unforum

[Rolerbe]

Another Issue from LG15 -- PM control of In-Game forums

[Ehsan]

I don't think this has anything to do with ARGs per se.

This is just how the Internet works.

From the flamewars during usenet to the modded down trolls on Digg, having people post "hostile juvenile comments" isn't something new. Go read any unmoderated forum or play a MMORPG, you'll find trolls in every corner.

I've previously stated that I'm against using any site which isn't under the PM's full control. While the YouTube adventure is amazing in itself and worth the risk, the creators of LG15 are crippled because they do not have control over the medium they are using. If someone decides to post Bree's real name and address, they can't do anything about it. They can't get to the 5% of posts which are actually "interacting" without going through all the noise first. I don't read YouTube comments because of that, but now you're dealing with a 'game' which requires interaction, so you better clean up the gaming environment.

So how do you inspire participation? You'll find that the comments are a reflection of the players following your game. The players in turn are just a reflection of the game's target audience. If you get trolls, that's only because you created a game which appeals to trolls.

Take a look at Heist, PXC, POTC/Volvo, and ourcolony. Each of these games attracted different groups of players, who have distinctive traits and behaviors. Fortunately for us, ARGs are more of a "thinking" game and they do not generally attract certain demographics who happen to exhibit immature behavior.

Unfortunately for the team behind lonelygirl, the YouTube demographic is 90% juvenile trolls. A popular video on the site is fertile ground for posting stupid comments. I don't think it has anything to do with it being fake or having curtains. It's just another case of Welcome to the Internet.

[imbri]

I think that there needs to be a distinction made between "official" forums and "in-game" forums.

"In game" to me implies that they are part of the game. The "PMs" don't control the forums, the character that owns the website/forums control them. While the PM does, ultimately, control the character, I think that's an important distinction to make.

"Official" forums would be forums that are on a meta site - a site that discusses the game and/or story on a higher level. They are, in my opinion, out of game because they are out of the story world.

In Benjamin Stove, we had in-game forums. Tucker, one of the main characters, had a website that contained forums. He had set them up so that people could help him find & figure out Benjamin Stove - the previous owner of a painting he had found. The forums were populated with people familiar with ARGs as well as those that had never heard of them before. While we had provided a community home for the players, we knew that it ultimately had to belong to them. It was their home and we felt that they needed to feel both safe and in control. While we could have brought on additional characters to moderate the conversation, that would have taken away some of that feeling of control.

We asked two players to serve as moderators, one that had no ARG experience and one that is very familiar with ARGs. As the board became more active, we added two more moderators. And, of course, Tucker was moderating and all of the PMs were paying close attention to the boards and helping out when they noticed things. We followed a philosophy very similar to the one here - we were rather handsoff and favored merging and locking over deleting (the only things deleted were spam or highly abusive). There was definitely a presence of leadership on the boards, but it was on the hands of the players as it was their community. That leadership not only kept the boards in order but kept the trolls and such away.

Now those were in-game forums. I can't say that I would treat official ones the same way. Though, there is something to be said about the community monitoring itself and I think that, even in an official capacity, I would lean towards providing moderator positions to the players that know and understand not only the game but the community.

[rowan]

[addlepated]

I think it's a little naive to expect the audience in question (or really, any audience) to be polite. Ehsan nailed it: the LG15 demographic is kids, and they can, and often will, be brutal. And while YouTube is very popular, I don't know if you have the option of uploading a video and leaving comments turned off - and if you do, will that lower your visibility?

[Pixiestix]

response only to the you tube comment:

you have the option to moderate comments as well as turn them off when you upload a video... You can also mark a user as a spammer.

i find the concept of modding comments to be very helpful. I think turning them off would indeed lower visability, however, there is a rating system that if you allow your video to be rated stands a good chance of helping that visability.

beyond that i agree with imbri on the distinctions.

[SirQuady]

As a sort-of threadjack, i'd like to again give kudos to the greatest in-game Board evar: Who Is Benjamin Stove. Oh, and kudos to the greatest Board. EVER! REALLY! Unfiction. "Filtering out intelligent people and keeping the rest since 1969"