unforum

[odahilys]

 Complete Noob

[notgordian]

Long story short? How you go forward depends what you want out of the experience.

The first thing to do is to find an ongoing ARG that interests you. And if nothing tickles your fancy, feel free to wait a few weeks/months for something that does. If you're a fan of horror stories (a popular ARG genre) you're going to gravitate towards different games than a mystery fan (another popular genre). Similarly, if you don't like puzzles you might want to find a game that's more interaction-based. You can generally get a sense or the tone of a game in the first two or three pages of discussion or by looking at the first few in-game assets.

Some resources to help you learn about new games include Unfiction (here), the ARG Netcasts, ARGNet, Wonderweasels and Despoiler. There are also IRC channels for some of the larger games, and the people there can help you get caught up with games in progress. After you've been around for a while, you may find yourself waiting for games from certain producers.

So now you've chosen a game. There should be a call to action giving you something to do, and providing you a reason to do it. This is the stage where you'll be sharing information with the developers. Make sure you're only sharing as much as you feel comfortable with. This might involve carrying on a conversation with a character, trying to figure out the solution to a puzzle, or going out and doing something in the real world. It might even involve posting resources to organize and clarify the game's content to help new players.

The most important thing to remember is that your supposedly crazy ideas might be exactly what the game needs to go on to the next stage in cool and unexpected ways. Don't worry about people thinking your idea is stupid. Along those same lines, be nice if you disagree with someone.

[odahilys]

thanks notgordian, cleared up alot for me.