unforum

[Deadfish]

Launch Questions

[Euchre]

In response:

1. There's The Interaction Thread just for allowing you to get emails and IM IDs to propagate your trailhead without someone freaking at how you got the information to do just that. There are other word of mouth ways to get your trailhead out, but that might require more of your time and creativity. Blatant posting of a trailhead may be overlooked once, but it is considered pretty tasteless and lame.

2. If the site you speak of is IG, posting an OOG reference to uF basically puts uF IG, which destroys the whole idea and structure of an ARG basically. Unless you intend or expect to destroy the reputation of your ARG, don't do it. If your site and the ARG have any remotely unique keywords in them, and you manage to get your trailhead propagated so it appears in News & Rumors, Google will manage to help with the rest.

3. Some might try to be negative about an ARG being used for promotion, but that's actually how the genre started. The Beast was a promotion for the movie A.I., and is what basically started it all. As long as your promotion isn't 'in your face' most reasonable players won't mind. If the ARG is effectively in a universe with or encompassed by the item you are promoting, that ought to be enough to make your players happy without bluntly saying 'buy me'. Basically don't let your ARG turn into a Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh! cartoon. (I've only seen part of one of each, and after seeing the second completely embedded advertisement in each I insisted on turning it off or leaving where it was being watched, as I couldn't stand the blatant tasteless garbage it was.)

[Deadfish]

Thanks Euchre I appreciate the input. One of the conundrums I am facing with using the site is that it allows for video uploads, so I was going to upload all of my videos through the site while the rest of the site is OOG. I guess it would be considered more of a resource or an element rather than IG. Kind of like YouTube would be considered.

Would something like this be in poor taste?

"Welcome to "website" be sure to check out our video section to start playing our new ARG! Check out the good folks at Unfiction.com if you need help. Be sure to read their rules before posting."

It just seems hokey, but I want to be able to tell new people that there are ARG sites out there that specialize in this type of gaming where they can become part of the collective detective spirit.

The advertising will in no way be blatant aside from the fact that the videos will be posted on the website. So no worries there.

Thanks again for your input I appreciate it.

[jlr1001]

Well, it sounds like you're making more of the "conundrum" than there really is. Consider Youtube as a trailhead propagation channel... every game that uses it is using an OOG resource to post their IG videos.

No one has had a problem with that, yet, so I don't see why there would be a problem with the site you're using... The only caveat is that if the site is for a niche audience, it should then make sense for the characters to be posting their videos there.

It also sounds like you could make good use of a meta website. Depending on how long your game would run, this site would act as a clearing house of in-game information for your players. It would also be acceptable and expected for you to post links to other referencing and websites (e.g. Unforums) there.

As for getting people to the meta site, you could be somewhat subtle and have the url appear on screen at the end of your videos.... (I'm assuming you're doing a fade out at the end). The videos could each go to black, the url for the meta site could appear for a moment, then fade and the video would be over.

Then, on the meta site you could explain that this is an ARG and here is a resource for players....

Other than the url drops at the end of the videos your game wouldn't have any need to reference any OOG assets, so it maintains the TINAG aesthetic.

Just a few thoughts...



-jlr1001

[Euchre]

To clarify a bit on the previous post, I believe they mean to say that the 'meta' site would be a bridge between the properly IG content and uF. This prevents a direct IG pointer to uF - an OOG resource.

To be absolutely clear on what I was saying, any puppetmaster or character in your ARG posting anything here is forbidden. This site should NOT be an originating source for IG content.

If your reference to videos was to embedding a YouTube video in a post here, that can be done on any site, anywhere - and thus doesn't need to be done here. YouTube itself is a very good propagation medium, so I can't see why you'd have to embed the videos in a post here to distribute the info for the players. Once the players are pointed to the first YouTube video, they'll either follow that channel or search based on similar content on YouTube. The tagging system on YouTube works very, very well - so there's no reason to need to throw the videos bluntly in the players faces by posting them here yourself.

[jlr1001]

Thanks Euchre for the clarification. I figured that the original poster would understand what I meant by Meta site, but I can also see why my not explaining could have been confusing.

Also, when DeadFish mentioned posting videos I took it to mean on the site that was being promoted... I might have misread something to get that impression...

But either way, I definitely think it would make sense to submit the video to as many sharing sites as possible, (e.g. Youtube, daily motion, Vimeo, etc...).



-jlr1001

[Deadfish]

A lot of food for thought. Thanks to both of you. For some reason I didn't think about posting the videos on multiple web hosting sites. I guess becasue I figured having them go to the promoted website would be what I was aiming for. I know that it is an infraction of UF rules to post any IG content here. I never planned nor plan on doing so.

What I am still unclear on is if I am going to host a live concert as part of my launch is it okay to advertise the concert here? What are the chances that any unfiction members living in my area would happen to show up at that concert oblivious to the ARG set up? So if my trailhead is being released at the concert is it within UF's rules to post the When and the Where on UF? I don't want to step on anyones shoes or rub anyone the wrong way.

Thanks again.

[jlr1001]

There's nothing saying that you couldn't pop over into the interactions discussion and find the contact info for UnForum users in or near your area. Then either send them a (cryptic...?) email or snail mail invite to the concert location.

You could even set it up as a mini-puzzle to pique their interest. That way you're not simply sending them an invite to a concert they may or may not be interested in without knowing that an ARG is at its core...

I don't know how much more you would want to discuss in this open forum. I'd be happy to continue acting as a sounding board for you... just send me a PM.


-jlr1001

[BubbleBoy]

Good use of a Trailhead

[Rogi Ocnorb]

Sadly, Immersion Unlimited closed up shop back in July.