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 Forum index » Meta » Puppetmaster Help
Some Questions Regarding PMing
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Rekidk
Entrenched


Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Posts: 992
Location: Indiana, USA

 		Some Questions Regarding PMing
Yes, Rather Newbish
I did some searches but couldn't find much on the following three subjects, which I'd like to have addressed by someone who knows what they're talking about.

1. How does a PM avoid gamejacks in a game? If they want to maintain a TINAG atmosphere, how do they avoid gamejacks, or eliminate them when they occur? Must one have a meta page linking all IG sites?

2. Pros/cons of using chats. A PM might want to use chats in a game, and for certain things they can have great dramatic effect (especially in group chats). However, when does chatting become too much? Is one-on-one chatting (a la AIM) always bad? Or should it be avoided at all costs?

3. If a PM would want to have a website (or multiple websites) for a game, (like a .com domain), what do they need to do? I understand one needs hosting and domain registration, but how do they use those, where does the money go, and... Well, basically, how does one make a .com site? This is more of a technical thing than the last two, but I need it answered regardless.

Thank you in advance. I know that there's been a lot of these question threads on the PM Guide lately, but I haven't found anything pertaining to these. Thanks! Smile
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:19 pm
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Phaedra
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 		Re: gamejacking...

I'm not sure there's a way to avoid it, but if the PM's design confirms all new characters/sites on existing characters or sites (i.e. a new character doesn't just email you out of the blue; there will be a reference to him/her on a site that's already known to be in-game), it's pretty easy for players themselves to figure out who's really in-game.
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:33 pm
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bwochinski
Decorated

Joined: 06 Oct 2003
Posts: 164
Location: Wisconsin

 		Re: Some Questions Regarding PMing
Yes, Rather Newbish
Rekidk wrote:
I did some searches but couldn't find much on the following three subjects, which I'd like to have addressed by someone who knows what they're talking about.

1. How does a PM avoid gamejacks in a game? If they want to maintain a TINAG atmosphere, how do they avoid gamejacks, or eliminate them when they occur? Must one have a meta page linking all IG sites?


What Phaedra said is a good idea to help the players in determining wether something is a gamejack attempt or not. But when a gamejack attempt happens, unless you want to break curtain to make sure the players don't get confused, you do have to rely on the players and their judgement. Most of the time players with some experience don't have too much trouble distinguishing your game from anything else thrown in the mix. Aside from design quality, style, and content, players can often use IP addresses and hostnames to determine where things are coming from as well.

Overall I'd rate my concern over gamejackings to be low to negligible.

Quote:
2. Pros/cons of using chats. A PM might want to use chats in a game, and for certain things they can have great dramatic effect (especially in group chats). However, when does chatting become too much? Is one-on-one chatting (a la AIM) always bad? Or should it be avoided at all costs?


I'd strongly recommend not using AIM, simply because of its one-on-one centric nature. You're most likely going to get an IM from each of your players who is online within a minute or two of signing on. Of course despite that issue I'm sure it could work fine for some games. Just a judgement call on the PM's part.

Chatting is a real-time interaction, so your improvisation and knowledge of the character have to be at their strongest. As for frequency, it always depends on the character's situation. Is it plausable that they would be logging on to chat at that time? Or is there something else they should be doing instead? Personally I'd err on the side of scarcity.

Quote:
3. If a PM would want to have a website (or multiple websites) for a game, (like a .com domain), what do they need to do? I understand one needs hosting and domain registration, but how do they use those, where does the money go, and... Well, basically, how does one make a .com site? This is more of a technical thing than the last two, but I need it answered regardless.


As you said, all you need is somewhere to host the site, and to register the domain name you want. The money for the hosting goes to pay for the storage space on the computer your site will be stored on and the bandwidth (amount of information transferred) the people visiting the site use. The money for the domain registration goes to pay for the central internet name server telling people what computer your website is hosted on.

Many webhosting providers will offer domain registration (sometimes for free) when you purchase a hosting package with them. In that case, the setup of the domain is automated, so you don't have to worry about setting the correct nameservers in the domain setup. If you have hosting somewhere other than where you register the domain, the hosting provider will supply you with their nameserver URLs and IP addressses, which you then need to enter in your domain name setup. Domain names can take anywhere from 1/2 hour to 24 hours (depending on your location in the world) to point to your host after setup or changing the settings.

Once your domain and hosting are set up, you'll have a username and password for your hosting space that you can usually use to log in to a control panel of some type to manage different aspects of your hosting space. You can also log in to the FTP service for your hosting space, which is where you will upload the files that make up your site to the hosting computer.
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 4:27 pm
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Rekidk
Entrenched


Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Posts: 992
Location: Indiana, USA

 		Thank you very much for answering those questions for me!

I have a few more questions that relate moreso to the story aspect of an ARG.

1. Is it okay to have a character betray another character--even if the players also feel betrayed by this character? I intend for this to be a part of the story that rallies the players and the main characters together against the opposing force. I feel that if the players feel betrayed as well, they will be drawn more emotionally into the game. Will it upset them? Will the impact of the frustration over the betrayal be lessened if the betray-er is a minor character that is new to the story?

