unforum

[Greginvan]

Well, Khozians is new.

[PaperbckWriter9]

[RAD24]

[Syncopal]

[Canzonett]

At the moment, I feel more or less like a guinea pig in a weird experiment created by someone who might be trying to research players' loyalty concerning the rules commonly accepted as ARG gold standard: "How far can I go to alienate as many potential players as possible?" This is not fun, not even remotely. I might be watching the events for a while longer, but I don't think I will join in this.

[kosmopol]

OK, this turns in some directions...
So before you people are running away, just read this please

Some points:

[And now here comes a very meta of meta]
And I'm sure, the Benefactors are not clever enough to wave their mouses over the following spoiler field to read the meta stuff.

[thebruce]

I haven't been playing, but I've been lurking, watching this play out recently...
To be fair, it's not about the PM breaking UF TOS, this is a far more personal level - that deeper issue of player-PM trust.

Sure, PMs can decide how to run their games - no rules apply outside the UF walls, but users of UF now generally have an accepted etiquette, an expectation - those are not enforceable by the letter of law. And that is that UF is a safe place to discuss a game, with the philosophical view that characters can't know it exists. So if a PM decides to break that wall (which is a perfectly legitimate tactic, imo, though shady and antagonistic) they risk damaging their player's trust and enjoyment of their game simply by the nature of the UF community.

So, if people don't want to play any more, that's fine. If people want to keep playing even given this new turn of events, that's fine. I don't like it, but it's interesting, and as long as the PM doesn't break this forum's TOS and actually post in-character or as the PM in this thread, then, well technically, game on.

It's a risk a PM must be willing to make - as mentioned elsewhere, breaking that player-pm trust can have the effect of upsetting and alienating the player-base. If that's the feel they want with their game, so be it.

But we mods are watching... ...

[kolixela]

The PM took it one step further and dragged ME into the game, not my online persona but my real name is in an IG post, without notice, without permission, after I let them know I was opting out of the game.

I feel this is a very negative thing, I take it as a personal attack and I posted in response as such. There's risking losing trust and there is outright breaking the 4th wall. The PM broke the 4th wall.

[Bruce]

I agree with kolixela that the Pm's use of real-life names was wrong - extremely wrong. Of course, that is why I never friended JJ on Facebook - I don't have an alias created there for ARGs.

[Canzonett]

Alright, this has gone too far. If a PM expects us to respect the rules of the game s/he sets, I expect the PM in return to respect my privacy and the player character I create for myself as well. I consider this an abuse of personal data.

WHO do you suspect is behind this?

[kolixela]

[kosmopol]

OK, I don't want to be PMs attourney. (Even if I'm still unsure, whether it's him or not). And I can understand your feeling and offending. And I don't want to convince you to something else. But just one thing:

this message was posted in the closed forum, not seen from the outer internet, this forum was almost ingame. I know, perhaps PM was going too far, also in this closed forum (but it's what we have if we are playing with our official Facebook, twitter accounts, etc.). [I'm making soon unfiction accounts only, for future games]

I mean, Seteney also posted my own picture of myself, but not here (I did actually, perhaps I'd better delete it again ), in a form nobody besides of me can see it.

In this forum it was the same situation: only people, wanting to play could read it. And even now people, who are registered there cannot really collate the names to the nicknames in the last message by Seteney)

Please don't post this message here.

I hope, PM will read it and understand this problem.

[kolixela]

I have an online name, everyone here respects that it's my "name" for these games. I'd suspect a large number of players could dig around and find my real name but they don't.

In these games the character I play to interact with is kolixela, it is not "X". By posting my name "X" they broke the cardinal rule, an IG character "looked behind the curtain" It's a respect thing. I respect their world enough not to peek around the edges, they respect me enough to do the same.

I hope the PM reads this message and understands why I am so upset and why I will not continue to play because of it. Hopefully this issue will not be repeated in the future and further games will receive a much more positive reaction from players.

[ironnikki]

[BEGIN OOG DISCUSSION]

As a relative n00b to the ARG scene, I'm not sure that my opinion matters much here, but I figure that I'll post it anyway. After all, it's just one more voice to piss off Seteney!

I'm on the fence on this one. One the one hand, posting someone's real information should be a strict no-no, and pretty much everyone should be very aware of this. That was most certainly a step too far. That was absolutely a violation of player trust, and I hope will not happen again. Secondly, I'm of the opinion that players need a space to communicate with one another without worrying that they will be spied upon. Yes, the PMs frequently check their relevant uF board, but that's different. When IG characters become aware of the board and start using information here against us, that forces us to become characters on these boards. In effect, when characters check this board, we are forced to post in character (which is forbidden by the TOS), and uF becomes IG (also forbidden by the TOS).

On the other hand, I feel pretty certain that the PM of this game meant no harm with his/her actions. They were seriously misguided, yes, but I think that he/she was just trying to immerse us more into his/her universe. The PM is trying to make this game different from the rest by bringing their alternate reality closer to our reality. This excites me a little bit, because I think that sets the stage for a great game.

tl;dr: I think the PM had good intentions, but didn't choose a great course of action.

I think that I'll continue to play this game, but at a distance. I don't want any more of my personal information available other than what is already out there (probably more than I know). I will not friend characters on FB, and I will continue posting things on uF as if it was OOG, which it should be, unless we decide on an alternate, secure method of communication.

[END OOG]

[Nighthawk]

Oh, so now he bring me in to this game like that, eh?

"Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war..."

-=O=-

Kosmo, I have to ask the question: that picture of yourself that was altered and re-posted... Who had access to that? Was that sent directly to the "in game" character back then, or posted in a public place for others to see and retrieve? Who else knows about it?

I trust you understand the importance of that question... Think about it carefully.

-=O=-

ETA: I would copy my response to them here, but doing so would violate this forum's Terms of Service.