On games in alternate reality
ARG, or Alternative Reality Games - one of the surest ways to kill time and have fun, almost without getting up from the couch. Those who are tired of boring and uninteresting wallpaper games, are immersed in an alternate reality in search of untold treasures - by the way, really existing. Such games are a great advertising move to promote a movie, game or some boring math software.
Under the cut - the history of games in an alternate reality, their present and future. In addition, you expect a very small how-to, which will save you about ten minutes if you decide to promote your product in this way.
The genre itself ARG was born only about ten years ago. The father of the industry can be considered the game The Beast, spinning around the movie Artificial Intelligence (AI, Artifical Intellegence).
... Microsoft's creative director Jordan Weisman and game designer Elan Lee came up with a detective story that was going to happen on hundreds of websites, using email, mobile communications, voice mail and fictitious advertisements.
- Russian Wikipedia.
')
The game of the target (and not so) audience liked it - so much so that the game almost became more popular than the movie. The community of participants of the game Cloudmakers, by the way, still exists.
The brave Belarusian guys, of course, jumped in on time and founded Encounter, which in 2001 was also called “Fight”. Saying fun also appealed to the people - what could be more romantic than night riding headlong through the city in search of the otgadki of the next puzzle? Of course, for the atmosphere and the work of the organizers have to pay wooden, but according to people who regularly participate in these games, it is worth it.
If we talk specifically about ARG, then nothing impressive in the past ten years was not. A similar idea (for example, here ) slipped and came to life several times - but in Russia nobody really takes on this business.
The Americans in this regard, of course, were ahead - to take at least The Beast and three million members of Cloudmakers. Most of the popular games - Vanishing Point, Art of the Heist, I love bees - were quite successful and gathered a lot of people under their flags. So, in the above-mentioned game Vanishing Point, organized by Microsoft Corporation and dedicated to the release of Windows Vista, was attended by more than 70 thousand people. The vanishingpointgame.com page was viewed more than 20 million times, and the first person to solve all 48 puzzles went to space on a personal rocket.
One of the latest games in alternate reality gathered volunteers in the spring of 2011. The author of the "potato ARG" was the dashing igrodel Valve. The plot was twisted around the release of the game Portal 2. Users from around the world played certain games using the Steam digital distribution service (owned by Valve, by the way), so that everyone can access the game several hours earlier.
Of course, such games are an excellent advertising tool. A person who accidentally noticed something unusual, unwittingly becomes a participant in the game - and it is no longer so important whether he has experience of participation in such projects or not. Such games are becoming more and more inventive, the number of participants is increasing each time, and the effect after the completed puzzle is indescribable.
In addition, recently a person is increasingly using the Internet outside the home or office. All sorts of variations of portable communicators may well contribute to an increase in the number of games in an alternate reality. And the operational space is really extensive, especially in Russia.
As an ordinary citizen, it is interesting for me to take part in such projects. But, unfortunately, they are still small, and they do not differ in the quality of the presentation of the material. Therefore, for the sake of the common good, it would be nice to single out three fundamental points that may well belong to the writer of K. .:
ARG is a new, powerful tool for social interaction. With proper distribution of funds you can get incredible results. Millions of people around the world solve such riddles, continually doubting the unreality of what is happening.
Finally, I note that ARG is not a game. Here, everything is for real - sites, phone numbers, places and sometimes even people. Participants do not know the rules - they are based on their own mistakes. And if you decide to spin something like this - know that you will have to hurt your head against the pitfalls and think ahead of a well-organized and, possibly, disguised community.
Under the cut - the history of games in an alternate reality, their present and future. In addition, you expect a very small how-to, which will save you about ten minutes if you decide to promote your product in this way.
Where have you gone ...
The genre itself ARG was born only about ten years ago. The father of the industry can be considered the game The Beast, spinning around the movie Artificial Intelligence (AI, Artifical Intellegence).
