On the other hand, were the children in the church all that tangible?  Did Nigel ever actual come into physical contact with either?

Something that I think that I forgot in my previous posts: Nigel's tea-leaf reading mentioned a "false friend".  Now, Nigel seems to have had few-enough friends in Saxton.  Nanny Noah seemed true enough until the incident with the crown, as did Bob Tawny.  Lucy, while perhaps not mentioning her brother, didn't seem to me to qualify.

So who was it?

Hadden springs to mind - but I'm not sure that Nigel would be likely to consider him a "friend".  It could also be that Lucy will become a false friend - this is quite possible, it seems to me.  However, I believe that I see another possibility: perhaps the false friend is Nigel himself, being a "false friend" to those of the town by taking the crown.  I'm not entirely convinced: I seem to recall that he made no secret of wanting the crown.

Finally, I noticed something as playing, as I recall: the scissors that kept appearing in Nigel's bed - presumably Molina's, as I think that it was he that was portrayed with them in the museum, was it not? - look to me to be an awful lot like those from Dark Fall 1.  This may, of course, be a coincidence - the scissors are hardly likely to be terribly unique - but then again, it may not be.

Nancy can operate the record player. Wink

We know that the record player is an actual physical object, not some kind of ghost echo, because Nigel used it too.

Maybe that will be in the sequel?

From a folkloric standpoint, the scissors in the bed could be taken more than one way. Often the open pair of scissors was to break harmful enchantments, or to symbolically "cut" the power of a witch or spellcaster. (It could also be used as a rather pointed insult, less supernaturally, by implying that a person was such.) But would that then be a threat/insult/charm against Nigel... or a way of protecting him against someone else? I think it could go either way, on interpretation.

It could also be used as a rather pointed insult ...

...I dropped my mobile, the other day, while sneaking through the back streets of town. Blasted thing now has a fatally cracked LCD screen. I've got a picture of Talland Bay Church, as a 'wallpaper', for some strange reason. Some will know the place from The Lost Crown. It was Ulcombe Church. Weird thing is, each facet of the LCD has turned a different colour , or tone. There's a sepia section, a black and white section and a garish, full-colour section.

The effect is pretty strange, and illustrates something that I've always been interested in; fractured time. Locations which have no fixed time period. An obvious example, from the game fiction, would be somewhere like Dowerton Hotel, from Dark Fall 1.

Is the place firmly based in the 2000's, (when the fiction was set), or do certain rooms remain operational from the 1940's? Not so much a haunted location, more of a time-slip, in which the player may appear ghost-like to the long dead game characters.

Some paranormal enthusiasts have theorised that haunted locations do not have ghosts; instead, we see through cracks in time, and catch glimpses of people going about their everyday business, oblivious to our observations. It would explain why some ghosts appear to walk through doors, or walls, and ignore the shrieks of those who see them, or the persistent questions of the celebratory psychic. Do we also appear to those in the past? As gods, angels or demons? We must look as strange to the people of the past, as they do to us. Maybe even more so... for an interest in ghosts and the paranormal is fashionable, right now, whereas you could be burnt alive for such visions during the nastier periods of history.

As a theory it is an exciting one, and fits the Dark Fall mould. The first character you meet, in that train tunnel in Dark Fall 1, is unsure which one of the two of you should be there! It works particularly well in old locations, which haven't 'moved on' for some time. The old personalities of the place have yet to be replaced by newer, modern personalities.

It might explain why old locations seem to boast more impressive paranormal events, rather than the local supermarket, or bus stop. But, we should always keep in mind what once stood on that location, long before the supermarket. Great Britain is a great place to explore those themes, given how tiny the place is, in comparison to the landmass of mainland Europe or the US. Virtually the whole landscape of Britain has been moulded and changed by human behaviour. Even vast, wild areas like the moors, or the Lake District are, essentially, unnatural.

People have been there. Lived there and died there. That means, to some extent, that the whole Island could be haunted by those who went before.

