[lego606]

UnForum baking competition!

[Crisssy101]

Ideas

[natas]

SpaceBass wrote:

natas wrote: I was just curious as to if any of the aforementioned ideas are on their way to implementation and/or where UF stands as far as meeting their budget needs this year. I need a new PHP genius. Halp?

I may be able to code up some stuff for you. What do you need?

[SpaceBass]

natas wrote:

I was just curious as to if any of the aforementioned ideas are on their way to implementation and/or where UF stands as far as meeting their budget needs this year.

I need a new PHP genius. Halp?

[natas]

I was just curious as to if any of the aforementioned ideas are on their way to implementation and/or where UF stands as far as meeting their budget needs this year. There hasn't been a reply in a while so I don't know if more attention needs to be brought forth or what needs to be done.

Apologies if it has been mentioned before but has anyone thought of creating an ARG that could generate income where the proceeds went to UF? I would be interested in brainstorming this idea.

[Crescent]

i think uf money being raised would be great!!!
i'm in - but nowhere near nyc - will help out though

[rose]

Finding the pirate gold for uF

[rose]

An idea you may or may not like...as it may reward games where players have or can raise money.

What about allowing people to pay for the promotion of a game to a subforum? That would only work if there was sufficient interest in a game to justify it, the interest has to be there...but right now I am following two news and rumors threads that are just getting longer and harder to follow and I would gladly kick in a few bucks to promote them to their own forum. Heck I might even pay something to have more than a little thread in timewasters for my charades thing, although that is linear so it works just fine.

As I said, I don't know how hard creating subforums are, and I don't know how many games can be promoted...I just wonder if there is a way to get people to kick in some cash to promote the games they play.

I'm not suggesting holding a popular game hostage and not giving it a forum..

oh I don't know, I just think their might be a way to get people to kick in for a game they are playing in a way they may not be willing to support the entire forum...particularly new people.

Could this be more trouble than it is worth?

[Broklynite]

What about putting out a call for a makerbot or some other form of 3D printing? Someone probably has one or knows someone who does. If you did limited runs of a few items for some of the ARGs, you probably could make a few bucks easily. Naturally, you would have to be careful about IP, but there are many ways around that. Reall,y the problem would be getting your hands on/access to a 3D printer.

I don't know what the finances are like, but they sound fairly dire, so I guess you wouldn't be able to just buy one yourselves. And of course, who would have the thing in their possesion, take care of mailing things out, etc. etc. But these are secondary problems. The main is really how to get access to the printer.

[Pixiestix]

again, that's what we have been encouraging in Wikis, and have been asking the player base to do {and sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't}.

[Penny Lane]

Found it! I'm still getting used to navigating the forums

ARGN is great at what it does, which is presenting game news. Launches, wrap-ups, community information.

A newsletter would serve a different function- one that would hopefully support and enhance what ARGN does. Weekly game updates would focus not on news but on activity- on what’s happening right now. I don’t think ARGN does this, and I don’t think it should. I think it would dilute what they do well- their awesome news coverage

Maybe I characterized it the wrong way by calling it a newsletter. That was probably the wrong word to use. What I’m talking about is not news about ARGs- it’s an activity update. It would essentially be a condensed version of what’s in the threads, with a focus on what has happened in the last week, instead of the story so far- except that it would also provide links to the story so far, for people who are just getting started.

Think of it as a player’s handbook. Unless we make ARGs more accessible to newbies- and this would do that- it’s going to be much harder to get money flowing around the community in general.

[notgordian]

Penny Lane wrote:

If you can find people who are willing to donate their time on a regular basis, how about a newsletter? It could be part of the booster subscription. You could use a service like Constant Contact, get some web designers to help with a few graphics, and have volunteers write weekly recaps of all ongoing games. This is something I would pay for, since I so rarely have time to read through an entire thread to find out where a game stands.

Off-topic, I know, but ARGNet is always on the lookout for new writers to help increase our coverage of currently running ARGs. Whenever possible, we try to provide updates on currently running campaigns but the same campaigns that provide a burden to unfiction makes providing ongoing coverage a challenge with a volunteer staff working under time constraints.

Also, just wanted to weigh in and mention I really like Brooke's sponsored puzzle trail idea.

