instead, and worry about surviving, not getting 182 out of 182 points.

I think the players being so successful in Ruby Quest set that up, people seemed to think "Well we got both Tom, Ruby & Emo Bird out alive last time!" via the photo gambit.

>NanQuest is more an ontological and social puzzle.

That seems to be something TGChan itself has problems with -- the social puzzles, that is. I think it's because most games don't include real social puzzles.

>>92231
>She's a lazy electrician and a goat. Neither are known as pillars of strength or ferocity.

I mean, you are wrong on both accounts tho
Goats are kinda known for bein' brutish dorks, what with the whole headbutt display dealio and that whole association with SATAN, and electricians gotta be goddamn BEEF to work with ironworkers the way they do.

Also, the stockiness and overalls did lean towards nan being a bruiser.

>>92231

"That seems to be something TGChan itself has problems with -- the social puzzles, that is. I think it's because most games don't include real social puzzles."

i think it's because most of the people here fall somewhere on the autism spectrum and have no idea how to interact with people socially in any instance

i personally loved nanquest but most of the suggestions were frankly embarrassing

in my opinion, tg should acknowledge this as a tremendous failure - not of author/artist, but of audience - and really take a good hard look at itself, its preconceived notions, and its dopey-ass habits, then shape the fuck up or accept the fact that you are grinding good ideas into dust

>>92245
No actually most of tgchan is just fine. The problem is that NanQuest had a much larger audience than most of the other quests on here as many people (especially from tumblr) came here just for Weaver's quests. And the larger the audience the more likely you are to get people who think it's funny to constantly make silly or stupid suggestions even when it's inappropriate.

>>92245
>>92246

Yeah speaking as a moderator the Nan Quest threads were always report-generating nightmares
And speaking as a quest author the suggestors in my stuff were always a lot more... reasonable. Most of the guys we'd call "regulars" were actually some of the biggest voices of reason in the quest (with a few exceptions)

>>92250
In this context, is being a "voice of reason"
a good thing or a bad thing?

>>92225
>>92231

>I feel like players lacking pattern recognition is to some extent inherent to the format, since the posts being spread out over time means that players don't perceive what they had seen and heard so much as a vague summary of past events if they aren't actively searching the (possibly large) archive with some idea of what to look for.
I don't know, in my experience Weaver tended to give us a good amount of time between posts (during updates) to look back at the story
Which in my opinion didn't take long to reread, at least if only reading the prompts that had been accepted.

>Goats are kinda known for bein' brutish dorks, what with the whole headbutt display dealio

They're prey animals.

The Q&A session is announced! Yay!
It starts at 3:00 AM local time! Nay!

I'm definitely not gonna make it, much to my dismay, so here are the questions I had for the session.
Weaver, it'd be really cool if you'd touch upon them, although I'm sure someone else will ask at least some of them.

1. What would've happened if we told Maggie to stay at the mission instead of leaving to visit her mother?
2. Would Pablo risk his freedom to help out Kim in the end, if we had picked him as our companion for the finale?
3. Was it at all possible to save everyone?
4. The undies-Nan sequence started when we flashed a light at a monster; then, if we were reliving some goat girl's memory, then why did undies-Nan meet overalls-Nan in the same reality?
5. In the colored sequence with the Lightbringer (when he told us to be thorough), were we reliving Lorenzo's memory? If so, wouldn't that mean the Padre is the Lightbringer?

rendamel 2015/06/26(Fri)15:38 No. 92333 ID: 15fae4
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A little pre-Q&A fun.

Weaver's cooking is terrifying.

I think I missed the Q&A. Did anyone take pics and would be willing to put them on here?

It's still going on.

http://pastebin.com/K1SiAwxX

Alright, I won't post any more, since there'll be more complete logs later, but I just loved this. Seeing the reactions flood in was golden.

Here are the complete logs. They aren't edited at all.

http://pastebin.com/tmzKAbzW

Anonymous 2015/06/26(Fri)22:48 No. 92343 ID: 15fae4
File 143538412662.png - (102.48KB , 747x457 , 8356.png )

AND THEN WE FLOCKDRAWED

http://pastebin.com/aHnzFRBj

For those who would want it, here's the log edited to include only Weaver's messages and the messages he mentions or replies to (with a single exception I just couldn't leave out). Down from 5555 lines to 589.

