[LouMac]

So many, but the biggest ones are talking to Op during I Love Bees, and obviously, hiding in a port-o-potty from a freakin' actress playing a character in Art of the Heist. I'm such a wuss.

[UberTaco]

First one I remember playing was Argensoft -- yeah, a small one, and not long ago either.

For me, the "this is awesome" moment was (and I hope I don't sound arrogant) reading the UF thread, going "hey, I *know* this stuff" and solving my first puzzle.

I think I got such a head rush that I went ahead and solved the next five puzzles -- including one that required me to find and learn how to use a compiler for a programming language intentionally designed to be arcane (and consequently becoming that guy in the thread.)

[Crescent]

discovered this thread

[EarlyWyrm]

From a green point of view:

#1 Dialing mister Alan Johnson's phone number and hearing that bizarre message delivered by that wonderful, dynamic voice and the visceral joy of saying the word "sammeeee".

#2 The first actual ARG interaction in IM with a character from Enoch - the definition of surreality, even though I didn't stick with the game the experience of interacting with someone who wasn't "real" just floored me.

#3 Clicking on a piece of the Occulus, solving a puzzle, and watching it turn into a flash video... Finally the filmmaker in me got to meet the actionscript coder in me and what a wonderful dichotomy...

Having read through countless archives I'm disappointed at not having found this genre in its infancy, but as someone who is very protective of his freetime I have to say that the genre is still absolutely captivating, even for those of us who are waiting for the green to wash off

[sixsidedsquare]

I can actually say I had one of these moments today. I had been meaning to watch the 4th live event from Vanishing Point for a while, so I finally downloaded it and wow. Encoding clues to puzzles in fireworks. Wow. This reconfirmed for me why the ARGing community loves 42 so much. If you haven't seen it I would highly recommend checking it out here, it really is worth the watch: http://vanishingpointwiki.com/wiki/Event_4

danteIL wrote:

What I found wasn't groundbreaking in terms of the game story or anything -- I think it lead to some video of Swinton -- but there was that feeling, that moment when I knew that I was the first person to discover that page and that no one else had seen it yet. It was privileged for me alone just for those few moments. It was as if the PMs and I shared this secret.

This is also another thing I love in ARGs. Quite frankly I am a puzzle junkie, and you do get a buzz from a first solve. It's not just like solving a puzzle in a book or online that many people have already done, like danteIL said, it's being the first to solve/see something that someone has specially made just for you, the players. I think that feeling is what fuels the puzzlers on this forum, and one of the great things with ARGs.

[danteIL]

Because we always look back fondly on our First as the best, no matter what the domain, I'll have to draw my example from the Beast too... My personal OMG moment came when I *knew* that the Red King had to have added a new page to SPCB, but it hadn't been discovered yet. After trying all sorts of things for a very long time, I finally managed to find the right URL. I think I sat there in shock for several heartbeats, confused that it had even worked.

What I found wasn't groundbreaking in terms of the game story or anything -- I think it lead to some video of Swinton -- but there was that feeling, that moment when I knew that I was the first person to discover that page and that no one else had seen it yet. It was privileged for me alone just for those few moments. It was as if the PMs and I shared this secret.

But then, not to make you think that I am all solipsistic, the moment was only complete when I was able to share what I found with the other players. I was able to make my contribution to the game and keep it moving forward. Holy cow, indeed.

[aliendial]

Mike Royal - watching a live event with character interaction as it happens in the forums and irc. Just wow.

