[arg_discuss] Topic of the Week Aug. 17: Ghost Players

[Hugh Davies]

Now i know what they are, I agree that there are problems with Ghost
players. Between ghost players and characters, you kind of end up with an
ARG that can play itself.

And surely as a player, its more compelling to be contacted by character
than another player, especially if you somehow find out that that player was
a Ghost player at which point you risk feeling dumb and manipulated.

h

On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 3:18 PM, Brian Clark <bclark at gmdstudios.com> wrote:


> > We used "ghost players" in Art of the Heist

>

> Naw, those weren't "ghost players" -- everyone knew they were fictional

> characters.

>

> The specific presentation that spurred this conversation at ARGfest was

> from

> a group that had some of their people participating in live groups, but

> with

> instructions to push the group along in a particular direction. The "real

> players" would have thought those were other "real players" up until the

> moment they had the party at the end (when they did reveal that those

> "ghost

> players" were cast members.) They did this because they had rather

> aggressive timelines of interdependencies, so the "ghost players" were a

> way

> of controlling pacing.

>

> For me, the big issue this introduces is actually the potential mistrust

> among players.

>

>

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