Hero6 Forums

On 31 March, Codename Entertainment, Hero6, Infamous Adventures, Project Katrina, and Solar Crescent Studios reportedly merged to form Silver Sphinx Studios.

A demo was then released and much to many people's dismay, it was unclear what the status of the respective projects would be. There was a lot of alarm, not to mention loyal fans who were shocked, upset or even horrified that the creators of the projects would even permit this to happen.


Quite a number agreed that if this was a prank, it was poorly orchestrated. And yet many others did enjoy it, while some were extremely unhappy with the quality of the game even though it was evident that this was really a prank!

But, hardly anyone knew that SSS was actually part of a larger prank, that we would go as far as getting one of SSS' team members to masquerade as "ahem" Cain Aleksandrovich. Yes, folks, the part about him being kicked out of the IA team was not true.


Anyway, we would like to state that everyone had a fun time collaborating on this project. We actually meant for it to showcase our work created so far, and for people to actually have some fun.


SSS would like to thank the administrators and moderators of AGDI forums who were unwittingly pulled into this joke against their will, all members of all the respective projects who contributed to this project, everyone who played along with us, and all the loyal fans of all the projects for putting up with this.


Q: How could you call this an April Fool's joke even though it was released on 31 March?
A: This is because in some places in the world, it was already 1st April.


Q: "Aha! I was right. It was a prank all along!!"
A: Yes, you're very clever. Would you like a cookie?


Q: How long did it take to put out the project?
A: The idea was set in stone on March 4th, which makes it almost exactly one month of sleepless nights, culling it all together.

Sorry if we upset or worried anyone, but we really wanted to do something impressive for april fools. I think that everyone here is a light-hearted enough crowd to find amusement in our little prank. It started from a desire to release a fake game for you all to play, and we just worked the elaborate scheme of how to pull it off without it being obvious.

We do hope you enjoyed our game :) It took a few weeks to really put together from the ground up, and a lot of members worked very hard to make sure that it was completed on time.

I'd love to hear what everyone thinks now that the truth is revealed :)

ahhh.... you did get me pretty bad.  I was a little pissed hearing that Hero6 was thinking about not doing finishing Hero6.   AHhh well... all in good fun I suppose.  

I liked the game, and it was a fun prank. (I KNEW something was up, but SSS seemed pretty offended when people said it was a prank, so I didn't say anything)
Can you explain more about the deal with Cain, please?  And was the forum going down part of the prank?

LOL nice one guys.

Huh? I don't think we were offended about people saying it was a prank. It was only when people started to hit back at us like saying H6 was incapable of finishing any games, that the game looked really crappy(well, it WAS thrown together under barely a month),etc., that's when it really got to us.

Oh, and if we did seem annoyed, that's 'cos we were trying to carry on with the prank(as in, trying to prove it wasn't a prank).  :D  

Was it hard to coordinate with the other fan projects involved?

To Jafar: Yes, it was. And you guys were the source of inspiration for the spam prank.

It's a long story, so I'll explain later.

Holy s**t what a prank! Although I knew it was a joke at first, halfway through you guys tricked me into thinking SSS was real. I never expected an April Fools joke to that lasts until April 3rd. :P

So to answer a previous question: YES people really would spend money on a website and spend a few weeks creating a joke game just for April fools.

Yeah, it was awesome.


Let me tell you Hero6 fans, your game is in great hands.  The Hero6 time is TOP NOTCH.  Amazing.  

I had a great time working with all involved.  I hope you enjoyed the game.  It was fun for a prank game, eh?  I even had trouble solving the riddles.

And the Turban joke.....rocked.



Bt
 

Here here! Twas great working with all the other teams!

i still didn't like the game o_O
partly because i dislike the AGS default UI, but mainly because you were out to save tomatos, and the king pronounced it ta-mah-toe

Yea, I really was the spammer. It's a very long story, but I couldn't have pulled it off without the Hero6 team, though phattie did almost buck that part of the prank for a bit.

Oh yea, I forgot about this account. I registered this one thorugh wujie after phattie banned me for that time. I had to send him a frantic PM. So, the spammer has been registered the entire time.     -Cain Aleksandrovich

To-may-to, To-mah-to.



