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[ARG General] The Future of Alternate Reality Gaming
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Incitatus
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 		[ARG General] The Future of Alternate Reality Gaming
Originally posted by SuperJerms:
Not to thread-jack, but I do have a fear there. How to put this...I have some similar feelings about a certain recent project (let's call it "far hall-in-me") that somewhat mirror my (and some others') feelings about a certain other past project that occurred (let's just call it "jenny's manga").

Not to revive an old discussion, I kinda have a worry with the future of ARG's. Bare with me, I will relate it as a parable:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
Once upon a time, there was a man named Ford who invented something totally new that he called it the car. A small group of early adapters really saw the potential in the car, and started making their own cars. Different developers made different cars, and some cars were superior to others (many feel that Ford still made the best of cars), but the invention was really blossoming. Now, cars drew different reactions from different people--some decried them as sham, others were scared of what evil they might be used for--but most who rode in a car loved the experience and wanted to go joyriding as much as possible.

Several years later, Ford made a car which made the nightly news because of its wild success in a certain race. Suddenly, early adapters were not the only ones seeing the potential of cars for transportation. Obviously, Ford's life would become easier, but a problem popped up. Instead of studying the existing cars to learn what works well and what doesn't, some people decided to make their own cars. After all, they thought, why pay all that money to hire Ford or to learn how a car works? We have wheels, we have metal, we have glass...let's do this ourselves! How hard could it be?

But cars were no simple invention. Some built things that looked exactly like cars, but were missing parts that were less visible to the casual observer...one car was missing an engine, another had no gearshift. A couple of folks took the time to study cars but they didn't have the know-how--their engines ended up exploding, their cars burnt to the ground.

Before you chuckle, remember this. The car is a good thing, and should probably become popular. What happens if a horse-and-buggy company makes a half-working car and sells it to thousands of people? Many could see the product as a true car and decide the invention is pure hype...and cars would become a fad. Or worse, Ford and the others who make quality vehicles might get run out of business by companies making car in-house or by those who can make monstrosities with no engine.


I have missed some great "cars" already, and I got to drive in a vehicle that showed me what a "car" can be. I have also had the misfortune spending quite a bit of time on a "car" that died in the middle of nowhere and just sorta sputters every three months now (I'll call that one "fable and luck").

Look, lots and lots of game developers are starting to and continuing to look at ARGs. If some (let's just be diplomatic and call them) creatively distinguished games are viewed as foundational...eek.

Thoughts?

Assuming you can read through my code... I'm like The Riddler over here!


Responded and redirrected by myself:


I agree.
It is a constant worry of mine that the cars we drive will go rampant and start to ruthlessly kill us all...

Oh wait, your were speaking metaphorically!!! Twisted Evil

Seriously, I share your concerns. But I might also add that as great as some fabrications have been thus far, there is still one major hurdel to clear.

The entire genre seems to be defined by promotional and advertizing means.
The genre itself must be broken from this association. The idea behind the "car" is itself ingenious. Vastly addicting and entertaining. But Many people just brush them off as advertizements (which to be fair, most have been) and don't pay them a second gander. What we need is a great "car" to hit the line that is free of this association. Something that's not just innovative and new, but standalone. Even if it requires a minimal monetary investment by the players. I just feel it needs to expand and become firmly defined as a Gaming genre and not just a promotional tool.
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PostPosted: Sun May 15, 2005 11:32 pm
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QBKooky
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 		Well.... interesting. I guess the car analogy is... okay. Razz

Although, as a personal preference, I wish you could've just said what you mean. If you'll allow me to be frank, such thinly veiled name-changes don't stop you from offending anyone; they just sound juvenile. However, if you were only trying to be humorous, then ignore this comment: a thousand apologies.

But more to the point. I don't think it is worth worrying that less-experienced, less-refined entries into the genre will ruin the public's opinions of the genre (or car, if you prefer). The field of ARGing is new and exciting, and I think novice gamemakers should be encouraged, not poo-pooed for making crappy games that will be "viewed as foundational."

Inexperienced gamemakers will make bad games. This is a fact of life. The same is true of inexperienced artists, writers, performers. Of course, none of the other categories have the opportunity for such instant gratification, instant attention.

If anything, I think the issue lies in the way players approach new games. If you want a truly amazing game experience (the Beast, ILB, PPC come to mind), make the game prove to you that it is great. If you are satisfied with a mediocre grass-roots effort, so be it.

