unforum

[AmberFire]

What would you like to see(experience) in a ?

[WeirdSpecter]

I'd say too many ARG elements lead to continuity lockout, but too few causes issues with lack of inclusion. I'd recommend ARG elements that operate like in EMH; background info and subplots might be concluded or altered by player interaction, but not major parts of the plot. And yes; definitely allow players to side with whomever they choose on whichever side. I agree with the sense of danger/unfolding action stuff.
as for the behind-the-scenes...
perhaps gather funds before starting work, revealing only brief glimpses of what you're creating? that way, even the highest donors have little forsight into the series?
Narrative in an ARG/ARE needs to be coded.
There are plenty of "videos" of feet on the internet, though few involve the slenderman. However, this may also be a realistic and an effective means of hiding unwanted objects from view, or simply as a response - if I saw Tall, Dark and Faceless, I would probably stop caring about my camerawork.

Lastly, Earrape is useful for jumpscares but kinda cheap. try and avoid it, or if you MUST use it, have it as a cool bonus; hidden information can be deciphered from the distorted audio, for example.

Hope I've been helpful!

[AmberFire]

Thank you

[Peppercorn]

I think the problem with most series these days is that they can't even seem to come up with a basic hook, let alone a substantial portrayal of the Slender Man. We need to raise the bar so that every series is expected to have a story where every detail has a purpose and the Slender Man feels like a constant presence and a significant threat no matter what he does or how often he appears. Instead, most people just opt for an Excuse Plot that doesn't matter, or even no plot at all because garbage visuals equal instant horror classic or something. I'd like to take your suggestion of no more videos of just people's feet and extend to it to say no more wasting our time. Found footage might be highly experimental, but it's still a visual medium and it still requires that you not make the visuals into a constant eyesore with your 1337 D1ST0RT10N FX and unfocused camera; likewise, the Slender Man mythos uses formats like vlogs and blogs, but that doesn't mean you get to waste our time with the same kind of trivial details that a real vlog or blog would have. Every update has to contribute something substantial to the story, even the ones focused on the characters.

But as for your suggestions beyond just making a series that's actually watchable, I think that a series with ARG elements should incorporate those elements more rigorously as the story goes on. It can start out with little interactivity just to establish an interesting premise with an interesting interpretation of the Slender Man based on whatever the creator finds scary about the Slender Man (because that's why the Slender Man is so nebulous; not because he should be left so vague that he's not even a thing). The ARG aspects should come in as the story, characters, and interpretation of Slender Man develop, and they should be done with the intention of making it all more immersive, as it should be. If you present a compelling beginning, you can attract an audience to play your game. Once you have that audience, you should let their choices drive the story's outcome at the same time as you raise the story's stakes, while also keeping in mind some important events that will happen in some way no matter what they do. To avoid continuity lockout, you should acknowledge notable player interactions within the updates of the actual story; although not much of an ARG, I feel like Tribe Twelve does something similar to this by having its videos recap all the relevant events on Twitter and explain what you need to know about the series it crosses over with in order to understand it. I think the narrative should be more coded as it goes on, but that codes should be reserved for the most important information. Revealing yourself out-of-game probably doesn't matter too much as long as you don't give anything away, although keeping the illusion the entire time would be admirable. Schedule slips and hiatuses happen, but when they do, I would recommend the Dark Harvest approach where the in-universe reason for it significantly changes the story. And lastly, I'd suggest making the most of your media of choice: videos and images should feature awesome creepy locations, and written portions should feature awesome creepy events.

That's all the rambling I've got in me for now. I hope it helped.

[Ristar]

Don't repeat the same old tropes over and over again

[wanderfox]

yeah i made a topic similar to this but deleted it i dunno why though
a lot of under discovered ARGS