unforum

[addlepated]

Drawing the line

[Flynn]

Hmm. Firstly, I personally agree with the "PM's don't post on player boards" idea. The difficulty comes when someone goes BTS part way into a game - that needs to be managed. In Acheron, it worked pretty well for me - and the credit for this goes to both the PM's for controlling the flow of information, and the people involved for restraining themselves. We don't yet know the full deal with what's gone on in AWARE, and probably won't until endgame, but I do like the way it's blurred the lines further between realities. Then again, I don't know what's been happening in IRC - I am curious about the teasing!

[vpisteve]

Space might be able to clarify this further, but as far as I understand, there is already a line drawn in the Terms of Use of these forums:

[BrianEnigma]

Re: Drawing the line

[Caterpillar]

[Caterpillar]

Re: Drawing the line

[colin]

Re: Drawing the line

[addlepated]

Re: Drawing the line

[vpisteve]

Yes, lurking is one thing (and really unpreventable anyway for the most part) but posting is quite another.

[MageSteff]

So I guess the next issue to deal with is one I ran into with Acheron.

Being a player who loved the concept of the game and wanted to see it succeed, I extended an offer to help the PM's how ever they felt needed. THe PM's were kind enought to make certain that my part would not give away clues to me as a player and allowed me to continue playing. When the docs I created were used, I did not contribute to the conversations in the Chat rooms nor did I make any comments about them on the forum boards. However, if my involvement had gone deeper, I would have cited any number of personal reasons for dropping off the face of the earth and not posting more.

So ... what should PM's do about very active players who offer to help with the game? Should the PM say, "I'm sorry you are to visible a player," or say "You need to find a reason to stop being so active on the board," and leave it to the player to come up with an excuse?

[colin]

[ScarpeGrosse]

personal opinion: CTW and Acheron both used BTS people in order to assist with the running of the game, and both did so successfully. The key to these successes is that the players/BTS/PMs did not use whatever knowledge they had about the game to manipulate other players through chats, forum posts, etc.
Its like an ethical code. You just don't mess around with that. I think it cheapens the experience of solving a game/puzzle/mystery as a "community", turning it into more of a "who can you trust" dog-eat-dog last one to the finish line wins wins wins kind of atmosphere.
The *nice* thing about Unfiction is that the people involved prefer to, and enjoy collaborating on games. I tend to frown on anything that might possibly ruin that feeling.

[Varin]

[addlepated]

Mage and I were both BTS in Acheron playing minor roles. And I was even one of the forum mods and wrote a guide (although I mostly did the guide for myself, but invited others to look at it). However, there were no obvious indicators that we were BTS - we didn't disappear, or in any way post or say anything which wasn't common knowledge. Nobody else looked at us and had to wonder what they needed to filter out due to our BTS involvement, or wonder if we were providing misinformation. Nor did we publicly speculate as to who else might be BTS.

It can be done, but it is a very delicate situation and the line is thin. And I think there are those (hi Colin! ) who will always be uncomfortable with the situation. So instead of making the discomfort worse, I think that BTS players should be doing all they can to make sure they play a "clean game". And if a situation arises where a player does go behind the curtain, make sure it's a clean division and there aren't a lot of questions in other players' minds about whether this or that is kosher.

And to reiterate a previous point - I think that lurking PMs are just peachy, but if you're gonna lurk, then lurk. Occasional chit-chat about non-game related stuff is fine and sometimes unavoidable, but IMO there should be no talk about the game.

ETA: Holy snorkels, I just now figured out what Colin's avatar says. Duh!! I'd been puzzling over it forever.

[Varin]