2. If a PM were to have a phone-in voicemail event early on in the game, is it ethically okay to use the phone numbers collected in that event later in the game to call the players? Is it okay even if the call is a 'surprise'? Will this upset players? Add to the shock value? Also, would they be more or less upset (if they are upset at all) if the call was pre-recorded as opposed to live?

3. How much blog backlog is too much? Will players really want to sift through six months worth of weekly updates (and various comments by other characters) on a new blog? Is it more acceptable to have this much blog backlog if the information is primarily just to develop the character more (eg. only new posts have a direct bearing on the story)?

4. I know that many ARGers love the feeling of 'stumbling across' a rabbithole. With that in mind, I eliminated the ideas of doing an AIM or Email launch, simply because they are very 'in-your-face' and aren't very original. I also considered doing a mail launch (it fits perfectly into the storyline and would be a neat launch, IMO), but I don't want it to look like I'm just riding the Mailing Rabbithole Trend (MRT). Is it ok to do a mail launch?

Thank you very much for all your help! Smile
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 8:45 pm
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konamouse
Official uF Dietitian


Joined: 02 Dec 2002
Posts: 8010
Location: My own alternate reality
Rekidk wrote:
1. Is it okay to have a character betray another character--even if the players also feel betrayed by this character?


It often happens in a good story. It happened in Sammeeeees (although at the end, Trinket was not hated as much as pitied).


Quote:
2. If a PM were to have a phone-in voicemail event early on in the game, is it ethically okay to use the phone numbers collected in that event later in the game to call the players?


Oh, players love those surprise phone calls Laughing

Quote:
3. How much blog backlog is too much? Will players really want to sift through six months worth of weekly updates (and various comments by other characters) on a new blog?


In CTW2 Bruce's blog went back 3 years. Necessary information for the background of what had happened since the first CTW.


Quote:
4. I know that many ARGers love the feeling of 'stumbling across' a rabbithole. With that in mind, I eliminated the ideas of doing an AIM or Email launch, simply because they are very 'in-your-face' and aren't very original.


Thank you!

Quote:
I also considered doing a mail launch (it fits perfectly into the storyline and would be a neat launch, IMO), but I don't want it to look like I'm just riding the Mailing Rabbithole Trend (MRT). Is it ok to do a mail launch?


Players love swag. But you have to have a great reason for folks to be getting something in the mail. It's fun (speaking from experience).

Thank you very much for all your help! Smile[/quote]
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 11:38 pm
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Lovek
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Joined: 02 Mar 2005
Posts: 434
konamouse wrote:

Quote:
I also considered doing a mail launch (it fits perfectly into the storyline and would be a neat launch, IMO), but I don't want it to look like I'm just riding the Mailing Rabbithole Trend (MRT). Is it ok to do a mail launch?


Players love swag. But you have to have a great reason for folks to be getting something in the mail. It's fun (speaking from experience).

Thank you very much for all your help! Smile


I've always wondered where you'd get mailing addresses?

PostPosted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 2:10 pm
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konamouse
Official uF Dietitian


Joined: 02 Dec 2002
Posts: 8010
Location: My own alternate reality
Lovek wrote:
I've always wondered where you'd get mailing addresses?


Ah, the $64,000 question. Some get it from a signup website (Urban Hunt did this by advertising themselves as an online reality show......uh, no, not like Sabotage) or "contest entry" website (might be construed as false advertising, though). Some have previous ARG PMs as part of their team and they have contact information from previous games. I think there is a "Contact" thread here in uF where people have posted their private information because they want to be contacted for a new game.
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 4:58 pm
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ScarpeGrosse
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Joined: 30 Nov 2002
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 		You'll also notice that a number of people have websites. And websites have whois information that usually contains mailing addresses and emails (unless they're registered by proxy).
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 5:03 pm
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TylerK
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Joined: 24 Jan 2007
Posts: 33

 		Re: Some Questions Regarding PMing
Yes, Rather Newbish
Rekidk wrote:
3. If a PM would want to have a website (or multiple websites) for a game, (like a .com domain), what do they need to do? I understand one needs hosting and domain registration, but how do they use those, where does the money go, and... Well, basically, how does one make a .com site? This is more of a technical thing than the last two, but I need it answered regardless.


I bet there are plenty of people who would love to get involved in running an ARG and know all the ins and outs of teh interwebs. You might want to recruit a partner specifically to handle the technology issues.

PostPosted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 5:03 pm
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Nightmare Tony
Entrenched

Joined: 07 Jun 2004
Posts: 824
Location: Meadowbrook

 		Am going to give a thumbs up to Dave Szulborski's book THIS IS NOT A GAME. It igves a good overview on things. Very worth your time.

For domain hosting, I like Godaddy myself. You can get an anon proxy to hide the web ownership, and their tech service I love. Went through 3 years of different hosts, am sticking with Godaddy here.

For game character betrayal and such, every game has a new set of rules, written specifically by you. You will want to keep within TOS of course. No ingame characters posting on UF for any reason. To the ingame characters, UF does not exist. Consider it a safe haven for players. IU DOES allow ingame forums. Ask the mods there to help you set up a set.

But yup, get some reading all around on things.

Also, if you DO want to get phone numbers, you may want to let it be known that they are ingame use only, and voluntary to give.
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 03, 2007 12:49 pm
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