Hmmmmmmmmm... the aftermath

[bmn]

So April Fools is over, the Bay Boom movie script was of course fake, and our robotic friend has left for greener climes. Hope you guys enjoyed what we had for you this year!

Seeing as a lot of you seemed to take Omochao exactly how we hoped you would (that is, with hysterics, jokes, and general fun times), I thought I'd tell you a little more about how he worked - especially for the people that were hunting for awards...

So the idea came about from TSS/SSMB staff's annual "what the hell are we going to do that we haven't done before?" discussion that started about a month ago. I'd especially like to thank Hogfather who got the ball rolling and came up with the sports tape idea, Brad who edited the animation to put sports tape on and provided most of the forum-centric tips, and Nemain who did an amazing job of turning his front into his back for your gold award.

The real motivation behind the project was really to create something that evoked the stereotypical view of Omochao himself - someone that annoys you with useless information and never really goes away. You'd be minding your own business in topics, and then out of nowhere, BOOM, it's Omochao. He leaves as you contemplate whether you really saw what you think you did, and you think you're safe, but then he comes back. Again, and again, and again. You leave the topic and he seems to be gone, but eventually he finds you. Finally, you give up and kick him away, and he doesn't seem to be coming back. You relax... and then there he is again.

 

The original Omochao animation is one I cut out of a recording of Sonic Generations' loading screen. The use of Comic Sans MS is of course a throwback to Sonic Adventure 2's subtitles, and indeed all of his game-related quotes are taken verbatim from SA2 (as are his protestations when you kick him away). Using SA2 quotes exclusively was partly because there are more than 200 quotes in that game alone (and I had to type them all out...), and partly because I wanted to bring back memories of particular situations in Omo's first game.

The final list had 88 quotes from SA2, and 23 about the forum, which in hindsight is a little small, but seemed to work well enough. The first message for each of you was "Hi, I'm Omochao! I'm here to help you!", and he'd stick around indefinitely on that pageload, just to make sure you saw it. There was also a "Did you know that there are x animals in this stage?" message, which picked a random number between 5 and 25.

 

The idea to have a special Sonic Boom-styled Omo came pretty early, and we tested different levels of probability for him appearing instead of the regular one. The original probability was 1%, but after staff complained they never saw him, it was eventually bumped up to 5% for the rest of the testing period. They still thought it was a little low, while I thought it was too high for a secret version - this gave me the idea for an even more special Omo that would have what I considered an appropriate probability. Shortly after the April Fools event started, I lowered the probabilities quite sharply, as people seemed to be getting Boom!Omochao a lot more than I expected. So, the rates you saw for most of the day were 2.5% for Boom!Omochao (1 in 40), and ~0.8% for Backwards!Omochao (1 in 120).

One or two people noted that the best strategy for seeing him as much as possible was to just leave a page open, and that refreshing the page didn't help. This was intentional - I wanted to give the impression that leaving a topic was akin to "running away" from him, and he'd take a little longer to find you. So, when you loaded a page he'd take between 30 and 90 seconds to appear the first time, then 20 to 60 seconds every time after that. When you kicked him away, he'd disappear for 15 to 30 minutes before reappearing. We wavered on the numbers a lot, but I quite like how it turned out.

Oh, and there was a 10% chance he'd just not bother appearing at all for a whole pageload. Just to keep you guessing

While I wasn't able to be around to see how you guys took it (kinda working in the backwaters of Wales this week), I caught up last night and it was nice to see all the reactions and posts and stuff. I wasn't expecting anyone to get Backwards!Omochao on the first message, but it happened. In the end, the true enjoyment of April Fools comes from experiencing it with your friends

How did you find it, anyway?
 

[Junko]

*snip*

 

How did you find it, anyway?

A PAIN TO FIND BOTH BOOM AND REVERSE OMOCHAO. Urgh. Cool concept tho, wish I found at least one of them.

[TCB]

This is was so amazingly tense yet fun, I applaud you guys for doing this. 

 

Those probability of finding Backwards Omochao/Boom Omochao was like hunting for Shiny Pokemon...so addicting.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

I saw all of them, and it was pretty fun

[Sami]

Loved it, lots of fun.

