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[jessie1326]

What is too annoying to require of players?

[Seadevil4]

As regards to the line, I think it is up to the PM to draw the line each time, I myself keep a line in my pocket which I can redraw at anytime. Its part of running a game, the trailhead is your feedback loop in which to adjust the line accordingly.

Using your examples I'll answer each question for you.

Twitter & Facebook.

Both these sites allow anyone with an email to sign up. Thing about email accounts they don't have to be real either, I currently have 14 fictional email accounts, 2 Twitter accounts and 2 Facebook accounts set up for my characters. No reason why the players cannot do the same, in fact they often do. It really depends on how much a player wants to get involved with the characters in the game, some hate it and just want to do puzzles. As a PM I really like the interaction between players and characters it bring the game to life. Incidentally Facebook doesn't require more input, its about the same really.

Exes

As long as the player uses a decent virus scanner what's to the worry. I used a Java program in my first game which worked quite well however when I switched to Visual Basic I had a lot of the players complaining it didn't run on Linux/Mac platforms. If you are going to use programs I suggest non-platform specific of course that normally points away from locally run programs back to web based which in my mind far easy to control and monitor.


Virtual Worlds

I did this for a puzzle on my third ARG, left clues that pointed to the game online Evony and one of my characters had a kingdom on Evony. A player signed up and sent a message to my character. Worked quite well. Free online games not a problem, anything that involves spending money don't bother unless you can get sponsorship from the game in question but that's a can of worms best avoided.

How far is too far?

Every new method of Transmedia delivery pushes the boat out just a little further and remember it really does depend upon your game. Your storyline (if any), characters, puzzles, activities all create aspects of the line.

The first ARG that uses Porn however has not only crossed the line but fallen off the pier. That being said social attitudes are changing all the time far more liberal that they were a century ago still I would stay within accepted moral guidelines, there are exceptions of course.

[Thunderwolf]

I refuse to sign up to facebook under any circumstances. FB's profile tracking is so complete that even if you have a completely different user account, email etc. it still links previous interactions to IP addresses, and you end up with "account bleed". Moreover, I can't stand the damn company. Same goes for Google/google+. too much hassle.

I'm not a huge fan of twitter; I think I signed up for no other reason than to play SeaDevil's game a while back - all I really use it for is games, but I find if I have more than one on the blend at any one time things can get sonfusing. Still, it's the least hassle when it comes to social media I guess. In honesty I think I'd prefer an ARG which DOESN'T use twitter at all.

Executable files are not necessarily a big deal as regards security, but as I run Linux I sometimes run into compatibility issues which make things more hassle. I think a better way of distributing mini-games, executable program puzzles is by using some sort of cross-platform language, such as Java or Python. Of course, to me this wouldn't be a problem as I teach computer science so I have all sorts of runtime environments installed on my PC, but other people may find installing Java/Python etc to be too muh hassle.

I wouldn't sign up to an online game just to recover a drop, although it's a pretty good idea. I think it would work best if the game was worked into the ARG (ie there are characters that you can meet in the game), rather than "Hey guys I've just dropped a message in WoW" for instance. That said, I think real world drops are just about the coolest things and I've driven LONG distances to check them out in the past.

In my personal view, the lengths I go to in order to participate are directly related to the immersion in the ARG. I drove from Coventry to Bristol for Meigeist (and met one of my best friends in the process) because the story was so good and the event fit in so well that it seemed idiotic NOT to go. I've spend all night working on puzzles that were well crafted, but badly integrated puzzles have in the past caused me to pretty much stop following a given ARG.

So I guess if you have an idea, and you think "this might be too much hassle", think to yourself "Does this work well given its context?" and also "could I use a similar device in the future, thus reducing the players' hassle further down the line?" If the answer to one or both of those questions is "yes", then that would probably be enough to cause me at least to go through the hassle.

DISCLAIMER: I'm an obsessive problem solver who can't sleep if there are puzzles yet-unsolved. More casual players may well feel differently.

[Russell]

I won't retread a lot of the above feedback as I largely agree with it all. What I will say is that in regards to live meet ups they are my most enjoyed of the ARG format. I was also at the meetup with thunderbolt in bristol and the quality of the actors was amazing. I have also done smaller rl tasks which were equally fun and really engender a sense of teamwork when you come back to the forums.

The one thing I'm not a major fan of are long silences from the pm's. They don't need to keep nudging with clues on a long solve but just need to keep up the communication to ensure there is something still to follow whilst you are tearing your hair out

[Seadevil4]

[Kyrie]

I hate it when I have to purchase something to continue playing.