The Puzzle Rush - Ways To Increase Puzzle Accessibility

The previous thread which got derailed into this topic got closed due to off-topic, so I think this deserves a dedicated thread.

Several members have brought up a valid concern regarding puzzle accessibility, and how one must petty much drop what they are doing and jump into IRC in order to keep up with the rest of the group. This causes to game to lose the sense of fellowship for the players left behind, which is not good.

This thread is for proposed solutions to this issue that either we, the community, or the puppet-masters could implement in order to make the game an enjoyable experience for everyone across the globe.

Spoiler: My Opinion On the Matter

It seems to me that a good solution would be a timed break, like the break in-between each dataset, only shorter. Like, a 20-30 minute visible countdown timer between each step/puzzle. It's a bit heavy handed, but it would drag out the game long enough to allow for people to explain what is happening and more people would be able to jump on board.

Also, I feel like it would work better for the overall intensity of the game. Solving a puzzle is very intense, and solving 3 puzzles in a row can wear a person down. A short break would give people a chance to collect their thoughts, and allow other people to continue trying to solve the puzzle on their own before the countdown ends. Getting incredibly close to the answer only to be forced to spoil it for yourself in order to keep up with the crowd is not very engaging, and ruins the satisfying feeling you get of solving a puzzle.

 

In the case of the D6 terminal, it would kinda make sense to have implemented such a timer in terms of the ARG, as it is a computer program. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say the datasets had times releases. For other missions, I'd like to hearken back to Blue Crush, where Disoatch had pre-set info dumps so everyone could know when the live mission progresses. Depending on the content of the live mission, it may not make sense to have timed info dumps, but we could have at the very least regular updates from Dispatch.

 

There should be a good balance between making sure everything is accessible and keeping the magic of the game. Maybe make surprise visits from dispatch a bit less common, but still around. Or even have dispatch pop by for clerical (roleplay) things only, without a mission.

I've seen a few people say "more text messages", but I can see A&S not wanting to overly spam people's phones. Maybe an "active agent" opt in where agents can choose to get a slew of specific mission related texts.

Foremost though, I'd say keep in line with the story, if a count down makes sense, use it. If not, then I'd avoid it. Don't be afraid to say "our communications are down because Daedalus tripped over the cord again, figure out a way of keeping contact"

 

I agree that introducing timeouts as part of the game play structure or as part of the AR in ARG seem to be good simple solutions that PMs can manage on their end.

One reason I see that things suddenly progress quickly at times is that some agents randomly try a password or archive code until success is achieved. The easier this is to pull off, the more sudden discoveries appear to be, the faster things subsequently move and the more they seem jump out ahead of clues that have actually been publicly revealed thus far.

Now, this is a perfectly legitimate approach for an agent to take in my opinion, and I am in no way suggesting that things be done to prevent this outright. I have done this to some degree myself, but it is completely unrealistic to for agents to expect that that this kind of approach comes without constraints. I have never known a good system that that does not attempt to guard against attempts to break into it. One common measure is to force a timeout, even if only for a minute or two, after several failed attempts. The idea is that if you actually know what you are doing, presumably based on what is publicly known so far, then you will have little trouble getting in. If you are just fishing, then the system attempts to protect itself by throttling your activity.

I understand that implementing something like this would only address one small source of the rush, but I do not think there is a single total solution. It will need to be an accumulation of small things like this. I see this in systems I work with every day as part of my job (30 seconds to 10 minutes is typical based on the system security requirements), so I think it reasonable to expect to see that here anyway.

 

On thinking it over, I agree with Daedalus. The story should be what it is and the missions should be what they are. That's the way it is in the mundane world, too.

Agents will accomplish missions at the speed of their ability, specialized knowledge and luck. I'm too methodical and analytical for the environment of the Q6 puzzles. As those were, somebody who solves usually posts an answer (if you can manage to recognize it when it streams by in IRC) but it is useless without knowing which lock the answer fits in (which rarely gets posted) and there is no learning without knowing what the puzzle is. I never had enough information to understand what is happening in real time, and it would be hopeless to try to contribute. Coming in when some steps are already solved just exacerbates the problem. A cooldown timer between steps might help with my frustrations and maybe other agent's, too, but then there are the agents who are ready to work the next step being frustrated. And, overdoing artificial constraints on problem solving will hurt immersion. I don't envy HQ trying to solve this one.

I now think for me it is better to not spoiler myself during fast-paced missions. I have to remind myself that not every mission is for every agent, that I should avoid the immediacy context, and I should wait for the re-runs to come out so I can tackle the puzzles at my own pace.

 

So far Daed has honestly said the most spot-on interpretation of the situation (and I'm not just saying that because we're Gwen-vengers-in-crime):

That's the biggest question right now -- how can you integrate agent-inclusion logistics into plot?

Spoiler: Discussion of past missions.

The biggest issue with the Datasets scenario that I saw was that one or two people got the notice, then jumped on it and literally nobody was ready -- and worse, nobody could figure out how it worked. The fact that one or two people solved it and that there's a trail of misinformation is sometimes inevitable and hard to manage, and there's no perfect system that will solve this without delaying the mission as a whole (unless we have dedicated people recording it). The timing issue was definitely solvable, as Anashel addressed.

To me, FALCONREACH was one of the most successful missions (even if the timing to put in code was terrible, which disappointed me because I helped form the spreadsheet). It hit that perfect balance of urgency and problem-solving inclusion. Even once the initial puzzle with Baup's video was solved, we had an idea of what was coming -- even if there wasn't a specific time.

I think some of the pre-launch missions did a good job of giving us even a bit of advance notice of when something was about to go down. Even saying, "We expect all available agents to report to the IRC at [x-time], we have an urgent report," is better than nothing.

But like we discussed, you don't want to be like, "Hey, mission incoming in three days!" That kinda kills a bit of the fun of being in an ARG.

Also... you guys should really use your twitter more. Please. I'll run it if I have to. Just use it.

Anyway that was a lot of rambling. Not giving solutions, just giving thoughts.

 

I like how the missions have been running, and personally, not having a reliable irc client on my phone (this is due to having an iphone, which doesnt have some kind of app for it) can stop me from being able to keep up to the minute while im working on everything else.

the live missions are running well, and there's always room for improvement. with how it works, sometimes it requires contact through real world methods, and thats pretty cool.

I agree with daed's findings. Dispatch appearing randomly can cause some issues. I think that their capacity for RP is a great thing, and even if we dont necessarily do that in the normal chat room. Dispatch could be used for showing, mundane missions, like telling us what to do while we're waiting on new information, or even provide us with links to other things, if you want to post out information to specific levels and such. make use of the potential for RP, even out of the RP channel.

In other news, we should really try to get people using that channel. I think it'd be fun. We haven't used it much before, and RP stuff can be cool!

I agree on the keeping it in line with the story approach. Be creative! see what some of us have started messing around with in the RP boards, and use that in game, like @Daedalus' idea of blaming him for comms going down. We all want to be a part of this world, especially with things involving the comic if possible, but still, we're here to play and experience the story and world y'all have built!

mostly just ideas here, because I have faith in y'all as devs. you'e never disappointed before, and i'm positive you wont now!

 

Palaver is not too bad

 

i'll check it out, thanks!