[MamboCat]

*snip*

 

 

I would like to say that with the joking and foolery aside, the SSMB-specific ones I thought could be quite useful for newcomers to the forum. Stuff like advising them of the strike system, the like system etc...

 

Perhaps it is also possible to make condensed or summarised versions of the rules to remind folks both old and new?

 

:B

 

Also thankyou to the SSMB team for this April Fools' gag. It was great stuff. I actually thought I had to beat up/dismiss Omochao to get him to wear the sports tape/bandages! So I was sending him away sooo many times in a row, it took me a looooong time to get the Boom and Backwards Chao. Nice one, guys.

[spinny]

One or two people noted that the best strategy for seeing him as much as possible was to just leave a page open, and that refreshing the page didn't help. 

 

Spindash's daily tips~

 

 

But yeah, I loved it! It took me ages to finally find the sportstape and backwards Omos but overall it was a bucketload of fun and hilarious to see others' experiences.

[Best Dude55]

All I can say is I'm never going to Vegas

 

Saw omochao about 80 times and all were normal front facing haha. Guess I'll stick to buying sodas instead of lottery tickets

[Milo]

Ack if I knew about the badges I would had snapped the sportstape Chao when it came up on my screen. Ah well.

[Nepenthe]

The whole entire event was awesome, mainly for the reactions people were having towards Omochao himself. Rage is always a sight to behold. I think the real question now is how do you top yourselves next year. xP

 

My strategy, honestly, was leaving not one but three tabs open: Two in the Omochao thread and one for general browsing in case shenanigans were to be had elsewhere. Every minute or so, I'd just be flipping back through them just in case. It was quite the sight to be greeted in each page at the same time, like the little douche was Slenderman or something and wouldn't leave until I read something.

[Brad]

This was honestly the funniest thing to see happen, I loved it. I especially loved the first sighting of Omochao before he was meant to officially begin appearing on April 1st when everyone went crazy over it in a confused frenzy, even if it wasn't meant to happen, haha

[Kaze no Klonoa]

Ack if I knew about the badges I would had snapped the sportstape Chao when it came up on my screen. Ah well.

So did I. Hopefully something cool would come up for April Fools next year

The whole entire event was awesome, mainly for the reactions people were having towards Omochao himself. Rage is always a sight to behold. I think the real question now is how do you top yourselves next year. xP

 

My strategy, honestly, was leaving not one but three tabs open: Two in the Omochao thread and one for general browsing in case shenanigans were to be had elsewhere. Every minute or so, I'd just be flipping back through them just in case. It was quite the sight to be greeted in each page at the same time, like the little douche was Slenderman or something and wouldn't leave until I read something.

I actually made a status where I copied the quote based off the infamous "What Am I fighting for" quote from Megaman X4. Just replaced "what am I fighting for" with "Why is omochao here!"

 

Joking aside though, Omochao is actually a helpful guide for those new to sonic games so he's usually only annoying to those who played past sonic games.

[Willsy]

I only found the Sportstape Omochao in the end, I posted it in the "Hmmmmmmm" thread (albeit a little late).

Still great fun though! We should have him around at all holidays dressed up for that particular holiday (Easter bunny, Santa, etc).

[Tara]

I thought it was pretty charming, actually.  It was a nice little thing and it was a nice excuse to give out badges.

 

The only thing that bothered me is that there were some complaints that Omochao was causing some computers to lag,  Is it possible for some of those complaints to be alleviated next year if we do something of this scale again?

[Willsy]

Maybe Omochao could be placed on random pages and there could be a scavenger hunt with clues?

In fact, we should totally do that for Easter. Have an image of an Easter bunny Omochao placed in some popular topics, then give out clues. Whoever finds a large amount of Easterchaos gets a badge.

[JaidynReiman]

Lol I didn't even know there was a "Boom" or "backwards" version of Omochao. I only saw the regular one.

[Uraraka]

I really enjoyed that and had fun taking pictures of omochao! he was hillarious!

[Wittymations]

I miss him. I really want a button for Omochao to turn him off and on. lol