Types of games.

Almost every ARG is an amalgamation of multiple puzzles, and though the puzzles are very rarely independent of one another they are usually separated into manageable chunks. What I want to do now is dissect those chunks, what makes a puzzle work and what makes it flop? How does a single PM create a puzzle complicated enough to challenge an army of people trying to figure it out?

So far the two types of puzzles I have seen most often are based on time and obscurity.

In a time based puzzle the player may only have an hour from the time a puzzle is introduced to the time it has to be solved, for example, the player must save John from being murder at noon, despite having only having learned John was missing that morning. In this type of puzzle there need only be minor road blocks in the way of the player, since you might risk a stalemate if the puzzle is too complex.

Obscurity based puzzles are based around key bits of information that very few people are privy to. There may be a puzzle that can't be solved until someone with an in-depth knowledge of the pop art movement takes a crack at it. In this the PM is using the fact that everyone's perception of a puzzle is different, based on their life experiences.

Let me know about the other types of puzzles out there.