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[Agent Lex]

I think the main problem with building character in an ARG is a lack of objective narrative. In most other forms of static media, there's some kind of narration, or outside view, that can be used to establish character. With the whole TINAG concept, there's no way to have that viewpoint outside of a "story so far" section, such as PXC and EE have, which is somewhat curtain-breaking (whether or not an iron curtain is best is a whole other discussion).

Building a past for a character in a novel or a movie is as easy as having a flashback. Unfortunately, that can't be done with an ARG and you have to either build their past for them, or accept that they've popped into existence.

[sixsidedsquare]

I think with a bit of imagination there would be a bunch of ways to work a characters backstory into an ARG, such as old letters being found (kinda like what they did in Who is Benjamin Stove), but as Agent Lex says, the lack of objective narrative really does make the methods you have to use drastically different from other forms of story telling.

With regards to creating an actual existing character background, it is very hard to make a person who you just made up 3 months ago not look like a person you have, well, made up 3 months ago. I would personally be against using any real people myself (that aren't historical/long dead), and doubly so anyone without their permission. Seems kind of rude to me, I mean how would you like it if someone got pictures of you and made a fake Myspace pretending it was yours? Other than putting some effort into getting stuff out there online that you want the players to find, I don't see how you could have what you want them to find out there. It'd just be a matter of having relevant stuff in relevant places that the players would actually look (and wouldn't be illegal/breaking too many rules by being put there).

[AngriBuddhist]

That is the heart of the problem. I can build a past for them but the delivery of this content to the player through typical means is starting to feel stale.

I am talking about the "technical" boundaries of delivery not the "creative" boundaries.

It's very possible that what I'm hoping for doesn't exist. I've seen threads here discussing the need for a site that has real news feeds that is open to PMs for posting there fake news stories. There are other ideas as well.

It's possible that until someone figures out how to do it (and gets PMs to support it) the tools I want won't be available.