Advanced Use of Subscriber Groups

Collectables

Examples   The collectables version of this can also be considered a treasure hunt - there are objects hidden throughout the World that readers can hunt for to add to their collections. This is a great option for artists who can show off their skills by drawing all the different items readers can collect.   To make one of these, you'll need to decide what you want your readers to collect. It could be coins from different countries, souvenirs from various travels, medallions of challenges completed, or anything else you think suits your world.   You'll also need to create a self-assignable subscriber group for each collectable. Between making these groups and the art, you may want to start with a small number of items and expand over time.   In various articles throughout your world, include the self-assignable subscriber group code, the image of what's being collected, and a link to the overview page. That way, if someone finds the collectable without knowing about the treasure hunt, they can learn about it right away and possibly be compelled to keep hunting.

Progress

Examples   This version is closer to achievement hunting. As they read articles, readers can join groups to signal their progress. This is a more writing-focused version, letting readers claim accomplishments related to what they've read.   Start by brainstorming what accomplishments you want your readers to be able to look back on. These will likely relate to articles you've already written or have planned. An article about a traditional dance, for instance, could have an achievement to say the reader has learned how to that dance.   Create the groups for the different achievements and put them within their associated articles with a link back to the overview page. As before, you may want to start small and add more over time.   The overview page here could be styled like a journal or list of quests. You'll likely want to include some indicator of how many more achievements the reader can find, but it's up to you how verbose you are in what those achievements are. You could even do a mix - clear indication of what some missing ones are, but leave the others a mystery.

Choose Your Own Adventure

Examples   These can be done without subscriber groups. Using subscriber groups add options to alter the story based on prior decisions, such as keeping content hidden until a certain decision is made, or altering how an article looks depending on prior decisions.   Non-Subscriber Version:
Choices are made based on clicking different article links. Readers can always go back and make a different choice, or open all links to see all paths. Nothing tracks their progress through the story.

• Pros: Simpler to set up, Simpler to interact with
• Cons: Lots of articles needed, Fewer options

Subscriber Version:
Choices are made by joining self-assignable subscriber groups, which unlocks content such as entire articles or sections within articles. If readers change their choice, they'll gain access to different content and lose access to other content.

• Pros: See reader decisions, Innumerable options for how the game could function
• Cons: More technical to set up, Requires readers commit to joining groups/following

Character Creator

Examples   Great for RPG-based worlds, you can use self-assignable groups and mutually-exclusive tags to let readers make their own (very simple) characters in your world.   First decide what categories of decision suit your world, such as selecting a species, joining a faction, or choosing a class. These are your mutually-exclusive tags. Next, define a handful of choices within each category. These are your subscriber groups. Focus on a handful that are iconic to your setting. You can always add more later.   When you design the character creator, include brief descriptions of what each choice means and link out to articles for readers to get a more thorough explanation. It can be tempting to want a full and up-to-date article on every choice, but a stub is plenty. The goal is to make sure each decision is clearly distinct from all the others.   Conditional groups, like sub-classes, are possible but difficult to implement. You can't nest subcontainers or auto-remove readers from a group if they no longer meet the pre-requisite. This isn't show-stopping, but I recommend avoiding this complexity unless you're really enthusiastic about it.