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 Forum index » Meta » General META Discussion
[META] Contact Information - How Far Is To Far?
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ItWasntMeISwear
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Joined: 15 Feb 2005
Posts: 503
Location: Illannoys, USA

 		It's really one of those things where you don't want to say to the rest of the group "Well, hey guys and girls, thanks for all the hard work and thought that you put into this game. It's much better then I could have imagined it to be, the puzzles are great and the characters have so much depth... but, we don't have a unique way to launch it so, thanks and good luck."

Not that I'd ever let that happen, but you get the point. The launch idea we have down... it's how to get people to find the launch that's the problem. We are working on that though and might have something "logical". I have a very dedicated team put together for this and I'll do whatever it takes to get this thing off the ground.
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 9:14 pm
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Phaedra
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Joined: 21 Sep 2004
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krystyn wrote:
Someone e-mailed the tip address, I believe.

Also, I may or may not have had a voicemail on my phone from an old man doing some heavy breathing ...


He was already heavy-breathing at you? Shocked Geez, he didn't waste any time with his little crush, did he? Wink
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 10:20 pm
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GuyP
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Joined: 15 Sep 2004
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Location: London, UK

 		I'm sure there are other ways, but I'd agree there's nothing necessarily wrong with using existing methods. It's not so much what you do, as the way that you do it, and while a totally original launch would obviously be attention-grabbing, showing quality from the get-go (concept, design, writing - it needn't even be all three, as krystyn would remind me Smile ) is far more important.

PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 3:00 am
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MageSteff
Pretty talky there aintcha, Talky?


Joined: 06 Jun 2003
Posts: 2716
Location: State of Denial

 		Re: [META] Contact Information - How Far Is To Far?
ItWasntMeISwear wrote:
My question is in regards to people and their personal information. How far can one person go and still be regarded as "good form" when it comes to contacting the community?

Purchasing mailing lists from other PMs is "bad form", I understand that. But what about information that is available either on someones web-site or through their "whois" information? Is that still considered to be "bad form" because they are not personally giving the information to you? Or is it okay to use that information for contact purposes (not phone) since they did not take the time to secure it?

I'm interested in knowing what people think about this.


Generally speaking the "grassroots" PM won't sell, give or distribute their lists (or should be expected to not do so unless there is notification the list may be used by others and allow players to opt in to thedistribution list).

If someone has listed their contact information in a public place (i.e. blog, or their own web page), then they have basically opened the door to anyone contacting them. It does not guarantee that your message will be received with good grace. I would say you should get to know the people/community you plan on contacting.

Collective Detective at one time maintained a list of people who had opted in to receive "cold call" e-mails (I was on that list). I would say if someone has said "If you are interested in trading baseball cards with me contact me at xyzSPLATjklmnoDOTcom" then contacting the person about anything other than baseball cards is "Bad form."

ARGN has an announcement opt in list. I would say contact Jamesi and Steve and let them know who you would like assistance contacting.

While players do dig up whois info very often, generally speaking the only time you should be using that is if you have a problem/see a problem with the site they own. That is why the whois information is provided. This is not an invitation to send them an unsolicited letter/e-mail/phone call.

If you want to contact a number of people in the community, then contact places like ARGN.com, Deaddrop.us, Varin.org and talk to the admins of UF and IU. They can hand out your contact information, that way interested people are contacting you, and not you having to cold call them.
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A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead


PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 5:16 am
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MageSteff
Pretty talky there aintcha, Talky?


Joined: 06 Jun 2003
Posts: 2716
Location: State of Denial
ItWasntMeISwear wrote:
It's really one of those things where you don't want to say to the rest of the group "Well, hey guys and girls, thanks for all the hard work and thought that you put into this game. It's much better then I could have imagined it to be, the puzzles are great and the characters have so much depth... but, we don't have a unique way to launch it so, thanks and good luck."

Not that I'd ever let that happen, but you get the point. The launch idea we have down... it's how to get people to find the launch that's the problem. We are working on that though and might have something "logical". I have a very dedicated team put together for this and I'll do whatever it takes to get this thing off the ground.


If you plan it correctly they will find you.

We didn't tell people about the orbital colony meta page. A fast thinking PM saw an ebay ad for an asteroid and entered a bid. Because People always pass around the interesting/unusual/laughable things they come across, someone saw the asteroid bid on ebay. It could have just as easily said one of the in game sites instead of the meta one. And we were as surprised as everyone else to see an asteroid for sale...

So don't be afraid to put you rabbit hole in an odd corner... If players don't see it in the time frame you would like, a soft whisper to the people at ARGN will at least point people in the general direction.
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Magesteff
A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead


PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 5:45 am
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ItWasntMeISwear
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Joined: 15 Feb 2005
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Location: Illannoys, USA
Magesteff wrote:
So don't be afraid to put you rabbit hole in an odd corner... If players don't see it in the time frame you would like, a soft whisper to the people at ARGN will at least point people in the general direction.


Thanks for the information. I would like to also thank everyone else for their input. I expected the answers that I received from this question but still wanted to ask it, just in case there was some route I could take without crossing the line. I have not had a chance to run through all of the games that have been created to see how they all started, so I was unsure if some other game had used the "track down and mail" method to launch or if all of the information was collected "in-game". Now I know.

If there is one thing that I try to avoid, it's using someone else's launch idea. It simply screams out "uncreative" or "lazy" and I know that those are things that I am not.

Some games have been extremely creative and others have not. I guess it's finding a way to include some of the ideas that have been used but adding your own unique twist to them (or even combining ideas).
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 2:34 am
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Slyfox
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Joined: 06 Feb 2004
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Location: Manchester, UK
MageSteff wrote:

So don't be afraid to put you rabbit hole in an odd corner... If players don't see it in the time frame you would like, a soft whisper to the people at ARGN will at least point people in the general direction.


Spoiler (Rollover to View):
4179toutatis did, and still does have it's own blog. But nobody ever found it Crying or Very sad

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PostPosted: Thu Feb 09, 2006 4:39 am
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MageSteff
Pretty talky there aintcha, Talky?


Joined: 06 Jun 2003
Posts: 2716
Location: State of Denial
Slyfox wrote:
MageSteff wrote:

So don't be afraid to put you rabbit hole in an odd corner... If players don't see it in the time frame you would like, a soft whisper to the people at ARGN will at least point people in the general direction.


Spoiler (Rollover to View):
4179toutatis did, and still does have it's own blog. But nobody ever found it Crying or Very sad



Spoiler (Rollover to View):
But thanks to varin's quick thinking when someone tried to "sell" Toutatis on e-bay, they did find the meta site in an unusual way. Wink

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Magesteff
A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead


PostPosted: Thu Feb 09, 2006 9:51 am
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grumpyboy
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Joined: 04 Feb 2003
Posts: 660
Slyfox wrote:
MageSteff wrote:

So don't be afraid to put you rabbit hole in an odd corner... If players don't see it in the time frame you would like, a soft whisper to the people at ARGN will at least point people in the general direction.


Spoiler (Rollover to View):
4179toutatis did, and still does have it's own blog. But nobody ever found it Crying or Very sad



hehehe, too funny -> http://4179toutatis.livejournal.com/ Laughing

PostPosted: Thu Feb 09, 2006 11:24 am
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