SXSW: ARG! The Attack of the Alternate Reality Games
by Kevin Kelly 
{ Mar 11th 2007 at 9:58PM }
Ever since the success of The Beast, the alternate reality game created to help pimp Spielberg's A.I. back in 2001, alternate reality games (ARGs) have been popping up left and right, most notably the I Love Bees ARG that was used to launch Halo 2. Based on what the panelists were telling us, there are a lot more coming down the pipeline.
However, one of the problems was that the panel promised to help define the term "alternate reality game," but that never happened. Wikipedia calls it "an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions." Which is quite a mouthful. But that makes us wonder, does it have to use the web as a medium to be an ARG? When people used to play T.A.G. or Killer on college campuses, that was definitely an ARG ... but where did those games go?
Basically the web has taken that model and made it much easier to disseminate, but the current ARGs that have been appearing over the past few year have been operating on huge budgets and large amounts of resources. The Audi Art of the Heist game actually parked a car somewhere at the Coachella music festival in California that game players were actually supposed to "break in to" and steal an SD card that contained further clues. Although Audi forgot to leave the doors open, and no one got the card. Oops.
Mind Candy's enormous ARG Perplex City has really taken things to an extreme. Their game has been running for the past three years, and recently one of the "historical objects" (the Receda Cube) that gamers try to find through puzzles, clues, and cards was found, and netted the player $200,000 (that's real money, too) in the process. The game designers stage car chases, have black helicopters buzz people, and can generally scare the bejeezus out of you. Not too shabby for gaming.
Although most ARGs tend to be tied to something that they are promoting (Halo 2, Audi, A.I., Perplex City sells "game cards" that you have to purchase), some are starting to appear that have a purpose other than driving a product or a brand. Recently announced at GDC was Jane McGonigal's socially conscious A World Without Oil ARG that asks users to imagine how they would function in a world without gasoline or oil.
Both aspects of ARGs have the same goal, they want to harness the community aspect of the ARG to do something, whether it's educate, get a message across, or sell a product. It taps into Linda Stone's theory of "continuous partial attention," meaning that you'll keep coming back into the game day after day (possibly hour after hour) to check on things, and see if the game has advanced, or if anyone has figured out the riddles. It's almost like incessantly checking your email, just in case you might have missed something in the past few minutes.
Check out some of the ARGs out there right now, including the panelists' own ReGenesis, and the fairly amazing Perplex City. With more on the way (including a mystery "socially responsible ARG from panelist Brooke Thompson) we'll be excited to see what comes our way, alternatively. Plus we really feel like pirates now after typing ARG so many times.
LINKS:
ARGnet - the Alternate Reality Gaming network
Unfiction - all about Alternate Reality Gaming
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kid van Pervert @ Mar 12th 2007 6:57AM
Nine Inch Nails is using a promotional ARG that ties into the dystopian concept of their new album. Seems to be working quite well, I know quite a few people who are dedicated to "uncovering" the game as it goes on. Don't know if it will translate into increased sales on a larger scale, though.
Here's a [url=http://www.echoingthesound.org/phpbbx/viewtopic.php?t=20265&start=0]rather long description[/url] of the ARG as it is currently.
Kid van Pervert @ Mar 12th 2007 6:57AM
Ach, sorry about that bad link. I really need to break out of using BBC exclusively. Here's the plain url:
http://www.echoingthesound.org/phpbbx/viewtopic.php?t=20265&start=0
Don @ Mar 12th 2007 2:43PM
Whats the strategies differ between creating and educational arg versus a marketing driven experience?
I really wish I was @ SXSW, any help?: donnie_77@hotmail.com
Jasmine @ Apr 3rd 2007 9:12PM
Overall a good article, but I'd like to make a few small points about it.
Perplex City isn't tied to the cards it's promoting; the cards are tied to the ARG they're funding. They are most notable for being an alternative to the marketing business model seen in most corporate ARGs. You don't "have to" buy them, though it helps because they contain backstory and clues.
While the big games are usually about marketing (since the budget makes them big), they are probably the smaller half of the genre. There are plenty of innocent, "grass-roots" ARGs being run at any time. These are usually run by seasoned players who have nothing to sell, and just thought it would be fun to make a game. They usually lack the expensive live events, but are still just as deep and engaging.
I disagree with the notion that campus games like Killer/Assassin are ARGs. The two key features of ARGs are these: the solving of puzzles, and the telling of a story.
In response to comment #3, I've never heard of an "educational" ARG that ran in the past. It may have been done, but if so, there aren't many. I'll still hazard a guess for you. The biggest difference would be money. If you're promoting something, you get an advertising budget. You also have to be careful to please your sponsor. Without a sponsor, you are have more artistic freedom and fewer resources. You might also be working with volunteers who are puppetmasters in their spare time, unless the ARG is being done by a larger educational institution. This would change the pace you could work at and the way you would organize and assign tasks.