Q&A session summary:
<Shea> weaver dropping all this profound character analysis to the background noise of everyone talking about asses
<Diesel> the salt from my tears are actually burning my eyes right now Im having a great time here guys
<papplemelon> again, late, but better late than never http://i.imgur.com/mb2S4tC.png

Who killed Alan then ?

>>92410
Henry

>>92410
It was probably Henry the first time around, but after we intercepted and gave him the pen, he stayed behind to write the letter instead of fleeing. Thus Anderson shot him instead.

>>92342
>>92405
Also it's cute how Weaver responds to TK about "The Fall" and then mentions his brother in third person (that he introduced Weaver to it). It's just so adorably tactful ~

I really gotta watch it some time though.

>>92466

Would be more adorable if TK's head wasn't so far up his ass

haha yeah fuck that guy

So, who's Nan?
Since this is left to interpretation, here's mine.

Several characters in the story really, really wanted someone like Nan to appear. Father Velasco, assuming any shreds of his mind sirvived the demon possessing him, longed for another outsider to come, for another chance. Lorenzo imprisoned himself in the altar room for who knows how many centuries, and I bet he wished for someone to end the ritual proper. And let's not forget Henry, who was waiting eagerly for a chance to offer a goat sacrifice to whoever he thought would give him the reunion he sought.

There's not much in common between these three, except for maybe a long exposure to Naaloqomvi. Less so for Henry, but he's still been in the hotel longer than other survivors - his bloodlust being the reason for the their short lifespans. Maybe some of that supernatural force, the otherworldly nature of the evil from across the sea "rubbed off" on those under his influence. But not in any direct, readily obvious way that could be consciously used.

I theorize that Nan is the physical manifestation of their combined wills. Not a particular real person, but a spirit summoned by a common wish, she first mimicked human behavior by sifting through other people's memories. For how long is unknown - after all, we don't know when exactly she appeared in the hotel.

In the end she did grant all three their wishes (except Henry, but fuck him). She could've disappeared after that, but I like to think Nan wanted to regain her identity so much that she finally became a real person - the experience she went through gave her enough memories of her own to carry on. By the end she no longer needed to peek into other minds to be someone.

>>92513
It is because Nan was summoned into existence with a purpose that she said what she said in the grand finale. Ending the nightmare, which was a common wish of Velasco, Lorenzo (and even Henry, although fuck Henry), was more important to Nan that figuring out how real she was.

It is also why the Padre says what he says: he mocks Nan's nature as a fake, ridiculing the attempt to banish him that she embodies. No doubt he knows how she came into being.

Nice theories

You know, I was thinking about it, and there's only one person Nan could be. The nun. Why? Lorenzo recognized her. HE KNEW HER.

It's *possible* Nan became an electrician after the mission burnt down, so she's both identities. I'm not sure if the timeline matches up there though.

>>92544

The Mission burned down almost a hundred years ago, though. Lorenzo recognized Nan because SHE entered HIS memories.

We don't know who the "real" Nan is. It's as likely to be Electrician Nan as it is to be the Nan we saw with the husband. Nan ended up losing her identity amongst all the memories we travelled through, the pasts we changed.

"You're no one, Nan. And that's why you're special."

>>92565
I really doubt that Nan actually looked like all those people she took the place of in those memories.

Also, if she did, then Henry should have recognized her as his WIFE.

Okay so I just read the Q&A log, very informative. If we weren't there, is it okay if we ask a few questions of our own? I'm surprised no one asked about the giant in the courtyard, for instance...

>>92222
Continuing on the "too hard" criticism, I feel like, while the pieces were there, there was too little time to figure it out -- not real time, obviously, but in terms of the number of actions players had in the quest. I did see a number of people making good suggestions to gather more information (talking to people, investigating loose ends from early on), but they never got the opportunity to use them since things moved so fast. I guess that was what you were going for with "it's messy, not clean", but it still made things pretty confusing. I felt like players were mostly just making stabs in the dark by the end -- like, you said you were very impressed with Nan's "it doesn't matter who I am" retort? I got the impression that the players said that more out of lack of any better options than true understanding and acknowledgement of Nan's character. If people have no idea what's going on or why, that really becomes the only logical response to the Padre's speech.

