A bit later, Metacortechs was live and Ozy and Space were talking in the player irc channel. Some of us got a bit upset over it. Sure, at the time their identity was not known, but I couldn’t get beyond the image of players discovering they were involved and then going through the logs and seeing what they said and reading far too much into it all. Suddenly, they aren’t exploring the world we worked so hard to create but are attempting to look at the world through our eyes. It changes everything.

So, in the bright morning light, I ammend my earlier statement. I think the idea of some behind the scenes commentary is great, as long as it’s not done in any game that I’m playing. Give me the secrets, but don’t spoil the experience ;)

I just thought conceptually the whole idea of PMs being unable to do much of anything publicly during a game run, because they’d be stepping out onto the stage (in this case, the real world), was an aHA! for me.

But I tend to err on the side of mystique, as that adds to the fun. But you know that about me. :)

See, while I agree with you in that it can be jarring and I do prefer a closed curtain, I also love watching dvd’s where the actors and directors and whatnot are talking over the movie. I’ll admit, I only watch such features once I’ve seen the movie through and would probably hate the experience on a first run, but ARGs don’t generally have multiple runs. I would love an interview here or there where the PMs discussed some of the behind the scenes reasonings for things. In the proper context, I think that only those that are inclined to think of the meta issues would really read the article and could find some enjoyment from it.

But overall, yeah, stay behind the curtain and do what you can to keep the players immersed in the world.