ARG number-crunching
by Jennie Lees 
{ Feb 12th 2006 at 3:00PM }
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.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Garold @ Feb 12th 2006 5:55PM
They're not video games... why're they on Joystiq?
pukgreenuniform @ Feb 12th 2006 6:45PM
Garold, well they are most definitely game related. Do you understand what they are.
pukgreenuniform @ Feb 12th 2006 6:47PM
*?*
Arachneya @ Feb 12th 2006 8:56PM
ILB (I Love Bees) was so ridiculously good and the voice acting was top notch. Although the story was not part of the Halo cannon, it was so damn intriguing. I anticipated Tuesdays for over 2 months as it was the day the compilation from the previous week was posted. I still think there's a possibility the some of those characters could be features in the next Halo game - that is, if it's much broader than Halo 2 was.
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.
Kieron Rees @ Feb 12th 2006 9:53PM
I seem to recall Rare were one of the first to do something vaguely along those lines with their Datadyne sites and what not, closely followed by Nintendo with their Majora Mask sites concerning prophecies or something... my memory fails me.
Garold @ Feb 12th 2006 11:05PM
To #2:
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.