Warning Header

I miss stuff a lot...a warning would be useful to me

 

If I understand the concept correctly, it's meant to act as a "This is part of the ARG!" message, correct?

I'm inclined to say I'd rather see it being off during the Beta Mission. If it turns out to be an issue, it can be implemented before the game goes live, so to speak.
If it's on during the Beta Missions, and later switched off, there's a possiblity that some agents might be confused by the sudden lack of clarification.

As for the 1st Season; what about tieing it to Clearence Level?
Red: On
Orange: Optional (or Off, if Optional isn't a possibility)
Yellow: Off

 

Before I make a vote that I can't take back, I would like to know how people opt in to the mission. Are beta missions pre- or post-kickstarter? Is it possible that someone would be opted in without knowing? I'm leaning towards ON right now because I don't want people to miss out at all during this phase when it's really necessary. If it's after kickstarter just before launch then I'd say leave them off.

Agree with Santiak, but let Red and Orange be optional for both. Not sure what kind of communication red would be receiving that would warrant it though.

 

In that case, I think I come on the side of ON for all for the beta missions IF it's not perfectly clear what the communication is about.

If it's a very clear invitation to a mission for TBW, then no header is necessary. If it's "Join us for the opening ceremonies at the Barbizon Hotel, check out our livestream at xxxxxx" then you should definitely add the header.

 

Yes, I certainly would appreciate this...I get hundreds of emails a day and I would hate to miss something int he middle of it all

 

I agree with what Nikel said. And also with Santiak....tie it to our chosen level when we select that choice.

 

For the beta mission - if it is easy to implement, turn it on.
When it gets real, lets get more serious.

Personally, I'd like to have no warnings. Just for the sake of immersion and surprise.
But, everybody's situation will be different.
The issue as I see it is *ensuring the message is delivered to the agent*.
With so many different ways for messages to propagate nowadays, I think it becomes the agent's responsibility to ensure that safeguards have been taken to ensure there are no problems on the receiving end. Yes, if the medium is shared, there needs to be some accomodating but then the sharing forces accomodation IRL anyway. Phone calls have the most risk because they are least permanent.
But with that said, A&S has some responsibility to make the messages recognizable, I'd hope by including some content that is clearly part of the ongoing investigation. I think ideally, A&S' responsibilities as to recognizable content (and a warning) should change according to red-orange-yellow.

Steps to ensure I get the messages? I'm email whitelisting all domains that I know are connected to the investigation. My wife is being read in to what is happening so if something suspicious happens, she knows what to do. I have a pay-as-you-go phone dedicated to agenting, only A&S and my wife have the number.
Nevertheless, there are possibilities that will fall through the cracks. For example, I haven't looked at my Facebook page in years but I can imagine a message coming to me: "My niece facebooks something about a trip to Montreal, gonna stay at the Barbizon. They want a blood sample, what's with that?" Clearly aimed at me but I'd miss it.

Edit: On re-reading the thread I see that for some people the warning is desirable for reasons independent of why they'd be red-orange-yellow. Perhaps make it a configurable switch of its own?

 

I've missed a lot of TBW content because my inbox is often full of garbage, and the email content was vague enough for me to file it as spam and delete it instead of pinging as a clue.
Adding a key phrase or code word to TBW correspondence would make it easier for thickies like me to know when a new mission is online.

 

Code words can also be a really cool way to link missions together later down the road, or when receiving seemingly innocuous correspondence. You should totally do some of those later down the road. Baby steps, haha.

 

Yes, this would be helpful. For example, any forum update I get now has The Black Watchmen heading...it doesn't have to be intrusive, just a little something to help folks like Cly and me...

 

- Cut to the 2nd Season, everyone being stuck for days on a high priority mission.
> New Agent joins in late.
"Hey guys, those 2 characters at the start of every Alert we get.. if you ROT3 it, it looks an awful lot like hex."

- Sattelite view of the world, the sound of a thousand palms hitting forehead.
- Fade to black, fade to:

Spoiler

 

DON'T GIVE HIM IDEAS. Gosh Santiak.

 

I'm so desperate, I almost tried that as a password...

 

On the bright side, if we're the progenitors of an idea, we're more likely to be aware of it later on, which would reduce the chances of Anashel making use of it, knowing that we'd be keenly aware of it.

It's not a bad idea. Considering what Nikel just said, knowing Anashel, and the memories that password has for those who participated in End of Days, I wouldn't be surprised.

As for the Alert:
Aye, would probably be best to include the warning during the Beta phase. If it's going to be dependant on Clearence Level, new agents can always be "eased into" the lack of clarification as they choose to step up that ladder.

 

HOW CAN YOU DO THIS TO ME? NOW I WANNA TRY ALL THE OLD PASSWORDS. YOU DEMON

 

On second thought, I doubt that they would be of much use, considering we have seen no hints of any connection to the previous ARGs.

*smiles nervously*