It takes a lot of people to keep the ARG community running. ARGNet is a news organization, and as such we tend to focus our reporting on the people who grab headlines, to indulge in a cliché: puppetmasters, players who win prizes, and so on.
However, many of the people who make the community what it is — and ARGs what they are — work nearly invisibly, quietly creating essential resources, keeping websites updated, and using their skills and talents in other ways to benefit the community and games that they love.
ARGNet would like to take this opportunity to recognize some of these individuals and their contributions. We would like to make this a regular series, and hope our readers will keep us informed about other people from whose work we all benefit but who may not get the credit they deserve.
Without further ado, gaze in wonder (and in random order) upon what your fellow ARGers have been up to:
Ben Wochinski seems to be everywhere these days. When he’s not performing PHP wizardry on behalf of IonARG or ARGdb, he’s adding shiny credits sequences, fixing the sound, and putting ARGfest videos on YouTube so even those unable to attend can witness its glory (or so ARGNet writers who spent the morning in a slightly overwhelmed stupor can recap them and sound moderately intelligent).
While we’re on the subject of ARGFest, we’d like to slip in a thanks to Celina63 as well for filming the ARGFest panels. ARGFest 2007 was a treasure trove of resources for people interested in studying, making and writing about ARGs, but without her, its reach would have been limited to those fortunate enough to attend.
Former ARGNet editor Jackie Kerr (a.k.a. ScarpeGrosse) spent long hours every week toiling to help make ARGNet what it is, proofing articles, managing writers, finding wacky copyright-free graphics to spruce up the layout, answering questions and performing other largely thankless tasks of an editorial nature. And that’s in addition to keeping an eye on Unfiction’s sometimes-rowdy 13,000+ inhabitants. Jackie also has helped out numerous confused players with her entertaining and informative blog-guides to games such as Last Call Poker and Edoc Laundry.
Dave Tenenbaum (Unfiction’s xnbomb) may be well known as a moderator around Unfiction, but he wowed us at ARGFest by whipping out color-coded signs telling panelists how much time they had left to keep talking. We’re exceedingly grateful we had his expertise on hand to help ensure that the panels stayed on schedule and went smoothly.
If you’re around Unfiction much, you also probably recognize Brian Enigma from his work as a moderator. If you’ve ever played a game with him, however, your experience was likely enhanced by the wikis, mirror sites, and other resouces (such as the Perplex City card catalog) he creates for them. We imagine there are also a few puppetmasters out there who have found his resources as good or better than their own internal ones.
Thank you to everyone mentioned here. The community and the genre would be less without you, and we appreciate the time, energy and intelligence you put into making it greater.
Are you aware of someone contributing skills or resources to the community that you feel deserves a mention? Tip us off!