Bt
 

I knew it! I BLOODY WELL KNEW IT!

Everyone dismissed my long winded rant at SSS? forum as a silly conspiracy theory, but I was RIGHT!!!

... sorta...

I was close enough.


Darn-too-tin' straight!

I will have my revenge, Swift. As Darth Maul said, "At last we shall reveal ourselves to the Hero6. At last we shall have revenge." No one messes my brain up FOR ALMOST A MONTH and gets away with it. Do you realise I was in an almost constant state of being ticked off during that period? You've owe me some money, Swift.

Think about all those times when you caused me endless frustration by spamming the forums, and by refusing to listen when I repeatedly asked you not to spam. Believe it or not, you were the main source of inspiration for the spam prank.

The reason to come up with the story of the spammer being able to spoof people's IP addresses was because PHattiE nearly gave our game away by revealing Cain's IP, having not been informed of the prank and not realising that he wasn't dealing with a real spammer. By claiming that this spammer could somehow spoof your IP address, people would come to think that neither you nor Cain were the spammer.

Also, not once during this whole prank did I ever accuse you of being the spammer. I made it clear that you weren't the spammer. Also, you seemed to enjoy the banter back and forth between Cain and youself.

We do appologize if we in any way offended you. It was our purpose not to implicate you, but to throw confusion around that the spammer was trying to trick people by spoofing ip addresses.


If there's time, I'll talk about how exactly it started, and who the other spammer was. Yes, folks, there were two spammers involved in this.

If you're going to take offense even after an apology was issued twice(by SSS and also by Swift), then I'll have to say that you're being very petty. While it is true that we were at fault for implicating you through lack of better judgement, apologies have been made and there were no deaths, no political or even social implications. If one cannot accept an apology gracefully, then it reflects on him negatively. Someone wants to eat his cake and have it, no?

I ... uhh... think he was joking, yuri. Man, I need to start coming around here more often and see what made Hero6 put me up to spamming you guys. In the meantime, I've got some good hookah, let's all take a few hits off the Silver Sphincter peace-pipe. Who wants some hashish?

Geez, Yuri. You honestly think I'd quote Darth Maul when I was being serious? Grow a sense of humor, that should enable you to sense humor.

unless it comes from you. use smileys, that helps

Well, I think we've all learned a valuable lesson from this. Don't trust anything that happens in March, either. :rolleyes:  

Or may, for that matter.

I don't think so. May is a little late for April Fools jokes... :rolleyes:  

no, you just have to find someone who is behind the times. really really behind the times.

Or really ahead. I mean, May is only 11 months away from the next April Fools.

Planning for next April 1st in May is one thing, but I don't think a year-long prank would work well.

Corsair5     

Superhero

Group: Members
Posts: 1,918
Member No.: 566
Joined: 16-January 05

That's quite the steady flow of posts ya got there Corsair. :)

Actually, the lesson you guys should be learning is that nobody likes spam, so please post responsibly from now on.

That's actually what I was going to post, but I was tired and couldn't put it into the right words. I know I've learned MY lesson about wild spamming...

I like Spam.  It's a rather tasty canned meat product.


Bt
 

Spam is sickening, man.

Actually I thought the whole idea of the Hero6 forums being spammed to death(and the admins being unable to catch him) was kinda funny.

I also thought it was cool how the spammer had enough skillz to not get caught. :)

Damn straight, my sk177z were 7ee+z to the MaX, for shizzle. I can't believe people were buying it, though the pro-Star Wars spam wasn't me, but I'll let Swifty tell you about that. Swift, my love, the sheep wish to know what went on.

It's probably a very bad Idea to iritate the spammers right after they've learned their lessomn.

I mean not to irritate, but educate. Or add insult to injury, take whichever you will.

I know exactly what the lesson is. Swift deletes posts that are REAL spam, but locks topics with the fake spam.

So, Swift, why'd you have to close all those topics?  

It was mainly to make it look as though I was doing my job to stop spam, and yet make it obvious to everyone else that we're being spammed so that they'll pay attention to what's going on.

Cain, my boyfriend visits these forums. I don't think he's going to like you very much for calling me your love. :P Ask Jafar to see what I mean.

it's amazing how easy it is to contradict onesself.

