Hunting the Ripper

It seems that Will11 is not just the lead writer in the Edutainment category, he IS the Edutainment category.

He starts the player off with some light cases to get them used to the game, then sends them diving right into the Ripper murders. What gets me is that the first Ripper killing, while brutal, isn't that much more serious than the average bushwhacking on the streets of Victorian England. Between the apathetic, just another murder, stance of the police, and the way so many characters seem unrepentant about their woman beating, it's clear that this is a time when a lot more was accepted. Even nowadays, look at how many domestic violence cases occur in the US every year. Violence against women is still a powerful sentiment, and nobody gets it worse than the streetwalkers.

James Kelly stood out to me as a murder suspect. I didn't really think he was the Ripper, per se, but he should have been arrested after all that time looking for him. Even at the end, your character just lets him walk away instead of cuffing him.

Then, after all that work, clues found, suspects questioned, dead ends, you FINALLY find the killer! Only to find out that he has peacefully passed away in his sleep, a better death than his victims ever got. While his victims (and this is historically accurate) got their graves paved over. The whole thing just felt so hopeless and unsatisfying at the end. The storygame was of course amazing, and gave a very accurate critique of the state of the world, but at the same time, it left me feeling a little sad and frustrated. I admire the author's ability to reach readers in that aspect. It certainly is different from a lot of other stories, which either have good endings or screw over their characters. This ending was more bittersweet and introspective.

The only true complaint I have is the occasional typo, including in a link on your first case, where it uses the word 'ezactly.' A little proofreading would go a long way for this singular storygame that set the "Hunting" series on a very high note.

Once again, Will is tearing up any opposition in the Edutainment category. You just keep spewing them out; I don't know how you do it. This is an excellent storygame, and it is a personal favorite of mine. It has everything a good storygame needs, and is one of the more complete storygames, in my opinion.

The idea is captivating, and I love the fact that we can be the investigator. It's very similar to reality when it comes to solving the investigations, and there so many different cases, it's unbelievable. I really enjoy reading storygames where a lot of time and effort is put in, and this makes it among the best on the site. This is one of the most branching storygames I've read, and it's far from linear.

It's quite a long storygame as I said above because of the sheer number of cases, but that only adds to its greatness. The main character is introduced in a somewhat generic way, but is developed very nicely. There's a large number of static characters, but that's perfectly acceptable in my eyes.

There were very few grammar and spelling mistakes, but not one too away from this excellent storygame. Keep up the good work. 8/8

First off, thank you for writing this. I learned a whole lot here, having previously been aware of only the broad strokes of the case; the killings of course, the fact that the police were awful at their jobs, and that there was at least one other serial killer out there complicating matters further.

The criticism I had of one of your other games being kind of a dry historical retelling happily doesn't apply here. The detective we play feels much more proactive and involved with events, but not so much that his personality overshadows the narrative...which is probably for the best when inserting a fictional character into real, detailed historical events that their actions can't be allowed to dramatically change.

And there was SUCH an impressive amount of detail in this thing. Step by step, interviewing witnesses, searching for clues in the victims' belongings, chasing down leads and trying to figure out what was or wasn't useful information...and then the exhaustion after false witness after false witness kept piling up. (Most of them OBVIOUSLY not the Ripper, so I'm with you on really not understanding what the police were thinking...sounds like they would have happily tossed out all evidence and knowledge of his MO if they could pin the killings on any random lunatic or foreigner and be done with the whole thing...also getting James Kelly handed to them on a silver platter and just letting him stroll away lmao. Lewis Carroll being a suspected serial killer at one point was also news to me!)

Being such a realistic historical piece I did find the constant use of casual, modern language a little strange...more than anything I would have expected everyone to be talking like they were out of a Sherlock Holmes story. But with this being such a huge project already I can understand perfectly why you wouldn't want to add that extra difficulty onto writing it.

I feel like I have a pretty decent understanding of the events now thanks to this, but I'll definitely be grabbing one of the books you mentioned at the end and looking more into this. And I appreciate you putting so much emphasis on who the women were as well...it really is sad how in every situation like this the monster is remembered and obsessed over while his victims are almost instantly forgotten.

Good read on a macabre and interesting topic

very good, keep up the great work!

Probably the best thing I've seen on this site so far.

The only single complaint I have is that it's too easy for the reader to believe the murderer is one of the suspects in London, as so much time was spent on it, so much to the point that they easily just gloss over the last chapter and miss blatant details.

This was super detailed and engaging! Amazing work.

Good Shit

Amazing!

I really enjoyed this storygame. The writing was good, and I enjoyed the way the story was presented. The reputation stat was a nice touch, and I really liked how that affected the gameplay.

It was fun trying to make conclusions based upon the evidence we could uncover through reading various witness accounts. And I enjoyed that the narrator did not tell you what was important or not and left the reader to decide and evaluate.

Overall, very fun to read. Good experience. Recommended.

yo! amazing story dude, although acording to current research, jack the rippers real name was aaron kisminsky or something. who knows, but indeed he was a pretty brutal and roothless murderer. anyways, I give this a 7 for the amazing work