unforum

[vpisteve]

Don't mean to pile on, here, but wow. Just wow. Sorry if this sounds a little harsh, but here goes...

I really take offense at this attitude as well. The members of unfiction are not lab rats for your pleasure. I'm sorry, but this is the exact kind of thing that gives ARGs a bad name, and yes it DOES hurt the genre every single time an implosion occurs. The term puppetmaster does NOT mean that you just toy with your players, stringing them along, making them dance at your whim.

It's wrong, it breaks player trust and you just plain don't do this - especially on purpose! You may have learned how to make a good puzzle or two, but you definitely haven't learned about the most important part of developing an ARG: Player trust.

You have also not learned how to make a good impression on any professional ARG developers that may be watching........and they do watch, believe me.

[Star Spider]

Wow! Interesting branch of the conversation!

I totally understand why people feel offended at the idea of using the community as a testing ground (without communication) and I am getting a much better understanding as to why games might implode!

I like the way everyone is is supporting the ideals of trust and personal responsibility for the greater whole! Way to be a community! Very cool

[Jas0n]

[SirQuady]

[Rekidk]

[Jas0n]

[Will 2.0]

I agree with Faery that to learn you must watch or be a part of a team first. Granted, I started off not knowing what I was doing with my first game but quickly caught on and am working on what I hope will be a broad, interesting game.

To really get onto this site and read a trailhead for two days does not give you the 360 angle that you need to really understand what it takes and means and the work that gets put into being a puppetmaster. I understand, as Krystyn said, it's amazingly fun and gratifying but when you create a game in which you know you cannot finish and you do not let them know, it's a great disappointment along with that comes the feeling that the players did something wrong which is almost never the case.

Basically, a word to new PM's. Make sure you read many old games such as ILB or Last Call Poker or even Eldrich and take note on styles and ways PM's communicate with players and tell a story before you wing it.

[Rekidk]

I completely agree. You need to play a game before you can make one. Trying to PM an ARG without having played an ARG is like trying to write a novel without having ever read a novel.

[catherwood]

The analogy running thru my head is that of a restaurant.

Do you want to learn how to cook? I think you won't learn much by opening a restaurant and then experimenting on your customers. Go to school or begin as an apprentice, either way you learn from working with masters.

Do you instead want to be the owner or the business manager running a restaurant? If so, you personally don't need to know how to cook, but you do need to be able to recognize cooking talent and hire them. Would you open a new restaurant without ever having been in one yourself? Would you deliberately open a new restaurant knowing that you might just turn off the lights and walk out in the middle of the appetizers?

These were just a few parallels to the situation we find with people trying to launch their own ARG too soon.

[natas]

I found my way to UnFiction by pure accident and found myself perusing different threads at random, a couple of which were pretty large scale. I noticed how the people intereacted with each other in this "alternative" reality, and was instantly hooked. Then, I got to sink my teeth into Red Monday, which came together nicely even though I didn't purchase the rest of the storyline. At this point, I began to wonder if I might be up to such a task. After doing a LOT of analysis and researching through old games. I decided, even though it would take a lot of time on my part, to give it a try. I have been working on this for about 5 months now, and am beating myself upside the head with my unfinished storyline.

During my writing block, I have noticed all these implosions that have taken place in a lot of the "ARG's?" I was participating in. What thoughtlessness for the feelings of other people. This makes me even more determined to plan my game all the way through before even attempting a launch. It may not be the greatest game, but at least I won't leave people hanging.

[Nighthawk]

[Will 2.0]

Which is why most good games have a long dev. period. Mine for example is on...6-7 months right now just planning things out and things are coming together for a final stretch for the summer launch.

[Star Spider]

[Nighthawk]

'cause my first ARG *did* last a week... And I want to do more!

[Will 2.0]

Not to say that games cannot last a week or two. One of my most memorable games that I played and almost won was Anne's Memory, an ARG that lasted a week and a half to promote a book by a author who is now a friend of mine. The game was great because it was so packed with interaction and content that it actually told a story in that short amount of time. At the final stage of the game, ciphers were timed and they had to be solved or a character would die and that would alter the ending so it was very intriguing.

It just shows that games can be that short and be sucessful, it just has to be packed with content.