I never called you that! :unsure:  

See? The truth is out! I knew Jafar couldn't keep Swift quiet forever. So. When's the happy day?

Oh, be quiet. Swift's just spreading rumors to make fun of me, thats all. :rolleyes:  

Well, Jafar, at least you're fun. ^_^  

Thanks.  ^_^
I try my best. :P

Swift, you're right, I do visit these forums.  Hehe

Eh, he'll have to get over you getting hit on by a 17 year old russian kid, whats he to do, kill me? Ha, right, I'll got the AK way on him, all it would take is one phone call.

I see your Ak and raise you one shotgun.


Try me boy

I fricken' dare ya!  :fighter:

Ok guys, if you want to fight, please proceed to the "RP Battle Topic" in the RP forums. We're getting off-topic here. :P

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Ok guys, here's the story you've been waiting for.

Back then, when I was a visitor, I've always wanted to see the Hero6 team play some sort of April Fools prank on the community. AGDI and Blizzard came up with pretty good April Fools jokes, but Hero6 never did come up with any. The closest thing we had to a prank was done by a guest visitor, who posted that Hero6 was cancelled a few years back. No prizes for guessing if anyone believed it. So, when I joined the team at the end of last year, I finally had the chance to give the community what I never had as a visitor.

After discussing possible April Fools pranks with Pwincess via MSN on 28 Feb, I made my humble suggestion in the members forum. I wanted a simple, yet silly prank for the Hero6 visitor community (think Blizzard pranks), but when Gron suggested having all the sister projects organize one huge yet serious prank, we knew that we just had to do it. It was just too good an idea to pass up.

I contacted a number of adventure game project representatives, while Gron asked AGDI if they were interested in participating (AGDI declined, btw). It was during this time that we found out that IA was also interested in doing an April Fools joke as well, so we joined forces.

Coco set up a private forum for us to brainstorm on ideas as we still hadn't decided on a prank. Radiant suggested that we make an announcement about the participating teams merging our games to form an even bigger game and the idea just evolved from there. Gron came up with the idea of having a playable demo to make the "announcement" look authentic.

While Gron and Scott worked on the game art, and Coco worked on the scripting, the teams were also discussing on how we were going to promote the "game". At first we thought of just dropping hints of something big coming up in a number of forums, but Cain later came up with this wicked idea of him going on IA bashing in the forums for  "being kicked out of the team" and dropping hints that way without people suspecting it. It sounded pretty cool, so we all agreed to it. Cain was supposed to hint about a merger, my role was to "calm" him down, and Bromios was to handle damage control, especially when Cain drops the "big bomb". Meanwhile, we dropped hints in a number of topics. Do any of these look familiar to you?

http://visitors.hero6.com/forums/index...st=0&#entry6275 (http://visitors.hero6.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=146&st=0&#entry6275)
http://www.agdiforums.com/forum/viewtopic....p=161483#161483 (http://www.agdiforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=161483#161483)
http://www.agdiforums.com/forum/viewtopic....t=9478&start=37 (http://www.agdiforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9478&start=37)
http://visitors.hero6.com/forums/index...t=15&#entry6636 (http://visitors.hero6.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=146&st=15&#entry6636)
http://www.agdiforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9648&start=5 (http://www.agdiforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9648&start=5)

By mid-March, the spam in the Hero6 forums was becoming a serious problem and so I discussed with Gron about what we should do about it. Gron suggested closing down the forums temporarily and have them re-opened on 2 April, since we were all too busy at that time to deal with the spam, and then later suggested inviting Cain over to spam our forums as soon as his banishment took place as part of the prank. This was to give us an excuse to shut down the forums temporarily.

Plot work for the game itself hadn't really started yet as nobody had volunteered to do it. The only thing that was done was an introduction, written by Radiant, and a quest idea by Brassfire. Scott decided to work on both plot and art, but I feared that it might be too much for her to handle, and so offered to help out in that area. Klytos also volunteered, and both of us worked on the first outline. The next day, Striker, Scott and I discussed the plot and quests in the ex-hero6 chat room. (If any of you tried to enter that chat room during that time but couldn't, it was because I had changed the password to prevent anyone from accidentally listening to our prank discussions. The password's been changed back, btw). After that, Striker and Brass got to work on finalizing the plot and quests.

