How do you choose what AE arc to play?

I'm an active member of the small AE author community and we often have discussions with each other wondering why some arcs get a lot of plays and other really great arcs sit unnoticed by casual players. I know that any member of the forums doesn't exactly qualify as a casual player, but I thought this forum at least has a lot more people that are at least a casual AE player.

So, I ask you, when you decide to stop into the AE building, how do you decide which arc to play? Do you look at the first couple pages and pick a short arc? Do you search for something you're interested in? Do you look through the descriptions or just the titles? Or, do you do a little research and pop into the AE forum and look for something to catch your interest? Or do you search for the current farm trend?

I'll use the search options to narrow it down to missions that are my level and solo-friendly, and then look at the descriptions to see what catches my eye and to make sure it isn't a farm.

I play arcs that I create for my characters. I usually keep an arc published just long enough for a character to complete it, so there's not much opportunity for other players to try out my arcs.

My SG mate says: I made this one for tonight.

Usually one of a couple of ways:

a) It's one of my own. This is usually what I do if I'm going into the AE to get a few tickets to buy salvage or something, since I know exactly what to expect, I know how many tickets it produces (roughly), and I know it's a decent story that's not a long string of dick jokes.

b) It's a friend's. Not much to explain here.

c) I open the forum and look for someone advertising their arc in their sig. First one I come across gets a play-through. It's not entirely reliable, but still better than trying to sift through the dreck in the AE search window.

I'll do it one of three ways:
1) If an arc is highly recommended by someone in-game or on the forums.

2) If I play an arc I like, I'll search for other arcs by the same author.

3) I'll bring up the search interface, select "my level" and "four stars" (five stars indicates that an arc is new, not that it's good), and search for the mission architect tag that I'm interested in (SFMA is usually a good one for finding arcs worth playing).

Forum posts, occasionally recommendations from others, mentions in MA Arc Finder, or rarely I'll hit random (repeatedly...) until something interesting comes up.

Almost exclusively recommendations. Every time I get it in my head that I'll browse the AE for a new and exciting arc to play, it ends in abject failure.

I look for level appropriate, alignment appropriate, solo friendly arcs.

If I'm playing a character below level 20, then I also avoid arcs involving custom power selections or elite bosses.

Above 20 I'm less picky, though I'll drop any AE arc that has a lot of mezzers, since I'm not usually playing a scrapper. I tend to think that if an arc has mezzing minions, then the designer must have been planning a scrapper farm.

If I find an arc that I like, I check to see if the author has others available.

I mostly just opent eh search window, set the filter to remove the ones I've already voted on, and then play the first non-villainous one on the list.
But I also sometimes play ones that are sugegsted to me, or ones I see in forum sigs.

I'm usually looking for something that's soloable (why does everyone thing putting AVs in the arc makes them good?) and short (same deal - long does not automatically mean good). Some times I'll do an arc of a couple missions, but I generally prefer shorter stuff.

I'll usually start out looking at things that are highly rated, but only if they have a number of votes - the one rating 5 star I figure are generally from their friends they had test them.

I'll also look at the lower rated stuff with few or no votes. Also, I'm partial to funny stuff.

I search for farms generally.

If I am looking for a story I skip over Dev's Choice arcs for the most part (several of them have unlisted EBs, etc and are longish in length) and search unplayed ones. I also use the old coding system (SFMA, LBMA, etc) to help my searches.

Occasionally I'll hear of a great arc through word of mouth and go from there.

Most of the arcs I play I find through forum sigs and such.

The Devs Choice missions are my first go-to. Then it's a matter of theme. There is a really good fantasy arc that I won't play right now because it provides allies.

clever titles that suggest interesting themes are usually the first to be picked. also i do follow specific players with good storytelling rep, and finally, i do check out the sub-forum, I dont say much, but if something is making noise, then i will give it a check out. sometimes i will head to the one stars and see if there is some troma-style bad/amazing stuff. results are mixed, but there have beena few hits that keep me trying this as a viable tactic.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

with very limited playtime I just hit up Dev's Choice and HOF missions, unless I happen across one from a forumgoer who I know can write.

I wish MA had existed back when I had plenty of spare time to burn. >: