[arg_discuss] [players] Communities and resources

[Christy Dena]

This is a response to a relatively old post that I didn't have the time to
participate in the first time round so I'm adding my own 2c now. I'll be
honest about my experience in case it is helpful to some ARG designers.

For me, community resources like ARGN and Unfiction (and a lot of the
satellite blogs), have had attracting and repelling roles. I was at first
fascinated by the posts and discussions and saw it as a community I wanted
to be involved in. I wanted to be one of those clever people who saved the
day by providing solutions to puzzles. But when I started on an ARG I
couldn't keep up with the posts. I also found the advanced ARG players could
pick up immediately what it was they needed to work on and solved the
problem very quickly. I, on the other hand, wasted my time investigating
angles and puzzles that never existed! Also, I found the posting of
solutions to puzzles dissuading. There are times when I want the solution
because every angle I've tried didn't work, but I want to get that
information on an on-call basis, not before I've had the chance to solve it
myself.

A few games are implementing a tiered design to address multiple audiences
at once. So that players, according to their interest and time, can delve
deeper if they want to. Personally, I've been using ARGN as a first port of
call to find out about games, go off and start with them and then naturally
gravitate to Unfiction when I want the deepest stuff that isn't being
addressed elsewhere. It is only when I've exhausted every other avenue that
the expert players are helpful to me. I appreciate games that supply their
own forums, therefore, because they are a buffer from the spoilers. 

Jane McGonigal said at a conference that the most players that have ever
played a game is 600,000, with 2 million onlookers. I think the intention to
play/actually play ratio is pretty bad with ARGs. There are a lot of people
who would love to play them but do not because of design issues. The forums
are one such reason. These advanced players, however, are vital, even for
onlookers. Indeed, I see the advanced players as actors within the
production. I'll attempt a sports analogy to expand: advanced players are on
the court; PMs the coaches; referees (PMs?, forum moderators?); then there
are those players on the sidelines -- the members of the crowd on the first
row who get sweat, blood and the occasional ball; the ones in the middle
rows and the ones way up the back. The closest I've got is a bit of spit on
my face, and I'm happy with that. There are many more further back that I'm
sure would love the taste of blood.

It should also be said that not every ARG has to be designed to facilitate
many player types. Niche is good too.

Rant over,
Christy

-----Original Message-----
From: arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org [mailto:arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org] On
Behalf Of Colin Gehrig
Sent: Friday, 31 March 2006 7:59 AM
To: arg_discuss at igda.org
Subject: [arg_discuss] [players] Communities and resources

Hi Everyone,
 
I'm wondering what you all think about community resources (places like
Unficiton.com and ARGN.com, fan sites, guides, blogs)?
 
Are places like Unfiction.com considered critical to the success of your
games?
 
Do you plan to target these audiences?
 
Do you think they help or hinder the genre?
 
Are player created guides helping your ARG, or are they just confusing
new-comers? Do you depend on them, or make your own in-game guide?
 
Is there something you would like to see the players do that they don't
do currently?
 
Anyway, sound off on anything related to players, I'd love to hear it
all.
 
  -colin
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