Alternate reality gaming; a niche pastime enjoyed by a
minority of gamers? A fiendishly difficult hobby reserved for the most cerebral and dedicated few among us? Not
necessarily, say these player numbers collated by Adrian Hon of Mind Candy.Based on official numbers, the volume of forum posting and the number of hits on Google, these figures are pretty impressive. Two of the better-known ARGs -- The Beast and I Love Bees -- attracted upwards of two million players, according to their designers.
One problem with these numbers is the exact definition of "player"--is it anyone who visits a key website, or only someone following the thread of the story? The volume of buzz on forums and the Internet shows that ARGs can definitely get popular, although the most successful games so far have been run in conjunction with lavishly-funded advertising campaigns.
(Page 1) Reader Comments
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I must say Halo 2's single player story (not gameplay or level design) hugely disappointing me because I thought ILB was a backstory to events that would take place in the game as oppose to fan fiction/marketing.
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Yeah, I understand what they are, and I know that they're sometimes used to promote video games, but they aren't video games themselves. After all, alternate reality games could have been run before computers were even invented. Just because they're run primarily over the Internet doesn't make them video games.
Some of Joystiq's entries on ARGs make a bit of sense, like the ones about I Love Bees. But entries about The Beast or TV shows like Lost or 24 belong elsewhere.
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