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Resources that don't exist but would be awesome

[Geppetto]

I wish there was a PM craigslist of sorts. By that, I've seen the PM recruitment forum, and I've seen several postings about "looking for PM for...", but they're scattered, and not always the same sorts of things.

What I'd like to see is a site where anyone wanting to PM could go and post their brief resume/description along with tags like "latin, cryptology, stenography, old norse, London England" etc. Thus, someone looking for a PM in London could then search either by region or for the key word "London".

Similarly, those looking for PMs could post their 'job openings', as it were, along with tags for what qualities they're looking for (for example, "experienced, stenography, mandarin chinese, photoshop", and so on).

It would be awesome.

[Rogi Ocnorb]

Something like:
http://www.argdb.com/search/

[thebruce]

An idea that JUST came to mind!
I haven't searched to see if a service like this exists (not really sure what to look for yet anyway)

An anonymous snail-mail drop point. Sort of like Drop.io, but for physical mail. By its nature, its contents wouldn't be publicly/freely accessible, but it would give a way for players to more easily have things mailed to them by PMs that don't have addresses or have to resort to address collecting.

Basically this:
A knows the email, or phone, or some method of contact for the person or people to whom they'd like mail sent. So they decide on a unique password or pickup code, associated with that contact info, and mail the package(s) to this remailer. Once arrived, the person can then go to the site, look up their drop code, verify their identity by email/phone/password/whatever, then submit their mailing address, and have the package delivered.

Notes:
* Privacy concerns. the service wouldn't share contact info with any other site, yadda yadda. Packages will remain unopened, and protected while in possession of the service.
* Packages would need to be claimed within some period of time (a month? two? three? a year? whatever period to avoid excessive pileup) or they're either returned to the sender, or disposed of.
* People could be required to verify their address (to avoid prank mailings and misdirected packages and whatnot) - before being able to claim any package. They create an account, supply their address, and will receive a confirmation letter/postcard/etc, which they either need to confirm with a code or just mail back or return to sender or something. When returned, their address would be confirmed, and they could then claim packages directed to them by contact info and password.
* Limits could be put on what the PM could remail through them... eg, no 10,000 bulk package remailing, no illegal cross-border mailings and the like, etc
* Postage would need to be prepaid... which might require additional billing if shipping is unknown. It would be necessary I think to avoid charging the recipient whenever possible, else why would they use it? If not, the PM would be dead-ended. It would be considered a service for the PM, not the player (aside from keeping their address private and still making it easier to receive mail).

By nature, the postage cost would be increased, simply because it's re-mailing. So it's a trade-off - increase potential mailing receipient reach, at the cost of an additional mailing step.

All the PM would need would be a recipient contact method and a password
All the player would need would be that agreed contact method/identification and the password (and perhaps a confirmed mailing address).

----
As a player, I'd receive for example, an in-game email with instructions saying I have a mailing to be delivered by (some date) at (website) under the code BLAHBLAH. Confirm your email as "this@email.address" and supply the password "mypassword" to have this package mailed to you. (or something of the like). Or if it's just the cell # the PM has, and communication is by mobile (some games do this), I could receive an in-game text with the above info, but the remailer would confirm the cell # instead of email.

Going to the site, I'd go to claim the package at (website.com/BLAHBLAH) - I need to enter my contact identity for verification with that drop - email or cell# - if valid for that package, I need to supply the password I was told, at which point I'd receive an email or txt I need to reply (or click a confirm link) to confirm who I am. When confirmed, I'd see the address I have on record there (as confirmed or not), and if confirmed, I can approve the package delivery to me.

As a PM, I'd go to the site, create a drop, link it to a contact method (email/cell) with a password, agree to any legal jargon, review the shipping parameteres and potential costs, supply a payment method, and define the payment parameters (see below), 'sender' identification (anonymous, alternate name, return address, etc) then mail my package(s) off to the service.


* Additional thought: for added security, a photo of the package could be taken as a service and included in the drop info so the person could decide if they want to receive it or not.

