unforum

[FLmutant]

Isn't that what the Internet is? Still don't get it here. Another place to put webpages?

[Karensa]

Are You On THE LIST?

[FLmutant]

Re: Are You On THE LIST?

[Karensa]

;-p

[Karensa]

Re: Are You On THE LIST?

[FLmutant]

Re: ;-p

[Karensa]

If I'm reading you correctly, I wasn't presenting the library/paper as an out of game resource aimed at marketing to general public to get them interested in ARGing. This was presented as a resource for people already aware ARGland exists, but a tool for many people to use, seed, populate, explore who are involved in any given game. No, not all PMs would use it all the time, depends on their game and whether they need it or not...but many games make use of backstory history, news articles, reports, "books" being hunted for, etc. that are purely fictional and created inside their game. They would have to basically create from scratch a legit looking site online or a blog character to put the information out there in posts, etc. They would have to buy a number of websites and hosting to develop a history for a company they're using (fictional as it is)...

The idea for paper/library IN GAME is that it doesn't belong to just one PM for one specific game. It's an open source sort of operation that is presented as an in game entity...and many PMs can use it to plant their own game's info in that format...and since it is in game, the players have the specific information made available - as opposed to the new players who get wind of a game and go to UF and are faced with 35 threads spawning 30 pages of discussion...nobody wants to read all that sort of thing to catch up, but it's also provided as an OOG resource.

The paper/library is always in game and is operated with in game material for many different games going on at once, and archived later when necessary (in case there's an epilogue to a game that ended?). We as players recognize this as an in game operation, so accept that in the same way we accept the YT videos as in game, even though we technically know it's fiction, a real pm behind it, and characters are real people. Since more than one PM would be making use of it for more than one game, the paper has automatic fresh and changing content, relevant sections or categories can be created, it all depends on the creativity of the PM in putting their info out there.

WE still know it's fiction. But that's not an issue is it?

It is for the players. General surfers would find it via an in game element or by oog word of mouth, it's not for them, but doesn't exclude them.

It would be useful for new people coming in to UF asking where to find new games in that they have an in game resource available to get involve with, doing research or whatever, following up leads to whatever info they're working on...they're *playing* by doing it that way, as opposed to not playing and just being oog on UF, reading the threads watching the more experienced nail puzzles and forge ahead. New players have a hard time catching up or jumping in to a game in progress when the sole vehicle to learn about it is out of game discussion.

An in game tool they can be directed to would help them get IN GAME and start learning the backstory so what they see in the forum makes sense to them. They're playing alone initially but they get actual information about what's going on in a story or with some character or entity, and then can go oog and discuss it without asking the same redundant questions covered in the earlier pages of a thread nobody wants to bother rehashing for new people. ;-p

[redct]

I'm glad to see this old thread revived. I was talking to AngriBuddhist about this originally (don't know what happened to him) and we were actually working on a prototype.

I'm currently busy developing an ARG, but this would be an interesting project to fool around with once everything's done.

[KandaKid]

I like this alot! Why not call it something like "The Argonaut"?

Although it's easy to create fake news-clippings for a game, grassroots PMs don't have the time to create their own news sites filled with complimentary articles to create the immersion of the news coming from a realistic source. High budget games do (like The Gotham Times for the Dark Knight ARG), but this isn't primarily for them. It's for the vast majority of games on thin-to-no-budget. Of course, when the big guys see a new resource like this becoming popular, I'm sure they will be filling it with as much content as they can.

A site like this may also help deflate the ARGs as hoaxes stigma. Not that ARGs should abandon other sources (YouTube, MySpace, etc.), but if people want to research content and discover it's ARG-status, this can be a link. For example, if a 16-year-old girl on You Tube talks about a secret group her family belongs to, there can be an article in the Argonaut about the group. Then there will be less accusation of it being a hoax, with the accompanying fallout. And the import thing is the ARG status is confirmed without OOG commentary.

As a player I would visit this site regularly. I find most ARGs to be very slow going. I think most casual players surf through various ARGs and watch some videos, play a flash game or two, read a few posts and then leave. Having this resource will give me an in-game fix from various games. If I'm particularly intrigued by a news story or a video, then I can dig deeper until my patience gives out.

If I ever run a game, I would be interested in using this as a resource. Some PMs may be concerned that by having all this ARG content side-by-side it will cause hard-core players to jump ship from their game to the next shiny new thing. But I think there is more opportunity to bring casual players and fans of mega games to the grassroots.

The Onion analogy is spot-on. Fake news, for ARGing instead of comedy.

[Karensa]

[Box]----> Outside it

[rowan]

Re: [Box]----> Outside it

[Rekidk]

Re: [Box]----> Outside it

[FLmutant]

Re: [Box]----> Outside it

[Karensa]

I didn't think you were being argumentative...it's conversation.

