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[ItWasntMeISwear]

[META] Contact Information - How Far Is To Far?

[FLmutant]

Re: [META] Contact Information - How Far Is To Far?

[ItWasntMeISwear]

So, basically, even though you belong to a specific community, and the information that is sent involves that community, it's still "bad form"? Unless you get the okay from the person (like having them, "in-game", sign up for a newsletter by mail or a brochure). I understand completely.

The reason I ask is the following: As a very new PM I find it hard to come up with ways to launch a game other then the usual A/IM someone, have someone post that they received an e-mail or spend a couple of bucks on a Google ad and hope someone does a search for "ARG" and finds it.

*Yes, I understand that that's part of the challenge*

With more and more games launching, more and more ideas being thought up and used up, the word "unique" is slowly becoming "normal", from a grassroots/no money perspective. (ARGN - "we received a tip today that..." boring)

And then you come up with an idea that is interesting and new and would be fun for the players because it would involve them actually having to find the launch rather then be given it (like with "The Beast" but with a lot smaller budget)... but how to tell them and have it be new at the same time? Do you not tell them and hope that they find what you have spent so much time on?

How do you let them know that something is going on without atleast letting them in on it by making some sort of announcement to the world, as it were, without breaking the "realism" barrier ("look for our game, "Section 32", coming this summer".)? [/rant and frustration]

The longer I search, the harder the search becomes. I will say this, however: I have the easy job of trying to figure out a unique launch idea... it's the ones that come after me that will be pulling the hair from out of their head.

Always look on the bright side, that's what I say.

Thanks for the input and any further input that may follow.

EDIT: New question, same topic. Does using your own mailing list fall under the same catagory? What I mean is, using a list of addresses that you have received from previous games? It probably does, but I thought that I'd ask anyway.

[catherwood-offline]

You have to ask yourself how the characters in your game would ever have found my mailing address or other contact info. Are your characters reading the membership profiles on Unfiction? Did they see my name in a local newspaper? If I receive a message from a random stranger, especially one asking for *my* help, it completely ruins my suspension of disbelief. How did they choose me to contact, *why* did they choose me to contact, and how did they find that particular bit of contact info which I associate with another context?

(personal opinion, personal taste, personal preferences, other people seem to like being drawn into a story that way.)

[FLmutant]

Wouldn't be a bad idea to buy an ad on a site like ARGN ... $10 for a whole week, I imagine you'd reach a number of ARGers

PS, Steve, you can send my cut to the normal place. Woot! Another $0.10 potentially incoming!

[Atrophied]

And then there's always the Interaction Thread where people have listed their emails, phone #s, addresses specifically to recieve trailheads.

[vpisteve]

[rowan]

Hey, if anyone wants to advertise on wonderweasels, I'll take your money I still get the occasional visitor looking at the guides I have there.

I'd also suggest the SPC, but as someone still hasn't put anything on that site, I'm not exactly sure it would be money well spent (or maybe it would cuz it would be the only thing to see)

[konamouse]

Look at other registration info gathering techniques- something that gets a prospective player to the website and then encourages them to provide contact information:

Sign up for the Name the Rock contest for Orbital Colony (granted, we know it's an ARG and the thin curtain since we know it's a training ground for PMs, but it's a great way to get email & other contact info).

Postcards in the snail mail (expensive) to a few select well-known ARG diehards (i.e. LCP) or unusual items (i.e. ILB).

Advertising a casting call for a new Reality TV Show (i.e. Urban Hunt).

Billboards in Times Square (i.e. AotH; okay, probably way too expensive, like TV commercials for Sacred Urns).

Unusual photos on a flickr account with key tags - then wait for them to be discovered in a search (could take some time, but once it's found, the rabbit hole can suck in the community very quickly).

Advertising on Google (I think Urban Hunt did that also).

Blatent advertising - "Hey, I'm going to have a game, here is the website if you are interested" (i.e. Chasing the Wish, and the upcoming Catching the Wish).

Love brainstorming instead of working.

[FLmutant]

[rose-nli]

launch

[Phaedra]

Re: launch

[krystyn]

Someone e-mailed the tip address, I believe.

Also, I may or may not have had a voicemail on my phone from an old man doing some heavy breathing ...

[ItWasntMeISwear]

Thanks everyone, really.

But what a lot of you have done is exactly what I thought you would do... name things that have already been done before. And this is where my problem lies.

But I think I've come up with something that just might work.

Thanks again for your words of wisdom.

P.S. If you did not name something that someone has already done, then that comment about how you did doesn't apply to you, as it were.

[imbri]