As a former PuppetMaster of one of the aforementioned novice, inexperienced, explosive and abortive games, I think that it was one of the most important experiences of my ARG experience, and it has helped me learn how to make the better game.

And I, for one, am all in favor of the better game. Smile

Just my $0.02.
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PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2005 12:17 am
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spaceboy
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 		Wait, shouldn't this be in Meta?
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PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2005 12:33 am
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Phaedra
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 		Mods: Shouldn't this be in the META forum?

QBKooky wrote:
Although, as a personal preference, I wish you could've just said what you mean. If you'll allow me to be frank, such thinly veiled name-changes don't stop you from offending anyone; they just sound juvenile.


That, I feel, was completely unnecessary.

Obviously it was an attempt at humor. You think he'd make the name rhyme if he weren't trying to be funny?

Which game were you PM'ing?

I'm all for novice PMs getting practice on a smaller scale, and while I feel that people should be allowed to make mistakes as well, I'm also all for a free market economy. Not every grassroots game is Metacortechs or [insert name of favorite professional-calibre game here].

ARGs are a massive time-suck (and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. Smile ). The sucky ones don't deserve to have people waste massive portions of their day on them. If I'm going to commit the time, I want my investment to be rewarded.

Now, granted I can opt out at any time -- no one's forcing me to play. And having had a good experience to set as a gold standard, and also having read about some of the games I missed, I have some idea of how to judge whether or not I want to play a game. But on the other hand, I wonder what my relationship to the genre would be if I had not started with ILB. Had I started with one of the games that crashed and burned, I don't think I would have stuck around.

And that's what I worry about.

I'm not saying I see a solution. I'm not saying we should develop some sort of quality rating system (G-d forbid -- the subjectivity would be totally unfair).

But I do worry about the hypothetical newbie. Let's call him Bob.

Bob has read about Perplex City and ILB (I'm not trying to diss Art of the Heist here -- it's just that I don't think I've seen as much press on it) and wants to play an ARG. So Bob comes here, and looks at the active games...and picks something poorly designed and -- worse -- boring. And it melts down midway through.

If I were Bob, there's a strong possibility I wouldn't try again.

When your first ARG is a magical experience, you are willing to try again, and take the failures with the successes.

Also, when you hang around here and watch various games, you learn to tell what you like and don't and avoid games that look like they're not to your taste.

But for the average newbie coming in here, they probably have no clue how to distinguish or categorize different games.

Hopefully, they'll ask. If they do, older players can recommend good games. But a lot of people are shy when they don't know what's going on.

Is this a massive problem threatening the future of the ARG genre?

Nah.

But the more the merrier, yes? I think it's in the best interests of the genre and the community if newcomers have a good experience.

Quote:
As a former PuppetMaster of one of the aforementioned novice, inexperienced, explosive and abortive games, I think that it was one of the most important experiences of my ARG experience, and it has helped me learn how to make the better game.


But what did it do for the players?
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PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2005 12:43 am
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SuperJerms
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QBKooky wrote:
as a personal preference, I wish you could've just said what you mean. If you'll allow me to be frank, such thinly veiled name-changes don't stop you from offending anyone; they just sound juvenile. However, if you were only trying to be humorous, then ignore this comment: a thousand apologies.


Apology accepted, no worries. Humor diffuses potentially antagonistic statements, and you'll find I'm really not a very snarky person with strangers.

I do want to clarify my point in one way...I'm not saying that grassroots ARG's are a bad thing, even including ones that self-destruct. Unless you were PM'ing LX, S+S, or OC, I was not referring to you. Really, I'm not even referring to Lenny so much as the discussion that happened around the time LX was running (and I would be glad to clarify on that point more if you want...the PM's of LX should not take any offense at my point).

I did say what I mean, though. I am a long-winded fella, and I think the metaphor addresses multiple points of the issue. Also, I do not want to come across as elitest to those who are playing OC and S+S, so there was good reason not to put those actual keywords in the games.


See, the thing about a grassroots ARG is that you go into it knowing it's a buyer-beware situation. Really, if you don't know that someone with at least moderate experience is behind a grassroots effort, better-than-even money says it might not end as intended. You said yourself that your particular experience was very instructional. Though it's not impossible to make a grassroots game from scratch, Phaedra's response is an accurate issue. Like her, I agree that this problem exists but is not a deal-breaker for the genre. Still, I was shooting at a slightly different angle.