Not sure why you aren't quite grasping what I am suggesting - it seems so in the sense that you're ignoring or not seeing the simple premise of the suggestion in favor of looking at the illustrations as bad, ergo the whole thing is bs. The whole of it is a resource for the people in argland to find other players in an IN GAME perspective, and to find the IN GAME details on games - new and in progress - and so a player base can expand since there would be a resource to find players willing to get on the list to receiving packages at some point, or to deliver items to some locatiion, or go make a phone call - whatever the use, it's for the real time activity - like a damn player phonebook and a PM phonebook but from and IN GAME angle.

Yeah there's the two threads in this forum. That's also limited in a lot of ways because since it's on a wide open public forum out there on the net, most every person in her just gave email info. And then people bitch about how passe' it is to receive those "can u hlp me dghlokjwh wov XXX" emails...it opens up more opportunity for interaction and creativity, sure. But only small cliques inside argland actually get any real time interaction cause the PM is one of their buddies more likely than not.


An IN GAME resource that isn't broadcast all over the net would help maintain a privacy level, a hidden area where the actual listing is would escape the general surfer and if a person is on the ball enough to say, notice and discover that the $ sign in a sentence is a hyperlink to a log in page then they are the kinda people you're looking to play with to begin with. General surfers won't even remotely notice...and you're not providing the site for them anyway so it doesn't matter.

The newspaper would be a tremendous help - and whe I came into the discussion, I initiated a different point of view than the topic of the thread...not what pms wanted to see, but what PLAYERS would want to see from the PMs, hence the newspaper and an IN GAME resource

as opposed to the

OUT OF GAME
resource. Yeah I am aware that we have a UF and ARGN and they're oog and they serve a purpose. That is not at all what I was pointing to, which I keep trying to get across and the rebuttals seem to be stuck on assuming my idea is to compete with UF or ARGN or the internet itself and we got that already.

Nope. An IN GAME resource...where the content is seeded by pms relevant to any game they've developed, and instead of say buying a google ad and hoping for the best, they do the same thing in the IN GAME paper and everybody who plays args knows that's argqualified and can go from there. It's not reading about args as a game, it's being in the game itself and following information being presented to them.

PMs seem to not take some things into consideration for the players, true, but then many things PMs don't do is because there is no available resource to facilitate it. Both of these are strong ideas with potential, they need fleshing out in a developmental way, not being nitpicked over a flawed illustration (my fault, but eh well)...forget the illustrations and just look that the bigger picture....as a helpful suggestion to consider developing, which would go a long way in helping new players jump in and or any of them catch up without coming to UF in an OOG sense and asking the same question that never was adequately answered for them or made available in an apparent way without going on a treasure hunt over a quick question that can be answered again in exactly the same amount of time it takes to type GOD USE THE SEARCH.

Could've just settled down the irritation you might've seen the same question asked 50 times but ignoring that the one asking is asking the first time, and it's because the answer isn't readily available - and again for the record, USE THE SEARCH argument is flawed on its face because all you're getting back typing in any word is a list of places that word shows up, mentioned...but that in no manner means the question the person asked is answered...and nobody wants to read more than half a dozen back pages to catch up, especially considering most of those threads are tangents talking about the key word, but several pages in and nobody's answered the question. ( note you = general audience, not you specifically! )

It's just not a good argument...the newspaper or library option, and again, expanding - the crime lab, the hospital, the morgue - all fictional entities, but each provides a more specific resource of data. The city doesn't have to even exist anymore than the city in a room escape game exists...it's a simple online location that provides the IN GAME information, and when someone is searching, they're going to get specific data about whatever they're looking for, not DISCUSSIONS ABOUT THE DATA. They might get a couple hits on word relevance and see some hits for something unrelated to their path, so be it. But it's less convoluted and easier to clear up than it is to spend 4 or 5 pages in a debate over if this website is legit in game or not.

Researching at the library or newspaper, when you get any lead on a site you know period it's in game cause the paper is in game, the article is in game, the characters are in game and the place ya got it is in game. That saves an enormous amount of time and people are far less likely to get stalled out over missing an "easter egg" - and have to depend on the PM sending in some character (or anonymous guest OOG) making some out of the blue brilliant assessment or solve when they haven't even bee participating - that's apparent and while it might be appreciated it says a lot about the resources and options available...

What players wanted to see. I'm not suggesting to speak for all players. I spoke for myself from recognizing other people hitting the same barriers with PMs and games, so I added it to this thread. A few others have had no difficulty seeing what I was suggesting and seem all for it.

Again, not every player will use it, not every pm will bother. This is irrelevant to the suggestion. There are people who will - it's for that group. Some other player has some other idea for some other group. No sweat. Just adding these two to the mix to get the dialogue rolling and hopefully others will keep it bumped adding their own ideas.

[rowan]

I told myself I wasn't going to get sucked into any more META conversations, but you've hit on two points that have been very sore subjects with me lately, and I've just got to get this out of my system.

Point 1: