so i like ARGs right, but i can never seem to find the time to play them or keep up with them. so of course i have decided to plan my own. notice i say plan because this is totally grass roots and i have read all the tips and hints for budding pms at unfiction.com. i will not launch an arg unless i am convinced that i have the support, resources, and time to make it a success.
ergo planning is step one. i can plan a good or a terrible arg and if it never launches, then no one is the wiser, no players are disappointed and the genre does not suffer from another ill-conceived attempt. kudos to me. i can read.
so first a little philosophy guiding my ARG development:

• do not try to be all things to all people-this arg will be targeted at n00bs and intermediate level players. veterans will be welcome, but may not be challenged or stimulated enough (although icicing on the cake would be that some are)
• use a variety of interation methods-i am looking into how it may be feasible to have phone number(s) for people to retreive messages from, or better to receive calls from via VoIP or something similar. I know that sounds a bit of a stretch for low budget grass roots, but hey I can dream right?
• have the characters contact the players through multiple methods-not just IM and email (see bullet above)
• require (encourage) group effort-have multiple clues to a single puzzle, but attempt to limit clues to one per player (IP logging?) so that one player doesn't get all the solves and multiple players must work together.
  

so i am now on to my second concept/plot. it does contain elements of the first. the plot is still very vague and actually only has a beginning. how the climax will be is on paper, but what the climax will be is very much in the air.
i have begun to commit to paper the central character, who he is, how he got into the situation he is in, what skills he posseses, how he reacts to certain things, etc.

another grand idea i have is that there will be two trailheads that are dropped at different times. the two trailheads will seemingly lead to two separate args, but at some point the characters/plots/args converge into a single arg. i know what a pain, but doesn't it sound rad?

so that is the beginning of the adventure? do you wanna ride along? contribute? assist? PMing 101 states that it can not be done alone, so i will accept any assitance offered.
this is not fast tracked so i expect it to take a long time to develop. commitments need not be consuming, hey i have a family too.