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[tstrel]

 How thick does the curtain need to be?

[BubbleBoy]

My only question is do you believe that the players will try to contact you while your game is running? I mean, players have been known to hunt puppetmasters down and call their house or other contact number. I'm just curious how you would deal with this situation if it ever comes up? You can try to deal with the problem at that point or get rid of the problem now. It's up too you.

Sorry if this doesn't make much sense... I'm on NyQuil and have a severe cold atm.

[October]

tstrel, I'm sure you've seen the many threads about "curtain" and its value or lack thereof. There's no "one true way", so I'll just give you my $.02.

In two of the best games I've played, Sammeeeees II: The Wrath of Johnson and Eldritch Errors, I've known exactly who the puppetmasters were through the whole of the game. Eldritch Errors even has a meta site, Schmeldritch, which the PMs update when the game is not "in session". Many studios let players know in one way or another who is behind the game. Everyone knew that 42 Entertainment was behind the promo ARG for The Dark Knight, for example. On the other hand, in the original Sammeeeees, no one knew who the PM was and they never found out until the end! Knowing the PM didn't diminish the quality of play for me.

Players knowing who you are is not a big deal; most player bases track down the PM early on in the game anyway, whether you want them to or not. You control the contact you have with players during the game, so if they're emailing you out of game you can handle that in any way you feel appropriate, answering or not, whatever you feel would be best. And... if players start stalking/harassing you, that's waaay out of bounds and you should make that clear, IF it happens. That's a rare phenomenon, so I hope you won't even need to address it.

In my opinion, the "curtain" is the contract you make with the players stating that you won't interfere with their play, that you will tell the story and let them experience the story in their own unique ways without forcing them to do one thing or another. It's not really about being a secret PM - it's about the trust you build, the give and take between you and your players, something that may even be enhanced by their knowing your name or at least your alias.

So, for my part, I say launch your game and make it the best game you can. It sounds like you have put a lot of thought into it, and I look forward to seeing what you're going to put out there!

P.S. - Spacebass is one of the point people for ARGFest Portland this weekend, so he probably won't be able to get back to you until after he's recovered from that event.

[tstrel]

Thank you both!

[FLmutant]

October did such a good job of burning the curtain!

Speaking from experience, you'll eventually come to treasure the creativity involved in the stalkers who reach through the ashes of the curtain. Sometimes they'll draw pentagrams outside your office, or leave you an empty ice cream container full of crickets.

More seriously, here's my advice on where I think the hard line needs to be. Imagine that someone in law enforcement or government has grown concerned about something your game is doing -- where is the obvious channel that leads them back to you so you? That's a minimum: here, we tackle that by not hiding domain name registrations (so there's also a technical contact, etc.) but that isn't the only (or even most obvious) solution. Whatever else the players might do with that you've got to learn to live with as a designer.

[Lovek]

[October]

Duuuude, I'd forgotten about those crickets, and the pentagram!!!!!

And speaking of authorities, FLMutant - didn't Eldritch Errors raise some flags in the DHS with their transliterated Arabic posts to Craigslist?

Fun times.

[pancito]

I think people tend to respect the illusion of the curtain to a certain extent (though obviously not always) and are more apt to pester you if you say 'I'm the PM,' then if you are found out. At least in my admittedly limited experience that's been true. Again, the bottom line is, "how much isolation do you need?" and work towards that. Err on the side of too much, because you can never make the curtain less transparent. I need to run another game.

[Caterpillar]

I think for me it comes down to "acknowledgement".... or rather lack thereof. There are no iron-clad ways of ensuring that players never find a thread/connection between you and your creation, however in my opinion it is a PMs responsibility to exercise self-control and not acknowledge it. Somehow [for me at least] the line remains at least a little fuzzy when just "speculating" on who's behind any given endeavor, but when it's acknowledged by said PM - it blows a little something for me.

I might be alone in this thought, but I don't care for Meta sites and the only ones I can reasonably accept are the ones that are completely untraceable... and/or that really look and feel like they've been created by an IGC [possibly based on a player] for a absolutely believeable purpose. In other words, a Meta site I didn't know was IG until the conclusion, or at least wasn't completely sure about. But that's just me