unforum

[mokoto]

 Hello Everyone...Can someone help me out

[Rogi Ocnorb]

Look here and access the first link by imbri.
Lots of good lovin' in that.

EDIT: Just noticed that the link I gave is 404-ing.
I PM'd imbri about it.

EDIT2: The correct link for the page is;
http://www.giantmice.com/arg-quickstart/ (Just drop the ".html")

[October]

Welcome! Here you go, for a start:
http://www.mirlandano.com/arg-quickstart.html

Visit the parent site of these forums: http://www.unfiction.com for some more info and various articles. A google search of Alternate Reality Games will turn up a wealth of information, as well.

EDIT: Aaaand, Rogi Ocnorb beat me to the punch, but yeah - what he said!

[mokoto]

thank you October ^_^...now I have a better understanding of how things work...I noticed you have the word veteran abovce your avatar...have you been to the "I am trying to believe" website? If so what so you think the objective of the game is?
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On the other hand I could be looking at this from an entirely wrong perspective. Im very used to playing linear RPGS....they have an established beginning and an established end...ARGs dont "seem" to work that way.

I find myself looking for an objective to fullfill when there might not be one at all...is the key to "playing" these games simply finding out as much information about the game in question as possible?

Also it seems as the only game that really caught my eye (Year Zero) has been being played for quite some time now...would I be wastring my time trying to solve all these puzzles and connect all this "info" to solve a puzzle that I can't even see?

I hate being soo lost

[gott_sei_dank]

Jumping in to an already long running ARG can be problematic for a couple of reasons,

Firstly trying to catch up could take a while, although there are resources that enable you to get a break down via timelines and such, you lose the sense of being apart of the discovery.

Secondly most of you're fellow "players" are so far ahead of you that they don't want to repeat ground they have already been over, you might find more friendly helpful souls in irc, on the forums you will be expected to have used the search function.


http://www.tradecraftjournal.com/
http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=19438

This one looks to be more of an interactive story type thing and seems a few newbies are starting out here.


http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/index.php?f=10

If you look here might find something interesting, [TRAILHEAD] are things just starting out. nomennescio.org and 6op 1 Libra for example.

[October]

Just to be clear, I'm not really a "veteran" - I've only been around unFiction since January (see join date!) Everyone gets the "veteran" tag after they make 75 posts. Rogi up there is "entrenched" and has been around way longer than me.

As for Year Zero - I didn't play the game. I don't think the game is "finished", per say - I think NIN is releaseing a Year Zero 2 album, which may lead to more game play, but I'm not sure. So it probably wouldn't be a waste of time to look over what has been "played out", in case there's a Part II on the way; also, looking over Year Zero will give you a better idea of the structure of the ARGs.

If you look over the main forum index, you'll see that each active game has its own forum with its own set of threads/posts. There are a few games in the "Potentials" forum that are active but haven't been separated out yet. The main Year Zero thread is here: http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/index.php?f=218

To catch up with Year Zero and find out what was going on with the iamtryingtobelieve website and how it was found, begin here: http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=18272 -- this is called the "Rabbit Hole" or "Trailhead" thread. Every ARG has a trailhead or rabbit hole - you can google that and get a pretty good definition. Year Zero doesn't have a "Story So Far" thread, so it'll take a little more work on your part to go through the forum, but it's not impossible and is also fascinating reading.

All that being said, I believe that MOST of the Year Zero gameplay took place elsewhere on the internet, on http://www.echoingthesound.org (someone correct me if I'm wrong, here?). It's worth taking a trip to that website to see more of the game discussion amongst dedicated NIN fans.

The thing about ARGs is that they are chaotic and non-linear - they tend to branch out over the internet through a variety of media like videos, music clips, websites, emails, phone calls; and also ARGs like Year Zero have several real-world components like the NIN cd and concert t-shirt that provided several clues to the game. This is why ARGs are always a community effort - some of the puzzles can't be solved by just one person, and some people will spot clues and information that others won't. Everyone shares their info to move forward in the story. It can be hard to read, but with a little digging and detective work, you'll be able to sort out the story in no time.

Also, browse through the rest of the game forums, and hang out in the news/rumors and potentials forums - you might find something else to your liking that is currently in play.