[arg_discuss] Re: Communities and resources

[Jonathan Waite]

Wow.  This is definitely the place to be on a Thursday night!  Things 
are hopping!

Now, before I start this, I'm not speaking for any group or website.  
I'm speaking as a player and as a community member, plain and simple.  
Please take into consideration that before I was anything in this 
community, I was a lurking newbie just trying to follow along.

 > Every community has internal politics. Members gain status through use of
 > whatever currency that community holds dear. In some forums it's 
number of
 > posts. On others it's how long someone's been registered. Others value
 > grammar skills over logic or vice versa. To really be a part of that
 > community, a member has to be involved - at least to some degree - in the
 > politics of the community.

 > And I'm speaking generally here, not specifically about Unfiction.

But just so we're clear -- you *are* talking about UnFiction too, right?

 > All that maneuvering - how long do I have to be registered before my
 > opinion is considered worthwhile? - As a player, I'd rather put that time
 > and effort into the game.

Sure, as a player you would.  And if for any reason a player feels that 
they can't do that at Unfiction, then maybe they've gotten a raw deal.  
As far as I've been able to tell, a raw deal is a rare thing over there, 
though.  What is much more common is something I see all the time -- 
people registering, posting their first post, and instantly joining in 
the fray of whatever game they are participating in -- all within a few 
short hours.  In fact, I saw this happen today 
(http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=9646) 
and yesterday 
(http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=9640) 
and last month 
(http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=9222) 
and last year 
http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=8015) 
-- you get my point.  That's part of the reason why I take exception to 
this whole notion that you have given about players feeling that they 
have to worry about the politics and how to go about getting validation 
for their efforts on the UnFiction forums.  Maybe you were one of those 
people who got the raw deal, though, and that's why you have your 
opinion.  But the evidence shows, day in and day out, that people who 
come into the Unfiction community fir the first time are treated with 
respect, and are welcomed with open arms.  

Now, you can go ahead and find me many different examples where people 
are not welcomed.  I am not saying that the Unfiction community en masse 
is a shining example of what a civilized, well-behaved community can 
be.  I am saying that the Unfiction community is what it is, and 
labeling it as an elitist, politically-driven newbie-unfriendly place to 
go and talk about games is either a misconception or an excuse.

 > If all the puzzle-solving and narrative-tracking are happening somewhere
 > other than a previously-established community, (like a board attached to
 > an in-game site) every player comes in on equal footing. (For the most
 > part, unless unspoken status is brought over with a large chunk of 
players
 > from one community.)

 > Starting in a fresh space, every new idea gets explored. Otherwise, the
 > weight of attention is tipped in favor of ideas from players who built up
 > credibility in the community and ideas from newbies are at best 
grudgingly
 > examined and at worst patently ignored.

I could not agree with you more -- while playing an Alternate Reality 
Game is often a thing of beauty in itself, feeling as though you are a 
valuable part of a community working towards common goals is icing on 
the cake.  For many, including myself, the first ARG experience is 
usually either (a) the best, because it was an entirely new world, or 
(b) the most intense, because it was a huge world to become encapsulated 
in.  But we have many community members that, years after their first 
taste of ARG, continue to have a lot of fun playing these games on the 
Unfiction forums.  And when a game starts, and is picked up by the 
Unfiction community, everyone basically starts at square one anyway, 
don't they?  And if they don't, isn't that just how life goes?  
Depending on the activity or event, certain individuals or groups will 
have a particular skill set that helps them move more quickly, or will 
enable them to move further into the experience.  That is, unless the 
event is designed in such a way that everyone gets an even playing field 
from the very beginning -- and that's where the design comes in.  The 
designers can grumble and worry about the highly skilled participants 
all they want, but in the end, if it's all for fun, then why does it 
matter who finishes first, or last?

Specifically, let's talk about Last Call Poker.  Let's talk about it, 
because it deals with this from another perspective.  When the game 
launched, the Unfiction community jumped on board and did what they did 
best -- getting whois information for the website, making notes about 
characters and locations, marking down events, making family trees to 
connect characters to each other.  But then, you had this whole other 
group of online poker players, who did what they do best -- get on the 
tables, establish dominance, get lucky and win a few big pots.  Would it 
be have been fair for the LCP game designers to cry foul when the poker 
crowd completely bamboozled the "poker newbs" and took them for all of 
their weekly chips?  This is what I see happening here -- a complaint 
about the abilities of a specific community.  I agree with Krystyn when 
she said this appears, on the surface, to be anti-game.


 > One of the valuable assets the Unfiction community brings to the table is
 > that they don't need the "rules" explained to them. They already know 
what
 > an ARG is and can set an example for less experienced players. That's
 > awesome. But it does come with both pros and cons.

One thing I don't see a lot of in this vein of discussion is the 
distinction between the ARG community and the Unfiction community.  They 
are two different entities.  As a Puppetmaster (and although my hair is 
full of premature grey, I've never been one) I can only assume that you 
would want to create games for those outside of the Unfiction 
community.  Otherwise, how is this genre going to get any bigger?  As a 
player, I can say that although Unfiction is a lovely place to hang out, 
it is not the end-all-be-all of ARG communities.  Surely there must be 
dozens of communities (small, large, and everything in between) that 
devote some message board space to the discussion of Alternate Reality 
Games.  In the end, what does it matter where people are playing? -- 
it's not a competition, and there's no prize for having the most 
registered members at any given site.

I feel that I'm drifting away on META waves at this point, so that's 
where I'll stop.  I'll stick to my original plan of clarifying the issue 
of the politics at the Unfiction forums, and let the conversation 
continue from here.

-- 
The contents of this e-mail message and all attachments are intended for the confidential use of the addressee.  Any retention, review, reproduction, distribution or disclosure other than by the addressee is prohibited.  Please notify us immediately if we have transmitted this message to you in error.  Thank you.