Ask anyone who has played Sable and Shuck how the pace is. Paint dries faster. Note that this was not a grassroots effort, the PM's were the marketing department for Stella Artois. But I think everyone will agree that someone has lost interest in PM'ing over there. We went from daily updates to four-month spans of radio silence at a time and from good puzzles to totally random, obscure or nonsensical ones.

It doesn't take too much thought to realize what has happened. Stella got into this latest marketing fad and found out exactly what other inexperienced PM's do...it's a tough, time-consuming thing. And there's the danger, folks.

Back to my metaphor. Hobbists can build all the cars they want. Some will burn to the ground, others will run really well. Those who build engineless cars will learn from it and probably come back with much better sophomore efforts. It's no esoteric knowledge that the Beast had some very much learning experiences for Sean, Elan and Jordan. Hell, SPDR put axons in the ocean! Even ARGs that implode teach us things. Obviously, PPC has been taking notes on revenue models that failed in the past...and look at the innovation there! Certainly, everyone will be watching to see what happens with Mind Candy's puzzle cards.

Phaedra wrote:
When your first ARG is a magical experience, you are willing to try again, and take the failures with the successes.

Also, when you hang around here and watch various games, you learn to tell what you like and don't and avoid games that look like they're not to your taste.

But for the average newbie coming in here, they probably have no clue how to distinguish or categorize different games.

Hopefully, they'll ask. If they do, older players can recommend good games. But a lot of people are shy when they don't know what's going on.

Is this a massive problem threatening the future of the ARG genre?

Nah.

But the more the merrier, yes? I think it's in the best interests of the genre and the community if newcomers have a good experience.


And, from what I've seen, many folks who end up following the ARGs that don't quite make it stull leave hungry for more. Great example is that interest folks have after playing OC. OC had no story whatsoever, and very limited immersion. It basically had puzzles and payoff. Still, folks are psyched about playing more ARGs. I personally only played the game for a week before I was too frustrated to continue, but I know of at least twenty people who weren't deterred.


My major concern is that a big player will come along and make a very popular, very poorly done ARG. With enough hype, said ARG could become defining of the genre. That could be disastrous.

Incitatus wrote:
The entire genre seems to be defined by promotional and advertizing means.
The genre itself must be broken from this association....to expand and become firmly defined as a Gaming genre and not just a promotional tool.


ARG's are seen as viral marketing. Now, that's not a totally bad thing...movies, radio, television and modern periodicals were all seen as advertising when they started, too. They could grow beyond that financial paradigm (though it's noteworthy that TV and print are hardly more than advertisements even today, so maybe ARGs won't move past that).


My beef is with corporate ARG quality. Corporate ARG's can't really afford to end up as flops if the current ARG-as-marketing is to continue. A flop might turn off potential players (by the mass player disenchantment I already mentioned) or might convince benefactors that the "fad" has passed (if a badly done one doesn't attract players).

Food for thought: Microsoft funded The Beast, ILB, and OC. The first two were done by 42ent, so why not the third? I won't speculate as to why not, but we do know that the third was successful. What if this led to a notion that 42ent was no longer necessary?

We know already that there is a draw to make ARGs without first considering how much planning and effort is needed. That's not a big deal when we're talking grassroots, but it is a big deal if corporate backers decide to strike out on their own...we would end up with a lot of aborted or underdeveloped projects and quite a potential setback for our hobby.
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PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2005 3:16 am
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PokeKiller
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SuperJerms wrote:
Food for thought: Microsoft funded The Beast, ILB, and OC. The first two were done by 42ent, so why not the third? I won't speculate as to why not, but we do know that the third was successful. What if this led to a notion that 42ent was no longer necessary?

Erm. Okay. This is a little off topic, but... I hate Our Colony about as much as the rest of you guys. But there's one thing I don't get.
WHY the hell are you guys calling it an ARG?

The forum here was called "GAME: Our Colony", and for good reason. It was nothing like an ARG at all. Even the site admits this -- Just look at the title: "Gamem8ker and Our Colony: Not An Alternate Reality Game." The only ARGish elements turned out to be a troll, leaving us with: a trivia game. But people still played. You know why? Because they just got left here after ILB. And when they heard Microsoft was behind OC, they all flocked to the forum and turned it into ILB's horrible lack of coordination all over again. This is, incidentally, when I left.

I'd say they didn't have 4orty 2wo work on this because they didn't set out to make an ARG. They did set out to make a trivia game, and they were obviously planning on using the popularity of ILB to help it go, despite its poorly planned design and horribly coded website. Why else would they send an email to us?