[Pixiestix]

Penny Lane wrote:

1. If you can find people who are willing to donate their time on a regular basis, how about a newsletter? It could be part of the booster subscription. You could use a service like Constant Contact, get some web designers to help with a few graphics, and have volunteers write weekly recaps of all ongoing games. This is something I would pay for, since I so rarely have time to read through an entire thread to find out where a game stands. Unfiction is great, but it doesn’t cover every game, and it doesn’t track new developments. A weekly newsletter would also keep players updated and make it easier for new people to get involved in games. At the end of every recap there could be information about where new players should start.

Not to sound blunt {hey, it is what i do... } but that's Kind of what ARGN is for, and player wikis. in both cases, the people who would take the time to write up entries for a newsletter are already doing so for ARGN and wikis {which we HIGHLY encourage people to do}, in which case why would someone pay for a newsletter?

Also, as far as "doesn't cover every game" well, yes, it covers the games we play. If *this* community isn't playing the game, then someone in this community wouldn't know to cover it in a newsletter - especially when covering it would entail playing it, at which time they would bring the game here, and then i just feel there is a cycle of me repeating myself, lol.

[Penny Lane]

1. If you can find people who are willing to donate their time on a regular basis, how about a newsletter? It could be part of the booster subscription. You could use a service like Constant Contact, get some web designers to help with a few graphics, and have volunteers write weekly recaps of all ongoing games. This is something I would pay for, since I so rarely have time to read through an entire thread to find out where a game stands. Unfiction is great, but it doesn’t cover every game, and it doesn’t track new developments.

A weekly newsletter would also keep players updated and make it easier for new people to get involved in games. At the end of every recap there could be information about where new players should start.

I have a few other ideas that depend on how complicated you would want the project to be. You could tailor your own newsletter advertising, sticking to only in-game ads. Fictional companies can advertise their services, public awareness ads can draw attention to fictional causes. Ad design could provide additional revenue.

Another way to expand the newsletter would be to provide an “opinion” section, which could be the equivalent of a forum for in-game characters. Game creators could pay to have their character post an article/pic/video in the space.

2. This idea is not as well developed, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about since I volunteered to be the resident hippie in Unfictionopia. One thing that struck me about that experience was the large number of people who jumped in and started creating the world with so little prompting or direction. Unfictionopia didn’t last long, and as far as I know it never even became a game, but tons of people got involved and started essentially building their own game world. I think maybe it means they liked the idea of a more concrete play space for ARGers. The network could be in the form of a game that basically runs itself, if it were designed well (assuming that’s something you would want to do).

I often see Ning used for games because it’s easily customizable, it’s cheap (it was free a few months ago, but it’s only a couple bucks now), and it’s set up well. Jane McGonigal used it for Evoke and it worked out great. It would be nice to have a similar community for ARGers (well, those who are willing to pay for it). You could even blend the newsletter and community ideas and post recaps and updates on the community Ning.

I also like the fundraiser/sweepstakes idea. I know a lot of non-profits raise money that way. People could buy the online equivalent of a raffle ticket and earn prizes & services donated by volunteers. When Brooke Thompson was trying to raise money to pay for ARGFest she offered to donate her time and advice. I immediately thought “I want that!”, but I’m a poor undergrad, and I would have had to sell my kidneys.

I work and go to school and create games with Funnel Productions in my limited spare time, but I would be happy to contribute some time and maybe even some couch change to whatever you come up with. Unforum makes my days way more fun, even if I am just a lurker.

[imbri]

My one idea, which I've already shared with Space but will put here so that it doesn't get lost...

A puzzle trail where new puzzles are added for every $x dollars donated (5 puzzles for every $100 in the pot?) ... want more puzzles, throw a couple bucks in.

The big downside to this idea is, of course, that's it's really labor intensive. For one, it needs puzzles & people to make the puzzles. Of course, it'd be a great way for aspiring puzzle makers to test some of their ideas and get a touch of exposure, but the constantly needing to make sure there are enough puzzles in the queue means that it needs someone to volunteer their time to maintaining the puzzle trail (and finding puzzles & puzzle makers as needed). It would probably also need a couple puzzle testers. And, of course, we'd need someone to write a bit of code to check the paypal donations and throw out new puzzles whenever $x is reached (just a one time labor sort of deal, but still - needed).

One reason I like this idea is that it may also appeal to people outside of UF - there are all sorts of people that like puzzles & puzzle trails. Another reason is that it lets people contribute to UF fundraising with goods (puzzles) who might not otherwise be able to contribute with cash, much as they'd love to.