Who Sees What?

[pariah164]

Ok, I clicked the wrong thing. Well, not really. The whole thing is confusing, at least to me. I mean, you can see it... but you can't see it? I mean, if you can't "see" it, how can you tell Dan/Bree/Jonas about it anyway? You're kinda contridicting yourselves there, creators. :\ And you're trying too hard, really.

[Michelle]

What?

The whole idea is that as if you're in-character (ie pretending this whole thing is real, by posting to the characters in their forums or emailing them or whatever), you don't mention anything in the private videos, since when you're a "character", you didn't see them.

However obviously you ARE going to watch them, so when you're not in-character (ie posting as yourself in the boards, discussing the show as though it's fiction), it's fine to talk about the private videos.

Personally I always thought the in-character thing was kind of weird anyway, but then again I don't know a lot about ARGs or this new kind of media.

[technogypsy]

I think the videos should be password protected.

The password should be from a series of riddles. Let us pick sides (individual character loyalty, for example) and let us help the characters solve whatever to get the clues.

Remember the phone number puzzles? Fun stuff. Let's revisit that kind of content. Maybe we could "hack" Bree's email acct and see what Tachyon's encoded emails to her look like...or whatever. They could have LiveJournal style webdiaries with password-protected entries. The storyline can be dictacted, to a degree, by our ability to solve puzzles and pick up clues.

In RPGs, sometimes a campaign can be planned by saying "What would happen if the Heroes (Player-Characters) never came along and got involved? Would Old Man Smithers have gotten away with it were it not for those meddling kids?

Let the main characters (and villains) meddle with our assistance! There is no problem with actually hiding some of the content...making us work for it. The big videos will always be posted public (I'm sure?) but supplemental stuff can hide.

[QtheC]

In the original post by the Creators, they appear to be addressing a new type of video in the MAIN story - the addition of 'private transmissions.' Okay, if these are for the widest audience to view, they need to be kept in chronological order and not grouped into separate bundles according to channel (or at least not primarily).

If there is a side method to grab all the "Tachyon" transmissions that could be cool as long as the simple chronological order list of all main story videos is there up front. Revver seems to allow clusters of subsets of a users videos like this. That could be one way to organize the "transmission channels" separate from this website.

None of this precludes there being supplemental ARG videos that require passwords, etc. to access, that once found might later be "released" to the main story line, or left on the side entirely as purely supplemental (maybe).

I'm not sure this post adds anything new to the conversation, maybe just clarifies a couple of things.

[PolkadotConfederation]

Creators, I think this sounds like a fine idea. It's still a little confusing to me at the moment, but I trust that you guys know what you're doing. Sorry if that post was completely unhelpful.

[Languorous Lass]

Can someone please distill all of this information into a kind of "'Who Sees What' For Dummies"? I haven't been able to figure out what this whole thread is talking about. In fact, I haven't even understood it well enough to be able to vote -- and y'all know that I'll insert my opinion anywhere I possibly can.

[colbertnationgirl]

Just read the Creator's post and vote. Everything else is just people's opinion on it.

[Languorous Lass]

But I don't understand the creators' post.

[Jo_16_2]

ok, let's see how can i explain this to you...
there are the normal videos, everyone in the breeniverse can see them (that is daniel, jonas, tachyon, brother, opaphid, etc) and then, there are these private videos, for example, tachyon posts a video, but in a private channel, so only bree, daniel and jonas see the video (for example), that would mean that, for ex, opaphid wouldnt see the video.
do you know what i mean or are you more confused?

[chershaytoute]

Okay, Lass, what I'm getting is this...

There are regular videos that everybody sees. Call those Public Videos. All characters, from DB&J (which still sounds as if it should be served on white bread with chips, to me ) to OpAphid can see these.

There are also what The Creators are calling Private Transmission videos, for lack of a better term. We'll be able to see them, too, but we'll be in suspension of disbelief mode. There will be something overt to indicate that these are private - a textual something, a border, a flashing deal at the beginning, spin art to get us in the mood... These videos might be made by any of the characters. They may be in the form of a private diary entry, or they may be sent from one character to another (Bree sends a plea for help to Tachyon; OpAphid sends a message to trigger Daniel...or sends a threat to The Three). In the first case, only Bree and Tachy can see the message. In the second, only Oppy and DannyB. In the last, Oppy and our Three friends.