Yes, William did lure poor Emily into the caves, on the promise of showing her a Pasque Flower (something dodgy going on there!), and attempted to rape her. She screamed out, so William smothered her. Pretty grim really. The poem was a frightful thing to write, as I didn't want to be too graphic, keeping it the right side of symbolic (I hope) rather than gruesome or misogynistic. William's behavoir, and crime, is also represented by the Punch and Judy Show, planned and presented by Gruel; The 'would-be' Ager henchman. The show takes place right in front of the cave (scene of the crime) on May Day. Many counties in Britain have banned the Punch & Judy show. Nanny Noah mentions this...on the day. I think the townspeople know full well who killed Emily, and where. Gruel's sick joke is a nasty one. But, look on the brightside, Nigel gets to free Emily, by finally taking her a Pasque Flower...even if it is just a photo.

As for Nigel...he is popping up in the new games, complete with Danverspeak™. I based Nigel's voice on the old, black and white horrors, of the 30's and 40's, where everyone spoke in a very specific way...kind of stunted, and over actor-ish. The performances in Sapphire & Steel (a TV fave from the 80's) are also very similar (doubters should re-check Adventure 2's Tully, or Adventure 5's Dinner Party. Cripes!). I guess it's a style, and as a style it has successes and failings.

I like to think of The Lost Crown as a homage, and an exploration of English Ghost-Stories, both written and broadcast. It would have been sad to exclude some of the trappings, and style, of those old works, for the sake of fashion, or trying to sound gamey.

I actually went to all the trouble of registering on his blog, and posting a comment that a lot of people actually do not like "

anverspeak", and asking him nicely to not utilise it in DF3, but he did not "approve" my post, and therefore it did not publicly see the light of day.

(why, oh why do humans have to waste time sleeping?  :'( )

Originally Posted By Thaumaturge (30 AUG 2009 4:01pm)
 

Of course, if Mr. Boakes holds that all ghostly events in the games are indeed time-slips, then, depending on whether one accepts Death of the Author or not, one might consider that they are time-slips, regardless of arguments either for or against. ^^;

Originally Posted By TheTraveler (11 DEC 2008 7:36am)

When Lucy is sitting on that corner bench, and Nigel goes to talk to her, there are huge brown blobs at the bottom left of the screen. I didn't understand what it was supposed to be - it looked like blobs of mud or something to me.

Originally Posted By Thaumaturge (30 AUG 2009 4:01pm)
As to "

anverspeak", I think that it could actually work, if it were coupled with the appropriate acting on the part of the character and were perhaps delivered a little better (more melodramatically, perhaps).

Originally Posted By TheTraveler (30 AUG 2009 8:59am)

Jonathan's take:

As for Nigel...he is popping up in the new games, complete with Danverspeak™. I based Nigel's voice on the old, black and white horrors, of the 30's and 40's, where everyone spoke in a very specific way...kind of stunted, and over actor-ish. The performances in Sapphire & Steel (a TV fave from the 80's) are also very similar (doubters should re-check Adventure 2's Tully, or Adventure 5's Dinner Party. Cripes!)...

Originally Posted By Jenny100 (31 AUG 2009 4:21pm)

Originally Posted By Thaumaturge (30 AUG 2009 4:01pm)
As to "

anverspeak", I think that it could actually work, if it were coupled with the appropriate acting on the part of the character and were perhaps delivered a little better (more melodramatically, perhaps).

I don't think it would work so well if only one actor were using it. I think all the actors would have to be using melodramatic speech to some degree. And finding actors who could pull it off (as many as the game needed) would be very difficult.

The part that annoyed me most was the constant repeating of these same sentences

Originally Posted By markornikov (31 AUG 2009 8:40pm)

The part that annoyed me most was the constant repeating of these same sentences:

"Nothing ventured"
"Who are you? ... Can you see me? ... Can you hear me?... show me you are here? ... make a noise throw something?" [smiley=hair_pull.gif]

This might have worked the first time, but after a few times it really killed the atmosphere  >