The only problem is, a lot of newbs were playing Our Colony and constantly heard it referred to as an ARG, probably by everyone who still missed Melissa and wanted desperately for this to be ILB2. Toward the end of the game, I was looking through the forum, and was horrified to see posts like "I enjoyed this, and I'm sure to play other ARGs." They have no clue what they're getting themselves into!

Then again, I guess they could always adapt. As I keep saying, my first ARG was Channel 51 (Remember that one? ... No? The Metroid one? ... Still don't? Huh.). That was, um... An experience. Heh. Hanging out on IRC with all the Metroid fans the community had to offer. I think I'm still scarred. It was a very poorly done ARG, too. It seemed thrown together really fast, in response to ILB. The only real form of interaction turned out to be a troll, and the game barely had an ending. But, I went on to play other ARGs anyway, and I think it maybe made my next ARG seem that much more fun by comparison (Not saying this is a good thing -- just saying. Wink ).

So, I guess what I'm saying is... Okay, I'm not exactly sure what I'm saying. Take from this post what you will. I'm gonna go take a shower.
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PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2005 7:52 am
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rowan
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PokeKiller wrote:
WHY the hell are you guys calling it an ARG?

I think it's because the Press keeps calling it an ARG. Of course, the Press keeps reporting its a 42 production as well - which just goes to show how inaccurate newspaper and magazine articles can be. From what I've gathered in and around chat and such - most people who consider themselves to be ARGers do not place Our Colony as an ARG, but as a game. But when the press reports it as such, and newbies come over because of that press, they have no way of know that some of the info that they've read is totally in error. How could they?

But of course, you could be asking why it keeps getting brought up in this meta thread. Lumping OC into this convo doesn't make it an ARG. It just makes stuff less confusing then saying "that GAME that people keep calling an ARG" or what-have-you. I can pretty much guarantee you that the people who read the META threads are going to be the ones that know exactly what OC is. An occassional newbie might stray in - but I figure if they can get into heavy META talks, they might also have a good grasp as to what an ARG really is (despite the lack of rules for one) and can understand that OC isn't one.

Think of it like someone talking about their cars and motorcycles but always uses a general term of "vehicles". I know it's not perfect - but it's only because the term ARG seems more specific to us rather than a general term - and with the way the genre is growing, I wonder if perhaps that should be changed.

But that's a META post for another day.
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PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2005 9:04 am
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setters393
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 		Newbie here
I still consider myself to be new to args - I started with sable & shuck and loved it, until now for all the reasons that have already been said.

BUT it hasn't put me off!

What does put me off is trying to keep up what going on in the forums especially with PPC!! I saw the firebox ad waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay-bacl last year and was 'in at the start' but I just don't have the time to commit to reading the forums.

At the moment I'm playing Rookery Tower, Unholy & keeping an eye on S&S and Angels and Daemons.

I hope the future for args is orange....whoops, I meant bright! Laughing

All I need to know now is how to IRC (?) as being a noob means I've missed this!


.

PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2005 10:15 am
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QBKooky
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Phaedra wrote:
That, I feel, was completely unnecessary.

Obviously it was an attempt at humor. You think he'd make the name rhyme if he weren't trying to be funny?
In retrospect, I agree. I'm sorry, Incitatus - final exams and job applications left me in a (for lack of a better word) snarky mood when I came across your post, and I'm sorry I took it out on unfiction and on you.


Phaedra wrote:
I'm not saying I see a solution. [snip] But I do worry about the hypothetical newbie.
I agree. I think there are some player-loss issues with hypothetical newbies. However, I also think it's possible that, as time passes, it is inevitable that games on a whole will improve in quality. Yes, you will always have the novice, learning-PM, but I think this won't be the majority of cases.


Phaedra wrote:
When your first ARG is a magical experience, you are willing to try again, and take the failures with the successes.
This is true. However, I suggest an alternate situation. I personally got hooked on the genre, not by playing a game, but by reading about one. I cannot count how long I have spent poring over the guide for the Beast, even though I came on too late to play. If anything, perhaps, this is a good argument for extensive documentation of Really Good Games. Razz


Phaedra wrote:
QBKooky wrote:
As a former PuppetMaster of one of the aforementioned novice, inexperienced, explosive and abortive games, I think that it was one of the most important experiences of my ARG experience, and it has helped me learn how to make the better game.