I believe that's also why people were so quick to jump to "out there" theories. Like I said, when reality is out to lunch, everything seems equally valid. There was time travel and weird memory flashbacks and the geography of the hotel kept shifting -- in that context the theories didn't seem unreasonable. It wasn't until things became more grounded in part 4 that more rational theories became possible, but I guess people still stuck to the old ones.

This could even be why players were so afraid to act -- if someone is placed in an extremely dangerous place that uses different and seemingly arbitrary rules of reality, of course they're going to be overly cautious. That's why I never made any suggestions, and tend not to make quest suggestions at all -- I know I'm stupid and don't want to screw things up by making the wrong decision when I don't understand things fully.

(If people couldn't figure out something as simple as light = memory though, that was pretty stupid of them, I can't defend that.)

>I don't fault players for wanting information and I don't think it was unreasonable to look into backstories and flashbacks. I encouraged it.

Ooh okay I did misinterpret that, sorry. I thought that was what you were referring to with the "missing the forest for the trees" bit.

>So few people bothered to just stop and analyze what they'd seen and heard, and instead of working with what we had ("okay, what's the pattern here?")

Okay, but then what was causing the blackouts? What was up with the time travel clock? Why did Anna look different the first time through, if that was Anna? How did Henry get to the saferoom so fast? People speculated about those things feverishly and desperately tried to find answers, but nothing ever came of it. I think players were using critical thinking, they were just applying it in the wrong direction. But the problem is, how were they supposed to know what was the right direction? There are so many hotel mechanics to focus on, but only one (light = memory) really paid off.

>Looking at it as "difficult" just proves you're thinking about it in too goal-oriented a way, that you're trying to shoot for some good ending or some plot reveal secret. Just focus on what's right in front of you instead, and worry about surviving, not getting 182 out of 182 points.

I don't think I thought of it like an adventure game... I saw it more as, like, a mystery novel or something, which sounds more like you were going for. But even though my sister and I discussed and analyzed plot points a lot, we were still left scratching our heads over some of the final reveals.

but who was mooneyes

>>92565
Except Nan isn't no one, she just forgot who she was.

Thing is, Nan never takes the role of the person whose memory it is. She's Henry's WIFE. One of the NUNs in Lorenzo's place. The ELECTRICIAN in Kim's memory. The MOTHER is the only one no one else in the story was present for. Which means those kids have an abusive dad and negligent mom.

>>92771
Not the beast

Sorry for the unrelated question, but does anybody happen to have a Cjopaze symbol around ? The one that kinda looks like a compass.

Anonymous 2015/09/17(Thu)21:35 No. 94899 ID: 127033
File 144255094784.jpg - (349.68KB , 701x683 , Cjopaze.jpg )

>>94884
Yes.

BoxDog 2015/10/10(Sat)04:50 No. 95416 ID: 15fae4
File 144447785203.png - (28.72KB , 400x400 , happy birthday nan.png )

5 years ago today, an Electrician began her work.

Reminisce with me, won't you?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yyy4yaVwsv0

>>95416

Five years ago?!

Man, I'm old.

BoxDog 2015/10/10(Sat)15:39 No. 95424 ID: 15fae4
File 144451674558.png - (28.31KB , 1082x410 , 634532646462253.png )

>>95420

Oops, actually.
SIX years.

It has nearly been a fucking decade my guys

>>130446
Celebrating 10 years since Nan is good, but you couldn't wait a couple of months?

celebrating 10 years since nan quest!

Praise be the 10 years! PRAISE BE THE EMPEROR WEAVER!

You're two months early.

>>130446
>>130655
>>130659
Under normal circumstances, this would be a great chance to reminisce about all the things Weaver has made in the past, from the time he started Ruby Quest on 4chan, to all the other art and stories he's made in the 10+ years since.

Right now, it's just kind of depressing.

TEN MORE YEARS!... wait

>>130767
I don’t relate. I took a nostalgia trip through my nerd niche shit (Including weaverworks) during the quarantine and it was exquisite. Sure time passes and reminiscing is just as bitter as sweet, but that’s life

thank god questden has this archived
anyways hello nanquest from like 12 years ago

notsalgic

>>92342
Sad that this link's dead now.