unforum

[MageSteff]

Codes of Conduct

[bill]

/me pulls steff back into reality.

Although those ideas certainly represent the ideal, life and ARGing tends to be somewhat messier. For example, how exactly do players know the intended direction of the story? Wouldn't that be discovered by trying a few things? If I wanted a static or linear experience, I'd be reading more novels.

There are certainly boundaries that should and will be explored players. PMs have an obligation to spell out those boundaries (hopefully in a mechanism that doesn't breach the curtain).

There are no hard and fast rules (AWARE made this brutally clear). There are guidelines based on what has gone before and common sense. Personally, I think the genre is a bit immature to start telling people "you stay over here, you stay over there." We know Unforums is out of game because Spacely says so. Other forums might allow some forms of player/character interaction.

Likewise, having distinct player and character chats falls into one of those common sense areas. If a room is commonly understood to be a PM free zone, PMs should be on notice that they tread there at their own peril. Furthermore, PMs that choose to discretely lurk should really make sure they mask their identities. Changing your nick isn't good enough when 70% of the room's occupants see your ISP, your IP and/or IP hash when you log in and out.

With the variance of opacity in the curtain from one game to the next, a PM is more in control of the player experience than they realize. Different levels of interaction, PM anonyminity, pacing, and RL involvement are all 100% in the control of the PM. Balancing just those few elements dramatically affects game play.

I can envision a game where the lines are blurred to the point where the players question everything and the boundaries are so indistinct as to be undetectable by most. In such a game, players might reasonably expect someone in their midst to be in-game. Part of making that work is setting expectations up front.

When someone takes the plunge and decides to PM a game, there are a LOT of things to consider relating to playability and boundaries. I think PMs and players need some wiggle room and not a set of rules cast in stone with prescribed punishments. We've already seen lots of different styles from The Beast, CTW, Acheron, Mu, and now AWARE. I don't think any are more right or wrong than others. Clearly, some are going to be more successful.

My advice to participants on both sides of the curtain - think before you act. Don't jump in blindly and don't make bizarre departures from expectations set earlier in the game. As a PM, consider where the boundary lies and make sure you have a mechanism to describe it in-game and deal with players who choose to push it. As a PM, you control what the characters hear, see, and know.

/me reserves the right to proofread this later and contradict myself if I see fit.

[konamouse]

Obligations for a BTS person - listen to your PM.
Don't take your character out of line from your instructions.
When a character deviates too far from the original plan, or starts creating webpages on their own, the original story & preset puzzles may be corrupted beyond use. Then all the work that the PM has done in preparation for the game will be for naught.

[colin]

[LazarusLong]

[colin]

[imbri]

I must say that I agree with Bill and do not see a need for establishing rules and regulations for the genre. Frankly, I'd say that doing so could be detrimental. I think that the basic "respect each other" covers everything that needs to be covered and the rest can be set up on an as needed basis.

We really need to remember that the genre is very young and needs the freedom to grow and evolve. Once we start establishing strict lines on what is right and wrong, we begin to close our minds to other possibilities. Two years ago, I would have argued whole-heartedly against a person working on the game and playing it. The success of BTS in several games since have proved me wrong. I still have some issues with it, but those are my issues and should not be made to apply to the genre as a whole.

Then there's the fact that what works for one PM team may not work for another and they, as the creators, should have the ability to do what works for them. If they are keeping the best interest of the players and their game in mind, they will do what they feel meets those interests. It would be nice to set up a universal rule system that PM teams could point to (seriously, we had some great "debates" on our own PM codes of conduct), however what works for one team may not work for another and to lock them into a system isn't practical, plausable, or productive. I may be airing some dirty laundry, but one of the issues that was a hot topic for us was PM involvement on the boards and in chat. Personally, I do not believe that a PM should ever talk in a player chatroom, whether they are known entities or not. Not only is the stress level (at least for me) compounded by talking even the slightest things can change the dynamics of the room. Others argue that it's less obvious if the PM chats occasionally or that their not talking would raise flags. That may be but I'll never forget a few occasions where things slipped (a PM referring to something that players didn't know yet... it was simple and not caught, but it might have been) or where puzzles were effected (a PM entering a chatroom right as the players were about to solve something and unintionally derailing the conversation... the solve came several days later). However, in some experiences, PM interaction not only works but is very accepted. Did Mart & Jamesi's interaction in #jmx negatively impact the players? As far as I've heard, absolutely not. So, why should my feelings override theirs? If we start to say "no chatting", where do we draw the line? For me, it's easier to draw it at "not at all" for others it may be easier to draw it at "no ingame chat". Who's right? What happens in an experience where such chat is necessary? Do they have to apply for an exemption upfront?