But what did it do for the players?
Well... I suppose it made me a better player (smarter, less naive, maybe a teensy bit more jaded) and hopefully a better PM, of course that remains to be seen. Really... not much I suppose. I think what I was trying to say was more about the importance of grassroots efforts for novice PMs, but it seems this might not have been the issue at hand... so nevermind.

So what I mean to say is sorry I was crabby last night. I usually think of myself as a lurker in the more hypothetical, meta-type discussion, but something about your post irked me, Incitatus (and your username is amusing to me now, considering that fact). I'm sorry. However, I do think that, although there is a danger in new players being turned off by explosive (in the bad way) or poorly-made ARGs, I don't know if it's worth the energy of worrying about the genre as a whole suffering. I think players (and PMs) are along for the ride, and we'll all get better as we go.
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PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2005 11:10 am
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Phaedra
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QBKooky wrote:
Phaedra wrote:
QBKooky wrote:
As a former PuppetMaster of one of the aforementioned novice, inexperienced, explosive and abortive games, I think that it was one of the most important experiences of my ARG experience, and it has helped me learn how to make the better game.


But what did it do for the players?
Well... I suppose it made me a better player (smarter, less naive, maybe a teensy bit more jaded) and hopefully a better PM, of course that remains to be seen. Really... not much I suppose. I think what I was trying to say was more about the importance of grassroots efforts for novice PMs, but it seems this might not have been the issue at hand... so nevermind.


And yet, I note, you avoided the question. Smile

Which game?
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PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2005 12:29 pm
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Phaedra
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rowan72 wrote:
PokeKiller wrote:
WHY the hell are you guys calling it an ARG?

I think it's because the Press keeps calling it an ARG. Of course, the Press keeps reporting its a 42 production as well - which just goes to show how inaccurate newspaper and magazine articles can be.


<sigh>

Yeah. The press drives me nuts. In general. They NEVER quote what you actually SAID. Normally that's annoying rather than seriously misleading, but with something as complicated as ARGs...

Quote:
From what I've gathered in and around chat and such - most people who consider themselves to be ARGers do not place Our Colony as an ARG, but as a game. But when the press reports it as such, and newbies come over because of that press, they have no way of know that some of the info that they've read is totally in error. How could they?


Well, and from what I gathered, browsing the OC forum, a lot of the players are people who are really sorry they missed out on ILB and want in this time around.

Except, it's not "this time around": it's neither ILB2 nor an ARG but they don't know enough to distinguish.

Quote:
But of course, you could be asking why it keeps getting brought up in this meta thread. Lumping OC into this convo doesn't make it an ARG. It just makes stuff less confusing then saying "that GAME that people keep calling an ARG" or what-have-you. I can pretty much guarantee you that the people who read the META threads are going to be the ones that know exactly what OC is. An occassional newbie might stray in - but I figure if they can get into heavy META talks, they might also have a good grasp as to what an ARG really is (despite the lack of rules for one) and can understand that OC isn't one.


Well, and using OC as a comparison point helps us to define the outer borders of what is and isn't an ARG.
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PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2005 12:34 pm
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spaceboy
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 		Well, I may as well throw my opinion in here. I think that if someone, after reading about the success of ILB, comes in here looking for a similar experience but instead plays a game that crashes horribly halfway through, it's extremely unlikely that they'll stay around. I've seen it happen a few times.
I was lucky enough to find Urban Hunt when I got tired of ILB. The experiences that I had playing that game got me hooked and made me want to stay. Since that time, I've participated in five games, three of which have crashed. But, I'm still here. Looking for the next game that will give me the same feeling that I got during Urban Hunt (right now, that seems to be AWARE 2).
I believe that we as a community need to seek out the newbies and guide them to the games that will give them the best experience possible. I'm not saying that they shouldn't try to play some of the grassroots efforts, but if we really want the community to expand, we must have them play something that will capture their imaginations and compel them to seek further enjoyment. It's either this, or some kind of "quality control" system is set up, and I don't think that anybody wants that around.
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PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2005 12:44 pm
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Phaedra
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spaceboy wrote:
It's either this, or some kind of "quality control" system is set up, and I don't think that anybody wants that around.


I really, really don't think we want that. I mean, PM'ing your first game is probably scary enough without worrying that someone's going to slap a "one and a half stars" rating on it before it even really gets going.

