Except for Astrid suddenly showing up, and Captain William Patrick!!!!! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Frak, where did I put my old notes...
And Qadhos being referred to on the web site. And Whitechapel being referred to on both the site and the Kickstarter page. And that damn creepy lightbulb. And pieces of paper! They're showing up all over the place! Where did Captain Scruffy show up before? I thought the first we saw of him was the 3/19/14 Division 42 report, after the "incident". -Bats
Wrong thread, will post in Kickstarter thread...keep in mind I'm a bit squiffy...box o wine hath been applied
I'm not going to go so far as to say it would be best to include it for beta (remember my favorite word, verisimilitude? I saw it running for the back door a little while ago... I think it might have been crying), but I'll accept that there's an argument to be made for it, and I probably won't even throw a big messy temper tantrum (I'm mature like that!) - but if it's going to exist beyond that point, my preference would be only to have it enabled by default for Red, and - at most - a toggle (defaulting to off) for Orange. It shouldn't even be an option for Yellow and above If you're getting an official communication coming from TBW HQ (or from any of the divisions), then it'll probably already be coming from a similarly official address, with a big ol' logo, corporate disclaimers at the bottom, and all the rest, making it hard to miss anyhow... but if it's supposed to a subtle hint - whether personal email from a stranger (or from A Friend), a response from some company we've contacted, or a hint hidden in something designed to look like spam - then slapping a "THIS IS PART OF THE BLACK WATCHMEN" sticker on top of it takes that subtle hint, paints it purple, and forces it at gunpoint to dance naked on top of a harpsichord singing "subtle hints are here again". Leaving subtlety aside (let's face it, subtlety and I were never very good friends to begin with)... I've talked before about the immensely powerful emotional impact of that moment in an ARG when you can actually find yourself questioning - even if only for the briefest instant - whether you're really certain that this is just a game. Every flag, indicator, and warning that the player sees (whether on email, domain registration info, or elsewhere) is one more time that a dev taps them gently on the shoulder, leans in close to their ear, and bellows "IT'S A GAME!". -Bats (to be clear, I have previously suggested - and still advocate - the idea of some form of identifying symbol or code being hidden on websites, to flag them as being part of the game. The key difference being, that was intended as a necessary evil to protect innocent bystanders from us - from hacking, from strange calls and from emails full all manner of ominous and confusing questions - and was intended to be less obvious than current practices.)
personally, i think the idea of a symbol, codeword or even just an identifier at the start of, say, the email header would be a good idea? something small, but enough that if you're swamped in emails you can still identify it as important (and one that doesn't overtly break immersion). but i also agree that tying it to clearance levels is a good idea, and being able to toggle it as well (tho i disagree with not letting yellow have the option, because some yellow agents may find it very helpful? but i'll bow to popular opinion here) which is basically me saying 'yes, but...'
I voted yes for the simple fact that it may help out people that are just started and aren't filtering their mail with dubious suspicion yet. As mention, would be getting to give a codeword or similar to still make it in character for the game itself.
Usually when I'm swamped with mail the last thing I'm likely to do is start digging into the headers... That would, however, be an interesting place to start hiding hints, assuming they're using a bulk mailer that actually allows/wouldn't strip out custom headers - not something that's likely to work running through mailchimp, tho. While Red & Orange seem intended to be fairly self-paced and designed for the player's convenience, it's been implied that Yellow is meant to involve the agent taking orders and playing on the agency's terms - no "I don't really feel like it" or "call back tomorrow, I promised I'd give the dog a bath" - very much training-wheels-off territory. At the same time, if it's really that hard to keep mail separated, grab a new address somewhere like gmail that can be dedicated to ARG email. You can either check it separately (at which point there's no risk of confusion) or set your usual mailreader to fetch that mail too & stick a "TBW" tag on it - you can even do this from within another gmail account, if that happens to be your primary. -Bats
I'm with @Bats, there are ways to filter possible communications. And if someone have difficulties with that, I'm sure we can prepare a whole thread offering support. I also think that tying toghether clearance level and optional warnings is a great idea. As to the warnings, subtlety is a priority. A giant red glowing banner doesn't feel right, codewords/phrase sounds like the way to go. Finally, I think the ones who will apply for Yellow and above will want you to give them Hell, so... there's not much argument at that point in my opinion Long story short: Give players the option to switch ON/OFF warnings: Yes Subtlety, subtlety, subtlety: Yes Give Yellow and above players Hell: Yes, they asked for it
don't think we need warnings. Verisimilitude is still the key. Warnings would ruin that. However if it is an accomplice trying to communicate with you then a secret word/passphrase would only make sense. I do think an on/off switch for warnings would be a nice touch for the actual game though, just not for the upper clearance levels
