This sounds great Mike, something I'd enjoy.

These games popped in my head as I was reading your different sectons, you might want to take a look or play them to see if they help you out.

Werewolf (aKA Mafia) for social interactions among a group when everyone is suspected. We had a pretty great game of that in 564 the first week :)

Blade Runner Game - had a very similar principal in exploring worlds for clues, and had a similar notebook collecting device.

In repsonse to using instant messager, I don't know of any games or any research that's out there, but I remember i use to play Spades at yahoo Games, and AIM my partner what cards to play (yeah sooo bad I know), so I'm sure there may be an epidemic of this, in fact play.com, messages everyone if two users are sharing the same IP address...so you could tap into that both urge and distrust associated with gaming in AIM.

Okay, good idea, hope this assists you...

Oh yeah, and you owe me money :)

I like it! At first I was wondering how a multiplayer game would look in a Myst-like format, but I suppose that's really not a problem. Myst-like navigation works on nodes (discrete locations within the game world for which views have been pre-rendered). If 2 characters are in the same node, then all it would take would be to draw the person's avatar over the static background.

But anyway, I like it! I've always been a big fan of Clue, so anything like it gets me excited.

Yes yes and yes. Thanks Julie for the input...I need to play Blade Runner, as I haven't done that yet. Also, MS, the mp aspect of the game is exactly that, the amount of characters that inhabit a given area are just drawn as 2d cards over the scenery if they exist in that same node as you. And Julie, now you owe me money!