However, what you said before this may contain the seeds of an answer to several issues regarding newbies that have been raised lately:

spaceboy wrote:
I believe that we as a community need to seek out the newbies and guide them to the games that will give them the best experience possible. I'm not saying that they shouldn't try to play some of the grassroots efforts, but if we really want the community to expand, we must have them play something that will capture their imaginations and compel them to seek further enjoyment.


Recently it was suggested by a reporter that the ARG community was not doing very well in welcoming and integrating newbies. I think that the critique sprung more from the way he approached the community than the reality of What Life Is Like On Unfiction, but there is some truth to the fact that a lot of people, when faced with a new and confusing millieu, are afraid to ask. So let's invite them, personally, to ask questions.

Every day, I notice, at the bottom of the forums page, the name of the most recent person to register. What if we had sort of a welcoming committee?

What I'm envisioning is this:

When you register, you would get a PM saying, essentially:

Welcome message wrote:


Hi and welcome to Unfiction!

We're excited that you've decided to join us, and we want to help you get acclimated with as little stress as possible, because we know ARGs can be confusing and even a little intimidating to newcomers.

Please don't be afraid to ask if you have questions. We won't bite, we promise. Not every game currently running is to everyone's taste, so if you tell us what brought you to Unfiction, we may be able to recommend games that you're likely to enjoy.

If you have a question that you don't want to post to the forum, please private-message one of the following people:

[list of volunteers]

Anyone listed above would be happy to answer your questions.

Again, welcome and best wishes for your first ARG!


The other thing that might help is to have a generalized "Newcomers" forum, where newbies could ask general questions and get advice about the nature (and any caveats) about the currently-running games.

Maybe with a sticky with the same basic message in the PM, and perhaps a list of the currently running games and what we know about their 1) size; 2) who's behind them (i.e. is it corporate or grassroots); 3) whatever information we have (if any) on how long it's expected to run; and so on?

I dunno...thoughts?
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PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2005 1:51 pm
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Omnie
Entrenched


Joined: 07 Oct 2003
Posts: 772

 		Ooh, I love the idea of a newbie forum. The big games have a questions subforum, but players who start out in smaller games don't get that. Every once in a while a brave newbie posts a "help me, I'm lost" thread somewhere in the general discussion areas...maybe we should give them a place to legitimately do that. I bet a lot of non-newbie people would hang around there, too, seeing as how we tend to get excited about welcoming and guiding people into the genre.

I just realized we have a "player tutorial" forum. Maybe we could rework that?

Incitatus wrote:
The entire genre seems to be defined by promotional and advertizing means. The genre itself must be broken from this association.

That's really interesting. I've never thought of it in quite that way before. At the moment, ARGs are associated with advertising because that's the only reason for big companies to get behind it. Grassroots games are our attempt at making ARGs purely for their own sake, and they can be limited and not quite up to standards, although they don't have to be. There have been some amazing grassroots games. However, there's no particular drive to make a really awesome grassroots game; there's no harm if you just try it and it doesn't work out. The great ones come from smart people who are willing to put a huge amount of effort into going above mediocre, but that takes dedication. Maybe it's because I just took my economics final, but - maybe the genre would benefit from giving PMs some incentive to go that extra mile. I didn't like the idea of charging for ARGs because, well, it's nice when stuff is free and you have the freedom to join any ARG whenever you feel like it. Would the genre benefit from having big companies make ARGs for the sake of profit? I don't know, I'm all conflicted now.

PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2005 3:16 pm
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krystyn
I Never Tire of My Own Voice


Joined: 26 Sep 2002
Posts: 3651
Location: Is not Chicago

 		I really don't think anyone should worry about Bob liking or not liking an ARG. It's his prerogative to spend his time as he chooses, and if he's going to dismiss an entire gaming arena because of one game, that is, apparently, his loss.

It is not up to me, as a Puppetmaster or a Moderator or a Player to babysit Bob's personal growth in the ARG world.

There are always more audiences to explore, and there will always be innovations to experience.

There will be amazing games, especially if I have anything to say about it --

/me interrupts herself to pull imbri and Steve and Ozy and Wolf and Space and Clay and imonk into the frame for a quick (sexy) pose, before running away.

-- there were many people who were worried about there being any more good games after the Beast, see.

And there have been.

This post was wordier than I wanted it to be. Basically, good stuff is out there, will be out there in the future, and now, historically, it's been proven that there's been a lot of good stuff.

I'm not worried about Bob. Due to our over-population problem, we are blessed with infinite audiences to draw from, sho nuff.

PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2005 3:37 pm
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