[arg_discuss] Open Source ARGs

[Brooke Thompson]

On Jul 30, 2008, at 3:09 PM, Andrea Phillips wrote:

>  And the very concept of

> gamejacking that's come into existence since then. The act of a player

> creating within the context of the game world has taken on hostile

> connotations and is actively discouraged by the community at this

> point. Which, well, it's too bad, and in retrospect I feel terrible

> that I was a part of fostering that culture of intolerance. Sigh.



I disagree with this. A number of players and puppetmasters love it  
when players create within the context of the game world. They just  
like it to be done within some parameters in order to avoid confusion.

Look at WWO - the entire game was about players creating within the  
framework provided by the puppetmasters. They were putting themselves  
into the story and letting the player imagination take the lead.

Beyond WWO, a number of games have created and called out for player- 
generated content: from images of players doing things to short  
stories and articles written within the game universe. Some games let  
players take control over certain aspects of the narrative in order to  
let them lead the direction of the game. My favorite forum posts are  
not "SOLVED!" but are the ones where players are taking game elements  
and expanding upon them - from photoshopping game images to latching  
onto characters and other narrative elements to create wild  
speculations of what this might all mean and where it might go. Isn't  
that a form of creation and story building within the context of the  
game universe?

It's all about the parameters created (either by the player community  
or the designers of the experience) in order to reduce the confusion  
on the player-base as a whole. If a framework was set-up that would  
reduce or support that confusion (such as the one created by WWO), I  
think that players would actively embrace "gamejacking".

(this doesn't even get into Lonelygirl 15 -- they actually hired one  
of their "gamejackers" to help create some of their more arg-ish  
elements)