[arg_discuss] "go look for easter eggs"

[andrea at mindcandydesign.com]

I had sent this out last night, but it looks like it didn't go through
from that  account.... trying again, and sorry if it IS a repost. :)

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On 4/28/06, despain at quantumcontent.com <despain at quantumcontent.com> wrote:

    Just thought I'd pick the collective brain.

    What are your favorite ways of telling players "hey, there's an easter
egg
    to be found" or "you have missed x number of easter eggs so far."

    I need to hit someone over the head and point out the obvious (they've
    been looking right at the easter eggs and not seeing them), but I want to
    do it in the most elegant way possible.



Hmmm. I take a pretty cautious view of these things, and if information is
crucial to get to the players, I'm keen on always having a strategy in
place to nudge them in the right direction. Some techniques you could use
include updates with unusual or telling word choice, or simply fabricating
new content with a second way to get  to the same thing. It tends to be
very situational, though, so there are very few one-size solutions. What
works as a hint for "look at the page source" isn't the same as "no,
really, this is the password you should have guessed last week." I don't
suppose you want to give out details on a public list, but if you want to
privately email me details, I'd be happy to give you any suggestions I can
think of. :)

I guess that's part of our whole balancing act, isn't it? That judgement
call between making something so easy it isn't fun or interesting, and
making it so hard or obscure that nobody ever gets to the end of the
rainbow...

--
Andrea Phillips
http://www.perplexcity.com
http://www.deusexmachinatio.com