Additionally, once you set up a "standard rules and regulations" or "code of conduct" you have to face the issues of letting every possible player know (remember, UF is not the only board around) or you have different groups of players playing in different ways. Which group of players does the PM cater to? Why should they have to cater to any specific group? You also place limits on your thinking and what can and cannot be done and in the world of ARG, that is never a good thing. If one group of players has limited their thinking by saying a certain thing could never happen because it's against the code of conduct, the other group has a clear advantage if/when such a situation occurs.

Beyond the simple "respect each other", I think that rules should be left for the PMs to decide. If they want or need rules in their game, they will find a way to let the players know. There are hundreds of ways for them to do so.

Just my two cents
-b

[krystyn]

I'd just like to note that having a set storyline and milestones does not make for a static ARG. If it's reading like a novel, and you're bored, the ARG is simply not for you, or the PMs are allowing the plot to fall into stasis.

You can control a good deal of the story and how it works for the players - the challenge for the PM who wants/needs the controlled storyline is to make it seem shaped and influenced by the players (Dina's going to the cyber cafe in Chicago was a fairly decent example from Project MU - the players truly felt they were affecting the game, and although they were, in a sense, we had anticipated cause/effect/variables, and so it was under our complete control the whole time).

imbri makes many good points - there are no hard and fast rules. There can't be. Even when the genre (hopefully) becomes more established and widespread, I hope that PMs won't consider themselves slaves to any rule (within legal limits, natch) unless they need to be.

My own comfort level as a PM requires me to have many rules for myself, and a tacit agreement amongst the other PMs as to how the game is going to go, and what our conduct shall be. That's up to us, for that particular game. It may change for the next one. My personal rules revolve around a few core principles in how I work as a creative PM, but I wouldn't expect an ARG with which I am not teamed to follow them.

[krystyn]

I think if you were to have a general rule for players, it might be "Don't be such a jerk that you make other players uncomfortable or get yourself banned from in-game websites." Even so, the wacky over-bearing players I've seen play Lockjaw and Project MU eventually got so sucked in by game's end that it wasn't worth stirring up trouble any more, for them. Generally.

I dunno, imbri's comment about 'respect' seems right on. I also like when people push the envelope, on both sides of the curtain.

[vpisteve]

From my viewpoint, I think it's more important that PMs come up with their own Meta-guidelines for their universe and stick with them. That way, when you come up with an idea, or come up against the problem, you at least have a first line of defense by checking against you own guidelines, and that makes things a lot more consistent for the players, in addition to helping you avoid problems.

For instance, in the development phase of MU, one of our Meta Guidelines was that we were never going to have any 'inside jokes' or references to other ARGs, even though it was very, very tempting at times! This was tied in to the whole stealth thing, and we felt it would tip our hand as far as being PMs from within the community.

There were a lot more, and they made decisions a lot easier as time went on.

If you have players from many communities outside of the unfiction/cloudmakers circles, then the whole idea of a 'code of conduct' type thing becomes very problematic. Players will do anything, try anything, and the best you can hope for as a PM is to be able to successfully guide them away from 'bad' behavior in an in-game way, which can be a challenge.

[rose]

Bill wrote:

[vpisteve]

I think I speak for all the admins here when I say that we try to be very vigilant in protecting this space as being off limits, providing a space where players don't have to worry about who's real and who's not. We have various tools that enable us to do this pretty effectively.

I've seen firsthand how things can become not very enjoyable at all when that's not the case, and we really don't want that to happen here. That being said, sometimes someone will slip by us, as krysbabe did, but I really hope that's the exception. Admittedly, there's not a big banner at the top of the page proclaiming this as an offlimits area for ingame characters, so we can't really fault anyone in this case.

As for shilling for new games, I'd encourage anybody to resist the urge to post "Hey, a friend of mine showed me this link. Is this a game? blah blah blah...." Find some other creative way to launch your game. It can be done.

[ScarpeGrosse]

Wow. Big suprise! I have an opinion! *gasp*

I'd like to preface by saying that what Bill, Imbri, Krystyn and Steve have already stated falls directly into my thoughts on the matter. As this is so, I'd just like to, maybe (if I can contain my verbiage) sum up the fine points and perhaps add my own thought (or thoughts, I might have more than one - I'm still thinking):

[NashCarey]

My Order

[colin]

Re: My Order