... Microsoft's creative director Jordan Weisman and game designer Elan Lee came up with a detective story that was going to happen on hundreds of websites, using email, mobile communications, voice mail and fictitious advertisements.
- Russian Wikipedia.
')
The game of the target (and not so) audience liked it - so much so that the game almost became more popular than the movie. The community of participants of the game Cloudmakers, by the way, still exists.
Slavic expansion
The brave Belarusian guys, of course, jumped in on time and founded Encounter, which in 2001 was also called “Fight”. Saying fun also appealed to the people - what could be more romantic than night riding headlong through the city in search of the otgadki of the next puzzle? Of course, for the atmosphere and the work of the organizers have to pay wooden, but according to people who regularly participate in these games, it is worth it.
If we talk specifically about ARG, then nothing impressive in the past ten years was not. A similar idea (for example, here ) slipped and came to life several times - but in Russia nobody really takes on this business.
What about the Americans?
The Americans in this regard, of course, were ahead - to take at least The Beast and three million members of Cloudmakers. Most of the popular games - Vanishing Point, Art of the Heist, I love bees - were quite successful and gathered a lot of people under their flags. So, in the above-mentioned game Vanishing Point, organized by Microsoft Corporation and dedicated to the release of Windows Vista, was attended by more than 70 thousand people. The vanishingpointgame.com page was viewed more than 20 million times, and the first person to solve all 48 puzzles went to space on a personal rocket.
One of the latest games in alternate reality gathered volunteers in the spring of 2011. The author of the "potato ARG" was the dashing igrodel Valve. The plot was twisted around the release of the game Portal 2. Users from around the world played certain games using the Steam digital distribution service (owned by Valve, by the way), so that everyone can access the game several hours earlier.
Forward to the future
Of course, such games are an excellent advertising tool. A person who accidentally noticed something unusual, unwittingly becomes a participant in the game - and it is no longer so important whether he has experience of participation in such projects or not. Such games are becoming more and more inventive, the number of participants is increasing each time, and the effect after the completed puzzle is indescribable.
In addition, recently a person is increasingly using the Internet outside the home or office. All sorts of variations of portable communicators may well contribute to an increase in the number of games in an alternate reality. And the operational space is really extensive, especially in Russia.
Oh, exploitable!
As an ordinary citizen, it is interesting for me to take part in such projects. But, unfortunately, they are still small, and they do not differ in the quality of the presentation of the material. Therefore, for the sake of the common good, it would be nice to single out three fundamental points that may well belong to the writer of K. .:
- ARG should get the n-th mass of initiative users, who will take on their broad shoulders the burden of unwinding the game itself. To achieve this goal, you need either a holy hope that the players will find themselves and no one needs to do anything, or a banal PR is needed (if someone makes a movie, game or something, somehow known in the world, this will become starting point for future players).
- ARGs are solved in communities, so it is possible — and even necessary — to provide players with a place: a forum or even a VKontakte group where they can discuss the details. Of course, the players love to unite themselves, but you will agree - it would be nice to have some kind of “spies” who will search and even try to correct the wrong decisions, besides this, also to troll the organizers for the money that organizers.
- ARG is a game in the plot of which, in principle, there may be small spaces. But we must not forget that in every story there is a beginning, there is an end and there is a plot connecting both these parts. You need to think over at least two moves ahead - in no case should you let the matter take its course. In addition, any such game is somehow connected with the Internet - therefore, do not forget about links. Therefore, with a responsible approach, you need to start from the end.
Instead of conclusion
ARG is a new, powerful tool for social interaction. With proper distribution of funds you can get incredible results. Millions of people around the world solve such riddles, continually doubting the unreality of what is happening.
Finally, I note that ARG is not a game. Here, everything is for real - sites, phone numbers, places and sometimes even people. Participants do not know the rules - they are based on their own mistakes. And if you decide to spin something like this - know that you will have to hurt your head against the pitfalls and think ahead of a well-organized and, possibly, disguised community.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/130270/
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