Now, of course, we, the fans (viewing audience) can ALSO see these videos, but we are characters in the story, in our own way...and, as such, we know our role...and that's to only participate when the time is right. If the vid is marked Private Transmission, we didn't really see it...so we can't spill the beans...

I have a hunch (and this is one I'm not sure of, just a hunch) that there will also be Private Transmissions that go from the character characters to us, the fans...when we're to interact with things... That'd be a pretty cool piece, if added to the whole, IMO...

[Renegade]

Can someone please distill all of this information into a kind of "'Who Sees What' For Dummies"? [...]

Everybody sees everything, but no-one knows about it.

[AM]

Okay, I just saw this now and I hope you, the creators are still checking this thread. When you reconfigure the site I think you should send all existing members and email with a link. When we follow the link it will lead to a page on which we have to re-register our screen name and redo our password. Before accepting our re-registration we should have to click to accept a TOS agreement in which we agree not to reveal certain information to the characters when posting in the forums that the charaters can see. There should also be forums which they can't see where we can talk about anything.

In order to be able to participate in certain forums we have to agree to the TOS. In fact when entering the forum where you get to post to Daniel or Bree or Jonas, in character, you should have to click on the certificate each time.

Then you have to have the mods agressively delete posts that give things away. Repeat offenders will have to have their privlidges to post to the characters revoked after a warning or two.

Those who do not accept the certificate should still be able to post in the general forum but perhaps they should only able to view the other forums, such as the ones where you talk to the characters, sans posting privlidges.

IOW, even though we are just following and commenting on the story, we are de facto ARG players (even if the ARG is not something we are particularly following), each time we enter a forum in which the characters can read our posts (and those forums should somehow be clearly seperated from the less restrictive forums which the characters can't see).

I do hope I am making some sense.

[Lurker]

Okay, I just saw this now and I hope you, the creators are still checking this thread. When you reconfigure the site I think you should send all existing members and email with a link. When we follow the link it will lead to a page on which we have to re-register our screen name and redo our password. Before accepting our re-registration we should have to click to accept a TOS agreement in which we agree not to reveal certain information to the characters when posting in the forums that the charaters can see. There should also be forums which they can't see where we can talk about anything.

In order to be able to participate in certain forums we have to agree to the TOS. In fact when entering the forum where you get to post to Daniel or Bree or Jonas, in character, you should have to click on the certificate each time.

Then you have to have the mods agressively delete posts that give things away. Repeat offenders will have to have their privlidges to post to the characters revoked after a warning or two.

I don't think this is a good idea. It wouldn't really be a big deal if they let something slip anyway since the character in question just wouldn't be able to read that post (either because it would be jibberish to them or it wouldn't appear, just like asking Bree what it's like hanging out with Yousef is right now).

As far as placing penalties on posters for stuff like that, that would only encourage them not to post or be as playful as they might otherwise be, I think. And then you'd have the occassions where someone accidentally brought up something the character couldn't or shouldn't know about (which happens even now).

IOW, even though we are just following and commenting on the story, we are de facto ARG players...

I think that would turn off a lot of new and old fans. The number of audience members who know the ARG exists is probably abysmally small, and the number who care would be even less.

[AM]

Hmmm...good points. But then what do the creators mean when they say we can't tell the characters what is in the 'private transmissions' videos. How will they keep people from being confused?

At the very least they should send everyone an email explaining the new set up. It wouldn't be that hard to send out a mass email to any and all registered members just explaining the new set up. Otherwise you will have a lot of confused LG fans.

[Lurker]

Hmmm...good points. But then what do the creators mean when they say we can't tell the characters what is in the 'private transmissions' videos. How will they keep people from being confused?

You shouldn't tell the characters about that stuff, no (same as too much out-of-character stuff gets removed from the in-character chats), but unless you would demonstrate that you were someone who was deliberately trying to be annoying and frustrate others, I don't think they'd want you getting penalized for it.

At the very least they should send everyone an email explaining the new set up. It wouldn't be that hard to send out a mass email to any and all registered members just explaining the new set up. Otherwise you will have a lot of confused LG fans.

I wouldn't worry. I'm sure they'd make the rules clear.