[arg_discuss] Re: Communities and resources

[Gupfee]

Just a few thoughts here--

I think it's important to keep in mind that the player base is for the most
part, highly intelligent and motivated, and will not take kindly to any
effort to speak to them as less than equals in the game arena.  It's a
matter of tone.  Setting yourself up as a Puppetmaster may serve whatever
goals you have for your company and/or client, but please don't expect to go
into a forum like Unfiction and control any aspect of how your game is
received there.

Wendy brought up an important distinction--games are not truly "played" on
Unfiction's forum.  The forum is to be considered strictly "out of game," a
safe place for players to report on their actions within the gamespace, and
to discuss the mechanics and results of gameplay, without interference from
PMs.

An interesting bit of history for you who have not been around in this genre
since the beginning, like a few of us have--back when The Beast was being
played, there was a subset of players who had some of the same criticisms of
the Yahoo Group Cloudmakers that have been expressed here about Unfiction:
Cloudmakers was a clique, they were solving puzzles too fast, there was no
way for newbies to participate.  Another group called Spherewatchers was set
up as a "kinder, gentler" way to play the game.  To the best of my
knowledge, this group never "finished" playing.  As their gameplay was
several weeks behind when the game ended, and the PMs stepped out from
behind the Curtain, anyone who was seriously playing along moved back to
Cloudmakers in order to participate in "real time".

In my mind, wanting Unfiction to be "newbie friendly" is a wrong-headed
approach. It is what it is, and it is a self-selecting community.  A far
better task to keep in mind as developers and designers, IMO,  would be to
provide resources within the game space to allow newbies to get caught up on
gameplay, like trails and guides.  Also, why not target a game at the most
hardcore players?  Video game designers seem to understand this, as I don't
hear complaints from Halo fans that the game is "too hard" or that newbies
on Xbox Live have no safe place to get up to speed. Longtime ARG players
have seen a lot of tricks, and they are hungry for a truly new and innovatve
game experience.  The PM team that provides that will be pleasantly
surprised by what the Unfiction community will do with it.

Marie

On 3/31/06, Adam Martin <adam at mindcandydesign.com> wrote:
>
> despain at quantumcontent.com wrote:
> > The problem as I see it is that some of the things developers might
> > say to each other could inadvertently offend the major player base our
> > games are aimed at if they are listening in on the conversation.
>
> The ARG SIG was founded explicitly to enable developers to talk freely
> on a large scale (as opposed to the private conversations we tend to
> have on a one-on-one basis at conferences etc). It was strongly felt
> that there wasn't really anywhere else [*] where they could do this.
>
> Players who do listen-in are expected to respect that, and temper their
> reactions appropriately - without, of course, letting it stifle their
> interaction. This was one of the primary fears we had in the first place
> that lead to us moderating all posts - we didn't want to be swamped by
> flames from people who came to the list straight from, say, a UF post,
> and hadn't stopped to read the charter.
>
> This appears not to be a problem - we've been around for 3 months,
> plenty of time for explorative ARG players to have discovered and
> infiltrated us ;), but it seems the overwhelming majority are happy to
> leave us alone to do what we do.
>
> (Incidentally, this is a current concern - that we could do with a few
> more players on the list, as a sounding board, a second opinion, etc. If
> the list membership jumps by a thousand people overnight, I'll regret
> saying this ;), but IMHO it would be good if we could all encourage some
> more "audience participation")
>
> > For example, someone has already said my point of view is "anti-game"
> > and I have to wonder if that would affect how those players might
> > interact with any games they knew I was involved in.
>
> If the game is good, they will judge it on the game itself, rather than
> on their personal feelings for the designer. Even the mainstream games
> industry hasn't really reached the level of super-stardom where, for
> instance, people will boycott a movie based on objections to the
> lifestyles of the actors.
>
> > Have I shot myself in the foot here?
>
> IMO: If we worry about this too much, then the list is dead. If we have
> the courage to speak freely, the mutual benefits should greatly outweigh
> the risks.
>
> Adam
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