[arg_discuss] TOW: What's the worst unforseen disaster you had in an ARG, and how did you handle it?

[Michelle Senderhauf]

Ok, here's mine... some of you may have heard this story before ;)   This
was during the Alias fanfic ARG, Omnifam.  We had an outdoor live event
planned in a park where a player was going to meet an agent for an exchange.
 When the event plans were made, we realized that the player who was going
to show up had met the agent several times and that the player would most
likely recognize the agent.  We didn't want to ruin the mystery of it all,
so we did the only thing we could do -- dressed the agent up as a clown.  It
wasn't really all that crazy of an idea as the agent was my husband who used
to be a professional clown.  And is there really any better agent disguise
than a clown at a child's birthday party in a park?  :P
Anyway, he dressed up in his clown suit and makeup and we drove to the
meetup spot which was a hour or so away.  It was really, really hot
outside... not the kind of weather you want to be wearing full clown gear
in.  But it was the kind of weather that will make your car overheat!

So as our temperature gauge needle is flirting with the big red H, we decide
we have to turn the heat on if we want to make it to the park.  My three
year old daughter and father-in-law (who both came along for the ride) are
miserable and the poor clown is sweating makeup all over the car.  We roll
the car into the parking lot and unbelievably get the event set up before
the player arrived.  We temporarily forgot about the car and how we were
going to get home and went on with the show.  There were a few minor
problems with the event (it's really hard to make animal balloons in 100
degree heat), but all went well because we just rolled with the punches.  We
got the car taken care of after the event without having to ask the player
for a ride!

So now whenever there's a behind-the-scenes disaster, I just remember...
everything will work out if the PMs just keep their cool (hehe).

Michelle Senderhauf

On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 4:57 PM, Wendy Despain <wendeth at wendydespain.com>wrote:


> Hmm. My worst unforseen disaster was that I set up all the clues based

> on the "traditional," rather obscure, tech knowledge-heavy modes of

> play, and then failed to attract the tech-savvy, ARG-savvy audience.

> So essentially, nobody knew how to play the game because they had

> never played an ARG before and didn't know the drill.

>

> This slowed everything way down, and I didn't really figure out how to

> recover until nearly the end. The audience still had a good time, but

> not as good as I think they would have, if they'd had someone there to

> show them how to go deep, deep down the rabbit hole.

>

> I know other things went wrong, but that's the big one that jumps out

> right away. :-)

>

> Wendy Despain

> International Hobo

>

>

>

> On Wed, January 7, 2009 12:23 pm, Adam Martin wrote:

> > The idea is that we will chuck a topic at you

> > each week and given you a little something to think about and give us

> > your thoughts. We've already come up with a list of questions at the

> > minute, but if you want your question to be featured as part of the

> > topic of the week, please let me know and we can add it to the list.

> >

> > (this week's is courtesy of Michelle :))

> >

> > Adam

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>

>

> Wendy Despain

> quantumcontent.com

>

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