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[imbri]

#pmchat schedule (updated 2/25)

[Glecius]

My vote is for the PM team. It seems to be the root core for everything else. If one aspect of the team isnt what it needs to be, it can send the rest crashing down around it (at least that is my general thought in recent discussions)

I have no preference for time, as they all work for me fairly well.

Thanks for the quick set-up imbri

[zeldafan8626]

4 PM on Sunday works for me, as does Saturday.



My vote goes to

'The PM team: how to recruit, how to hold it together, what skills do you need, etc.'

or 'Keeping it all balanced: your life, the game, characters, the players'

But in the end they're all great topics and all worthwhile.

[imbri]

Someone suggested that we take the topics that I put up there and make it a weekly or bi-weekly series. I love the idea. Would this be something that people are interested in? Also, are their experienced PMs willing to check in that often? I think weekly would be better than bi-weekly, only because it's easy to forget if it's the on or off week.

So, if there's interest and we do this, the schedule would look something like this:

Sunday Feb 26
The PM team
how to recruit, how to hold it together, what skills do you need, etc.

Sunday Mar 5
Game & Story design
what's the difference and what do you need to consider for both

Sunday Mar 12
knowing your audience
writing for the unfiction crowd, looking elsewhere online, going local/private - the things to consider with these different audiences and how to meet their needs

Sunday Mar 19
Going live
what do you need to have done, what should you be prepared for, what happens when things go wrong

Sunday Mar 26
Keeping it all balanced
your life, the game, characters, the players

Sunday April 2
t's all falling apart! what do i do?!
how to recognize problems and deal with them and, if necessary, how to provide a satisfactory premature conclusion

Sunday April 9
End Game!
how to prepare for it, what you need to consider both in development and while you're live, how to tie up loose ends, how to give your players the bittersweet satisfaction of a great run



All times would be: 9pm London | 4pm New York| 1pm Los Angeles | 8am (next day) Sydney

[PatRol]

This is a great idea. Let's have a weekly chat about all the topics you listed on your schedule, imbri.

(9pm London time is 10pm German time which works fine with me, by the way.)

[sixsidedsquare]

That sounds like the best idea I've heard in awhile!
I look forward to it!

[taozero]

Awesome idea and awesome topics to discuss - I'll definitely try to be there for all.

[imbri]

Ok, based on this initial feedback, as well as other feedback recieved in chat, this weekly chat bit is a go. I'm going to edit the first post to reflect this.

(so, any little bits of conversation before this post might seem odd... sorry for any confusion!)

[Ciaran_H]

For what it's worth, I also think this is an awesome idea. I'll be there.

[ofiuco-nli]

Could you do something about puzzles, too? The dos and don'ts, tips and tricks, etc?

[imbri]

[imbri]

Thanks for the great chat today everyone. Hopefully we all learned something about PM Teams, their importance, how to recruit, how to stay motivated, and even a few resources to help with that communication. But don't let the discussion stop just because the chat is over! I've started a new thread to discuss the PM Team topic further - feel free to head over to it (here)and ask questions your forgot to ask, give advice you forgot to give, and share those opinions that we all know you have!

If you'd like to read the log, it's attached to this message.


Now, for next week....
I think it's a great topic, one of my favorites, actually. I can't wait to see where all we go with it. To help with the conversation and to keep things moving, it'd be great if you could do a bit of thinking over the week. You won't have to share what you come up with, but if you'd like to, that'd be great!

First: try to come up with 2 or 3 different audiences for an ARG. It could be your dream ARG, it could be an ARG that has already run, it could be an ARG that you would never like to see happen. Whatever, it doesn't matter.

Second: What are the key differences between those audiences. This could be skills or knowledge or, even, access to technology.

Third: Keeping in mind the answer to the second part, think about how you would attract each audience. What types of stories would they like? How would you present the game to them and how would you inspire them to play?

Thanks again for the chat today! Hope to see you next week!

[SirQuady]

So, is anyone going to say how the first one was? I missed it! (auuugh, i was watching Stargate Atlantis! (ok, it was worth it...i love Stargate Atlantis:)))


EDIT: Whoops, in the amount of time it took to write this, imbri posted stuff about the chat...yes, multitasking slows down your posting speed.

[imbri]

Wow, I want to thank everyone for the great chat today. The post chat discussion on agency was fantastic - thanks guyp for bringing it up!

Here's the full unedited chatlog from tonight. To read it broken up roughly by topic, check out the thread devoted to this week's chat. Feel free to continue the discussion in there, we really just hit on a couple of the basics about 'audience' and I'm sure that there's so much more that we could talk about.

Thanks again everyone and I look forward to next week!

[GuyP]

Just to say: these have been great so far, and well done to imbri for setting them up! Look forward to the next one.