On the first night of the "spam attacks", I was asleep, and all ###### broke loose, as witnessed by Jafar and Corsair. What we didn't expect was for PHattiE to suddenly turn up and deal with Cain. PHattiE didn't know about the prank, and had no idea that he wasn't dealing with a real spammer. As soon as Coco got wind of what was happening, he contacted PHattiE to stop him. By then, Cain's IP address was revealed and Corsair had verified with Navynuke that it was Cain's. Cain didn't want to be revealed as the spammer so soon, and so we had to come up with a cover-up. That's how the idea of claiming that the spammer spoofed IP addresses came about, and Corsair was dragged into it. For the other nights of "spam attacks", I had to stay up to 3-4am in order to supervise everything. Cain dropped even more hints about the merger.

 Yuri later came to learn of the spam plan, and surprised me later on with its Star Wars "handiwork". Yes folks,Yuri was the Star Wars Spammer. As soon as it had its fun with the spamming, I asked it to help out with the game dialogues.

Work on the voice acting started once Brassfire and Striker finished most of the dialogues. By then, we had about a week before 1 April. We practically rushed with everything to get the game done, and had very little time to test the game properly.

Eventually, Cain dropped the bomb in the AGDI forums, only to have it backfired! AGD 2 deleted that post and had him banned for it. Fortunately, Erpy helped us to inform the other admins that it was part of the prank, and so Cain was un-banned and allowed to post it again.

You pretty much know the rest of the story.

I'd like to thank everyone who was involved in the SSS project, and would like to offer a custom title in appreciation for your efforts. Please let me know what title you'd like and I'll make the changes for you. It has been fun working with all of you.

At first, like everyone else, I was totally zinged. Hero6 and IA comining forces along with Code Kat? I was mad enough to ALMOST start posting again in defiance. :angry:
Then more facts started going out and I got suspicious. It finally hit me when I was just staring at the PC and happened to notice my calender, which I flip early so i won't have to remember it later. I smacked my head so hard I nearly blacked out. This was about the time that Cain started spamming, which only confirmed my suspicions (too many weird things happening around April 1, when I happen to know that forums usually love pulling this stuff.) :blink:  
After that, every time I read more of the "news", I'd laugh so hard, my chair would nearly fall over. :lol:

I want my cookie as a double chocolate chip sandwich cookie with vanilla icing in the middle. And wrapped in a bag so I can eat it in the park, too. ;P  

I'll let you choose me one you think is fitting, Swifty.  After all, I don't think IA consulted you about becomign The Mistress of Pain, though you've done a very "smashing" job of it.

I don't suppose the custom titles are gonna be coming to the people who got special attention by this joke. I.e, me. I'm a selfish little mongrel with little greed gears constantly spinning in my invincible mind, twisting out Dark Plots and Plans. As well as some extra ingredients for sandwiches.

On a debatably somewhat more serious point, You're a devious woman, Swift. I'd buy you a lunch if you weren't a couple thousand miles away.

Darth Vader... I am your father!!!!  :D

Just... joking.  :rolleyes:

You know... Swift.. you forgot to add in the fact that I'm a natural-born prankster!!! Being a devil in disguise, when you approached me to help out in the spamming, , I decided to have some fun on everyone elses' expense!!!! (http://yuri.qsurf.org/h6/devil.gif)

Incidentally, I wrote up most of this apology that was the first post of this thread. The rest was added by Scott. :P

I knew something was up with SSS and HOIK, but the spamming got me fooled.
*Gives the SSS members Jester Hats of Foolery*
You earned them. This is one of the biggest pranks I've seen.

Why in disguise, yuri? Screw disguises. You people only think my name is Cain Aleksandrovich, just wait until the world really knows me. I'll be called by my birth name then, =Lucifer Morningstar.

HEY!!!!! I'm Lucifiel... how dare you... you imposter!!!!!!!!  :angry:  

I'll let you pick a custom title, Cain, since I can't really decide on one. Lucifer Morningstar, Prank Master, or a title of your choice?