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[Omnie]

[epthesus]

Haven't played an arg before but here are a few of my thoughts on the original question.

- would like to see the game involve physical as well as virtue playing aspects.
- clues to be not just cryptic/ciphers/maths problems but a diverse range of problems for a wide range of skill levels.
- would like to learn new skills investigting the problems, research new and unique topics to solve clues.
- have clues which lead to a physical event where certain players view an incident/next part of the plot or clue.
- use a wide variation of media platforms so players can feel like the game world is part of reality and happening in their lives. (however, these aspects will need to be funded via sponsorship/publishing house)
- have some of the player/s become an active character/s in the game by carrying out a plotline (maybe as a reward for solving a certain clue) - could be sponsored by companies to achieve this e.g British Airways sponsoring a plane trip to meet an american player). However, not sure if this would immerse the game more in the real world or dilute the community solving aspect/satisfaction as i haven't played one before.
- have specified missions/clues for players in different areas/timezones to solve and then report back to the community. Make the community feel like their own MI5 / FBI /whatever.
- as others have already suggested, have the money and the suits to back up the ideas and to finish the game.

anyway, here's looking to the future, namely Q4

epth

[cashbox]

as a fellow n00b, i'm with a lot of what epthesus mentioned.
-puzzles that take a lot of different mental skill sets to solve, as i think the interaction in places like this is one of the more appealing parts of games.
-elements both physical and virtual
-a compelling, flexible storyline
-the occasional completely inexplicable happenstance. too many red herrings, and it just seems like sour grapes (and wouldn't *that* be a meal?), but those things that don't quite seem to connect stick with you.

oh, and sites that don't cripple my computer, as i am poor, and thus still a 56Kowboy.

[snowhite]

FWIW It seems to me that first thing any PM should understand is that the entire reason I am here as a player is simply - hunger. I want to feast upon the story. I want to devour the puzzles. It is the job of the PM to feed me the ideas that I am starving for. Not too much at once because I am greedy and could choke , but still I need to be fed. If there is a hiatus... my game dies of starvation.

[BlackMonkeyMage]

n00b speaking!

[Giskard]

Re: n00b speaking!

[AnthraX101]

Re: n00b speaking!

[Slyfox]

Re: n00b speaking!

[Varin]

Re: n00b speaking!

[Rosie]

How did this end up in Syzygy??

[catherwood]

Re: n00b speaking!

[hermione]

I think you have the nail on the head there catherwood; games without a fictional universe to maintain can easily incorporate message boards (one other I'm familiar with is Puzzledonkey), but if you have characters and fiction to maintain, how can you carry out meta-discussion on the puzzles?

Discussion is a good thing, although it depends how you want players to play the game in the first place. Do you want people to keep a "solved to date" guide? Or do you want every new player to have to try each puzzle for him- or herself without the temptation of "peeking"? (either by moderating forums, banning guides, etc.) One problem I've noticed is that as a newbie there is often a lot of information to assimilate at once; some people delight in that funnelling, in the crystallisation of everyone's views to get up to speed quickly. Others - and here I'm thinking more mainstream - would just get really put off by it.

I think one way to deal with that is to have several entry points into the world, and as the game progresses (in time and therefore building up complexity) there should be easy ways to get "in" without having to follow the trail so far; the trail, or what is important of it, should unfold from the entry point. (e.g. entering along with a new character who is getting up to speed themselves). This has the debatable advantage that people who have been playing along so far get another viewpoint on their work and can possibly eliminate red herrings; but there should also be steps to ensure their hard work hasn't gone to waste otherwise there'd be a lot of resentment with people "jumping in". I'm envisioning one large trail and a lot of smaller ones that fall in along the time axis, but which aren't quite as fun/rewarding as the main one, so there's incentive for the diehards, incentive for the mainstream, and no hard feelings.

One thing I don't really like about AWARE is the amount of communication that's going on. Sure, it's the backbone of such a game, but it seems a little too much for me. If I want to just watch, fairly passively, I can't. I think there are people who are as interested in passive immersive fiction as active, but I don't know the proportions. I would expect mainstream players to be more interested in passive entertainment, with the odd puzzle they could work on in their spare time, and yes - divining what people think of each other and whether someone is lying is just as challenging a puzzle as breaking a viggy.

Just my rather random 2p,

-h

[Nightmare Tony]

As an arcade programmer, the one genre which puts me off my lunch is the fighting game series in whihc instead of mastering game skills and reacting to situations, you merely memorize the library of secret moves for your character and start using them as fast as you can before the other player does. It becomes less of a competition to me than more of a memory test.

I am noob in the ARG type game (interestingly, those my initials as well! . but my comment going back to an ARG would be a metaphorical with the above comment, the only 2 games I had seen were the pieces of mu and the beast, and both required some fiendishly wierd puzzles and not obvious ways of thinking.

I would ask, do the puzzles within a game fit the storyline context? The fiendish logic or math puzzle would favor those who are absolutel puzzle whizzes while penalizing the lower level who are more hanging on and tagging along with everyone else for the ride and they would feel more left out. Maybe more of a puzzle type which would depend more on an individual's creativity than an obscure solve?

and for the storyline, each puzzle solve would draw the game ever closer, drawing the player into the world there.

[yanka]

schedule of updates

[Dorkmaster]

Well, I know it's probably a dead subject at this point, with Syzygy so close to completion (hoping, waiting...)...

Anyway, my theory would be to combine innovation with existing working structures. This has been brought up in the ilovebees thing, where the payphone/axon thing was a great innovation and a great way to get physical interaction, yet however hasn't kept the drive and build it had up to that point... So the innovation alone is not enough. You must have a compelling story that drives the thing on top of the innovative niche that makes people say "this is cool!"

My innovative idea would be to have geographic grouping for puzzles. Cooperative puzzles that mandate interaction outside of the computer. People would have to figure out their location-based puzzle to put that piece in with other player-groups in other locations, etc... and that would ultimately lead to the answer. Not to mention, it's sooo much cooler and underground (read: nerdy in a cool way) to have to meet in locations like libraries, pizza joints, bars, etc... to have meetings. So if you had some local history or something (would take MAJOR research of course) that made people have to get that microfiche mentioned previously, that wouldn't solve the overall puzzle, but that would help put together the local puzzle, that put together with other places, etc....

Anyway, outside-of-computer interaction is EXCELLENT, and I really like geographically-exclusive, yet mutually coordinated cooperative puzzles intriguing (yet a monumental task)

So that's my If I could...

Not to mention, I'd love to have to pay (I know, a wierd beginning to a sentence) a SMALL amount for certain info... for example, you have to go to this address, and put one dollar into a coke machine to get a coke bottle with a message taped to it, or something...

Ok... I'm done.

-DM