unforum

[unmortal_mind]

Question on PM etiquette?

[Agent Lex]

I think this is a question you should be asking the head PM of your team, not the forum at large.

That said, if I personally had to define a boundary, it would probably be if you're absolutely sure the game will never start again. And you're sure you want your name to be involved with it

[ndemeter]

Usually there is something like a PM chat or something like that where people can be outed at. Are you guys not planning something like that? If not AND the game is not active then I would think it's OK to reference your PM experience when warranted.

Just my personal opinion.

[Ziola]

Personally, I'm a big fan of NEVER coming out from behind the curtain. I work for a series of intertwined ARG's but all my OOG instructions are couched IG through character PM's. Its really rather amusing. People think I'm far more involved in the storylines then I really am. I'm just a player with a big mouth

I guess my experience with PM's coming out has been less then favorable. Nothing like two glory hogs who haven't produced ANYTHING in over a year to leave a nasty taste in one's mouth. It wouldn't be so bad if they weren't still rehashing their "glory days" when they ruled the ARG world (in their opinions, not mine).

[thebruce]

I guess it depends on what their role was in the ended campaign... I mean if someone did everything they were supposed to do and did it well, but it all ended for some other reason (avoidable or not), then 'coming out' could be beneficial for them if they want to continue doing that in other games, with other teams...
I mean, it might not be smart if the crashed game crashed because of you, to come out and say you were behind it But I don't think never coming out, especially if you did a good job for your part...

[krystyn]

[danteIL]

Yea see, if there were no curtain in the first place, then this wouldn't even be an issue.


But that's just my opinion...

[Agent Lex]

[FLmutant]

I have pretty non-standard opinions on that too. Slight telegraphs of the PM team, even at the beginning, are frequently useful for establishing intent. For example, I don't use "domains by proxy" to hide domain registration primarily because that info is predominatly OOG and useful to people who aren't playing and trying to figure out the intent. It also, though, tips the hand of authorship (which can be good in establishing "yes, this might indeed by an ARG") but also create challenges (yes, I know SOME of you keep track of every domain we register, dang you!)

Otherwise, while a experience is happening, I tend to think it is a bit of a cop-out if you have to resort to OOG communication with the players, but I have less of a firm opinion on that when speaking to the press (although NO REVEALS TO PRESS is a good guideline.) When the experience isn't happening, I tend to think a level of interaction with participants is valuable, natural and desired (whether that's OOG blog, PM chats, panels at ARGFest or what have you.)

I echo the comments earlier though: by all means, this is a question for you to pose with your PM team. No two teams approach this exactly the same way.

[rose]

I think there is value in the PMs revealing themselves when a game is over. First, PM chats with the players are always informative as well as a chance for players to acknowledge their relationship with the PMs and to thank them.
Second, sometimes players don't want to accept that a game is over, even when to others the game has clearly ended. An end announcement makes it clear the game is over.
Finally, and most important from the PMs view, I think, is that an end of game credit announcement insures that the PMs will always get credit for their work. Sadly, occasionally, as time goes on, people will take credit for work they didn't actually do, try to diminish the input and work of other team members, or try to claim that someone didn't do work they actually did. This is part of the reason why TV shows and films post extensive lists of credits,it prevents people from rewriting history. I think ARGs should do the same, to help protect the creative people involved behind the curtain from unwarranted backstabbing later on.

[unmortal_mind]

[unmortal_mind]

[Ziola]

It seems like I'm totally in the minority on this one. So I guess I'll amend my earlier post with some quasi-intelligent thoughts. If one is going to come out from behind the curtain, please make sure you do it after the game is completely over. Its fine and dandy to do so once things have run their course but doing so while the game is ongoing really tends to ruin things, IMHO. For me, part of the fun is not knowing who is running things, so I can't try and garner insider info just to have the upper hand (which I have seen people do). And if some people know who the PM is while others don't, it leads to an almost elitism attitude.