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[Coal]

 Your favourite ARG elements?

[Caseys_Mom]

I think getting a cool package in the mail with several items in it would be awesome. Why? Who doesn't like to get free, cool, packages!
Live video is also great. As opposed to recorded and posted video, you get a chance to feel like you are there, and can participate in the action & chat with the person filming, and can guide them, or help them with whatever is going on. Then later you can review the video for any possible clues.
Phone calls from a character are also exciting... but maybe not at 2 a.m.!

[MageSteff]

Getting swag or other real items is fun. As for me personally, I'm more of a talky social person so I like live chat character interaction aspects more than other things. Since I am crap with puzzle solving.

[M13A77]

I enjoy creepy videos that are able to be broken down to clues. I am horrible with all the scripting and java etc so visual clues in video and pics are great for me. I also love the feeling that comes with finding a new link or clue to some puzzle.

[zday]

I agree with what a lot of other people are posting. I like to receive physical items like letters in the mail, or puzzle boxes. Chat/Email/IM with in game characters are fun too. Phone calls are also a neat little feature.

But I think the number one element for me is an intriguing story that draws me in and makes me want to solve puzzles and interact.

[muse]

I'm with MageStaff on this one lol. I love a really interesting story with well-developed characters that I can care about, especially if I can interact with them in a meaningful way.

Visual riddles are also fun, like the Paintover.com images that were posted throughout the Metacortechs ARG.

[chaos]

what muse said

though i'm not particularly interested in the talking side, for me, and arg needs to have a storyline and characters i can get behind

[Thunderwolf]

Puzzles. Brainbusting puzzles. Puzzles that make me write computer programs to help me solve them. Those are the things I love. Also being drawn into a shadowy world where the shadows are darker, the nights are longer and on every street corner there's a black car which drives off as you spot it.

I love paranoia.

And puzzles.

[Lucidity]

I have to agree with Thunderwolf; it's the paranoia and puzzles that do it for me. There's nothing like the moment you solve a puzzle that has been eluding you for hours, and suddenly everything seems so clear.

Then there's the tension of the well-written plot, the inability to determine what's real and what isn't, and the swift sudden movement of something out of the corner of your eye. Moments like that are the reason I got into ARGs.

[konamouse]

My best moment was very personal: In Sammeeeees II when I found a hidden message on my in-game "blog" (we were asked to create these pages for the part we were playing as double agents). That hidden message was a little puzzle and it lead to a short video message made specifically for ME! (from my favorite character). I was in the IRC room at the time and my excitement was very obvious.

I love it when what the players do affects the story. And when the story bleeds into 'real' life and you wonder if that phone call or fax is the game or real life. When the edges are blurred. When you have to stop and remember that TINAG is for the characters because YOU start to think TINAG.

[negativeview]

STORY!