unforum

[Rekidk]

[Mikeyj]

[Shutaro]

[rose]

The puppetmasters managed to botch the security of one of their sites. Players found the passwords. Mayhem, of a pretty tame variety, ensued. People argued over whether to post messages on the site letting the PMs know the site had been hacked, which I found kindof sweet.

At least that is my take on what happened. Other players are upset and concerned that we shouldn't "hack" the sites.

As with my initial post complaining about the design that enables OOG sites to run amok, to me this is a basic and easily corrected design flaw. I don't see either the security failure or the players actions as a very big deal in the overall promotion. Perhaps I am missing why hacking a site elicits such a powerful emotional response on the part of the players. It interests me though.

Here is one player's comment on the design issue:

[HetMasteen]

Rose, you're trying to bale water out of the titanic using a thimble.

The 1-18-08 player base has devolved into a "lord of the flies" type situation. It's a very tribal society, immediately suspicious of anything new or foreign. It has become basically impossible to say or do anything on that board without being verbally crucified.
This is, unfortunately, the creators' fault. The ambiguity of IG sites, and the plethora of various types of jacks has turned the community into a pack of wolves, ripping every new bit of information to shreds using faulty logic and false knowledge.
My only hope is that history remembers this as the yard stick for what not to do in an ARG/online experience, rather than as a clever marketing ploy to attract as much cyber attention as possible.
I also hope that players who gravitate towards other experiences found on UF (as I have) do not bring the 1-18-08 mentality with them, or else this entire board will quickly become a place to avoid, rather than frequent.

[rose]

[FLmutant]

I think that's a fair worry. The movie marketers and journalists that ask me about it are definitely unsure what to make: it clearly has produced alot of buzz and done it one a relatively small incremental cost over the traditional elements they would have used anyway.

So the buzz marketer in me thinks they did a good thing: I see much of the evidence I'd want to see on one of our projects. People are voraciously consuming the traditional advertising, hoping some clue is hidden in it. Speculation about the film is running rampant, which triggers all the little Hollywood buzz meters.

The people that ask me, though, always hear about this thread too. It does a good job of articulating the lost opportunity. Ultimately, the whole point of creating curiousity is to encourage people to seek out those answers. If the answers aren't out there or if your job is just to wait for new information to be released in traditional ways, then it is very like setting the romantic mood for your date and then falling asleep on the couch when they get there.

Movie promotion is all about timing. It needs to crest in intensity leading right up to the opening weekend, where most of the revenue in a theatrical release actually happens: it's all downhill from opening weekend. If J.J. got his promotional crest six months before people can buy tickets, he'll have t find a way to re-energize them all over again.

In reality, though, we're critiquing the meal during the second course. Granted, during a long pause in service while staring at our empty plates and water glasses wondering where the waiter went. A stunning main course might shift people's perspective ... if they haven't wandered out of the dining room in frustration or started cooking their own meals for other patrons entirely out of condiments.

Meanwhile, this thread does an amazing job of illustrating that nuance: not necessarily what they've done wrong, but the opportunities they passed by.

[rose]

[rose]

So this may have become the place for me to express my observations about this campaign. Sorry if it bores you guys. I promise to resurrect my blog and leave you in META peace.

But one last observation for the road.

I've noticed that some of the players in 1-18-08 seem to express fear that they've done something wrong, someone else has done something wrong, they might do something wrong, that will cause the PMs to end this promotion. While some of us (ok, me) don't see that as a bad outcome, I respect the players being invested in what they have enjoyed so far and what they hope this game might be. I love to read the predictions of what might come next in the story and what might have happened.

I think that if the players had a game space they could trust , they wouldn't have such fear that they are doing something wrong. People have wondered if maybe not finding clues fast enough caused the marketers to pull back the campaign, if maybe we need to drive less traffic to a site (or conversely, more traffic to a site) to earn an update, if hacking the photobucket site would make them shut down the promotion, the list goes on.

I don't remember seeing this sort of angst in players that they are doing something wrong and will be punished by the marketers for what they are doing by having the promotion taken away from them.

Again, I see this as a design problem, due in large part to the haphazard nature of the campaign, but I don't need to repeat myself on and on.

Next post will be on my blog - no more META - I promise.

Thanks for listening.

[konamouse]

I've enjoyed reading this discussion. In fact, there has been some tremendous META topics this summer and fall, many of them generated because of the 1-18-08 activity.

[rose]

OK, I lied. I intended to restart my blog - but i haven't done it yet. (hey. I've been really busy.)

This is a quick one.

I don't know how to explain to 1-18-08 players the value of diversity of ideas and opinions, how fundamental that diversity is to ARGs and the community and how a part of the foundation for that diversity is making new players feel welcomed.

This issue arises because new players keep posting new threads for existing stuff. Why this bothers the existing players is something I do understand a bit, but, not really. I know it is annoying to read something for the tenth time, heck, I've been doing that since I started moderating that forum. But I can understand the value of new people feeling comfortable about posting.

I guess it is a dichotomy between keeping the forum free of repetitive posts and keeping it open so new players aren't afraid to post or share ideas.

The game itself doesn't support this idea because the information is so sparse.