[thebruce]

 

[rose]

Quote:

(as opposed to, say, being sent an ILB traning event lanyard from a fellow arger,

I'll try not to take that personally but I did also include the CD

[thebruce]

3 things:
* for adrenaline, I'd say from the knowledge of upcoming 'packages' of puzzles where everyone gathers and rushes to solve them. First it was the embedded puzzles from the sleeping princess every week, and recently with the vanishing point game. An OMG time is when I'm able to contribute by making at least one solve - since I'm typically more lurking and organizing rather than actively playing, so when I do manage to make a solve, it's rare and special for me... hehe

* more drawn out, sufficiently helping organize loads of information, helping to make it readable and understandable in a resource. It make me feel good knowing I've been able to contribute back to the community in some way, and usually the first thing I end up doing in an ARG I join is try to either help, or begin, organizing known information, especially when it's all over the place. I don't plan on taking down the ILB transcripts or side by side timeline any time soon =)

* just recently, finally getting arg swag in a real arg way . Living in Canada, it's rare that mail or rabbitholes are sent here, plus the fact I'm not too actively involved (ie: deserving) in many ARGs, means that I live vicariously through all the mail swag other people get, hehe... so winning the draw in Monster Hunters Club means I'll get some swag in an in-game way (as opposed to, say, being sent an ILB traning event lanyard from a fellow arger, or being given arg swag through argfest Chicago). I'll be quite excited to see this package on my doorstep. It's the ARG value, the sentiment that comes with it that makes it special.
And hey, everyone loves swag

[Nightmare Tony]

First time enhottentating an OC axon.
Dinner with our fun crew.
The thrill of being behind the scenes and the newfound cameraderie behind the curtain.

the thrill of it all.

[yanka]

For me, it's not any "moment" per se - it's that enduring high, the wipe-out-the-rest-of-my-life addiction, that feeling that I'm "living in the game" and that the game has literally become my alternate reality. Sleepdeprivation! Getting so hooked that you can't stay away from the forum and you have to drag yourself out of chat and into bed at 4am only to log back in immediately after waking up some three hours later; dying slowly and painfully when there are no updates - those are the best "moments." I haven't had that since MU, and I'm so jealous of people that are getting into yearzero now, because they will get to live that "high" for the first time. This person on ETS forum writes: "Ok, seriously, if this thing lasts 2 months... I've been LIVING on this forum & the various websites for about 3 days now. 2 more months???? ETS went down for a bit the other day... Nicotine withdrawal is easier to deal with! gah... I need to stop thinking about this for at least 10 minutes HAH." <- that, to me, is the BEST thing about a game.

[Giskard]

Re: WOW! OMG! HOLY COW! ARG!

[Phaedra]

Well, as I mentioned in the other thread, the two live phone calls I got from Melissa were OMG moments for me.

But long before that, I had a sort of frisson of joy when I discovered the Widow's Journey and some of Melissa's text in ILB. I loved its ambiguity, its multitextuality, the fact that if you dug at it, you got multiple layers of meaning, and that it just seemed to keep giving more no matter how much you poked at it.

I also had a pleasant sort of chill hearing about some of the first live calls where Melissa mentioned other players to the ones she was talking to, and realizing that this wasn't some gigantic mechanical campaign designed to merely mimic "personal" interaction -- the game was actually aware of us.

And even now having been around for a while and having had the newness of ARGs wear off and not having played the Beast, I still am mesmerized by the Martin-Brutus dialogues. The fact that the first one, which appears to be completely normal story, and is a well-written and moving dialogue, also holds a complicated and sophisticated puzzle requiring knowledge of both how web pages are designed and knowledge of T.S. Eliot marks what is to me a poignant and inspiring act of faith -- that to reach a broad audience, one needn't aim for the lowest common denominator, that people would be just as clever in figuring it out as the designers were in making it -- on the part of the designers who were, at the time, experimenting with something that had no precedent of success. And that act of faith and trust in the audience's intelligence and resourcefulness remains for me a defining moment if ever there was one, even if I wasn't around to see it when it happened.

[rowan]

Getting into iannet at Last Resort Retrieval for the first time. Actually seeing that there was history there rather than a 'I just started this a week ago and it's lucky that I did because I need someone's help now' website that almost seems to be the standard in games anymore.

I spent hours going through each piece of information on that site, and it made me closer to the characters since I could see their personal lives without having them just tell me. And even though there weren't any actual puzzles to be solved in all that backstory, just piecing together the storyline of their history felt more rewarding to me than some of the SD card solves.