Now, the method for charging shipping to the deliverer would be fun to figure out... are they charged before or after? Do they receive a pre-determined bill for estimated shipping, or do they receive the bill after the recipient claims the package? If the site is to make money, would it charge for the 1st leg, before/after receiving the package (reducing the chance for people just to use the service as 'free storage') then charge again for the second leg when claimed? Would the deliverer be given potential shipping estimates based on weights/locations/customs/etc? Could the deliverer be given different delivery options like regular mail, fedex, etc? What if the deliverer doesn't know what country the recipient is located in? When would they be charged if the package can't be delivered? Would there be refunds? Deposits? Eskrow?
Are there legal implications for a service like this, and would those implications differ from state/province/country to state/province/country?

Lots of questions, but ideally, this would be an amazing delivery service, I think!

[Cog]

I know we've got the dead drop for PM's but we could do with one for players as well. So even if you aren't playing the game you can pick it up and post it for others.

[samhogy]

I'm currently designing an online tool which will basically act as an Alternate Reality Game engine. This is aimed at allowing PM's to quickly build ARGs.

I intend to have these main aspects of this system:
- Character management: Users can create a database of in-game characters, keeping detailed information regarding that character's traits, relationship with other characters and also any web services they use (eg email accounts, blogs, etc)

- Event management: Users can program the engine to do something at a particular time, or in response to something. So, you could pre-program a blog post to be made at a specific time, or you tell a website to become live at a specific point in time.

One of the things I have noticed about ARGs is that it involves the PM's constantly looking around their sites and community sites to check if a particular puzzle has been solved. My engine will constantly monitor and keep track of active puzzles, so that when they are solved the system will know. This will then allow PM's to program responses to puzzles being solved.

For example, if a puzzle was to recieve 100 hits to a specific website, the system will know when that is reached; and a blog post on another website about the 100 hits being reached could automatically be posted.

- Storyline management: From the event management aspect of my engine, the system will automatically generate either a timeline, or a flow chart, of your ARG's storyline. It will also state exactly WHERE in the storyline the game is currently at.

Does this sound like a useful tool to anyone? I'm currently developing this as part of my 3rd year uni project, so I'm working under time constraints.

[Mehetabel]

@samhogy: Certain aspects of what you're proposing sound extremely useful, but others are ... implausible, in some respects.

I like the character database idea, very much, especially if you can link it with the login APIs of some of the web services. Click on a character's Yahoo account, and have it open in another tab, and relog to that character's mail. Not sure what that would entail as an entirely web-based service, but Trillian can do it for the mail sites of most of the IM services it supports.

Event management is also kind of cool. I know with most blogging software, that it's possible to set posts to publish at certain times and dates, but having something that would execute an ftp command or send an email would be slightly awesome.

Storyline management is also a neat feature, letting PMs add events and stuff that they're not using, yet, but mean to get to. Helps you keep all your shit in one place, so you don't lose parts.

So, now onto the stuff that appears inviable:

Puzzle tracking is limitedly useful, especially considering the amount of extra coding involved to even track a simple thing like entering the correct password into a page. There are a lot of types of puzzles that cannot be automatically tracked, and on the whole, the ones that can are not worth the effort spent. It's actually easier to check most of those by hand.

Your storyline management idea suffers from a similar problem. It cannot automatically tell you where in the story you are. You'll have to tell it which puzzles have been solved, for it to make that call.

But, man, count me in for character and event management. That's useful.

[imbri]

[Nighthawk]

I've actually done a lot of what you describe for myself, but it's hardly in a condition to be usable by the public.

I can automatically time updates and email distributions, lock or unlock certain parts of a website based on internal or external events, get emailed when certain things are done on the site (I get emailed on every password attempt, every "contact us", etc...), tag certain actions to specific users using cookies, etc...

As far as management of it all, we use third party resources to use that, such as Comindwork or even Google services.

[Rogi Ocnorb]

"Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial 'we.'"

Mark Twain

[pancito]

We.
First person plural. (You and me, my wife and I).
Royal. (The royal head IS the country).
Medical. (How are we feeling today?)
Editorial. (The voice of the company).

I (the programmer) did this stuff. We (the company, DLI) use these services.
Or so I took it. And wasn't Twain railing against the medical use?

[samhogy]

[samhogy]

Actually I must add - one of the 'risks' associated with developing this project is that it is not useful to PuppetMasters as a tool. Like you said, some may prefer tracking certain puzzles by hand.

Of course during my user studies I will find out if this is the case.

[Rogi Ocnorb]

Is that a mouse in your pocket?

[Nighthawk]

Look, the other voices in my head don't like y'all talking like they don't exist. Make them upset and... bad things... happen. OK?