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as I write for them occasionally, but I'd reccomend ARGNet and UnFiction (a site I DON'T write for) for those who are interested in this unique game genre. It's growing daily, and there are more games to suit more tastes than ever. Definitely cool stuff.

...for those that can't be bothered looking for them in the summary.

http://www.argn.com/archive/000428eon8_activate.ph p
http://www.vitalsecurity.org/2006/07/eon8-summary. html
http://louisex.dommox.com/eon8/

theres a few more, but they're mostly over the top speculation of a "world ending" variety.

While not exactly the intended topic, this is also related to Alternate Reality Gaming which is quite often financed by large corporations with the intent of pushing a specific product, or increasing general the general "buzzworthiness" of their corporate image.

These games are constantly producing high-quality entertainment, without sacrificing immersion. Yet, the product/company behind the project is always in the player's mind.

It's a quite unique and persistent form of advertising in gaming that's starting just now, to really grab the notice of ad agencies and companies.

For examples, check out this new agency that did that www.ilovebees.com thing for Halo 2, or This one that recently did a game called "Art of the Heist" for Audi last year.

This is very similar (more than standard MMOG fare) to Alternate Reality Games. There was actually just a great article at ARGN in relation to the new television show by the guy behind "Survivor", making a MMOG tied into a television show, "Gold Rush" where you need both TV clues and online "research" to succeed in tracking down treasures of gold hidden across the US.

Anyway, it's a very interesting idea, to say the least. I think we're going to continue to see the lines between entertainment and advertising, as well as television and internet continue to blur until they're considered one all-inclusive item.

Ummmm....no.

Alternate Reality Games are supposed to give you the sense of playing The Game - being sucked into a world of intrigue and danger completely removed from mundane life. They give you the opportunity to do things that you would never get to do otherwise, with the added thrill that you're doing it in real life. When you're out on a real, live, public street corner playing phone tag with an A.I., waiting to meet a bunch of mad cultists or looking for a secret "drop", the experience of doing it is that much more tangible. As for the storylines, missing people, aliens, mad AIs and web-wandering ghosts are par for the course. We're not talking about a nose-powdering sim here. Go read up on it in wikipedia or one of these fine sites.

If nothing else, listen to this and tell me its not hot.

As well-known UK ARGinado Adrian Hon points out in a comment on that article, Uncle Roy is not an ARG in any real sense of the word. ARGN is a much better place to go for ARGs -- think I Love Bees.

For anyone interested in more information on ARG, check out the ARG Network.

Otherwise knows as "Interactive Fiction".

Cause when you hunt through a website hoping to find a clue to the hidden agenda in an ALT tag, thats what you have.

http://www.argn.com/

here's all the audio files that are related to ilovebees.com. these get unlocked as people complete various tasks... it's pretty interesting, if you listen to all of them in order it's kind of like a 'radio series' that fleshes out the Halo backstory even more, and from what I understand the climax will lead into the release of Halo 2.

from what i understand, it's a alternate reality game. As a reward for solving various puzzles and/or completing certain tasks, players are given audio stories that flesh out the Halo universe a little more. It's actually been pretty good, the voice acting is great, and the climax of the story is going to lead right into the Halo 2 launch.

um, follow the google trail and you will find both the audio and the transcripts.

I suppose that AC really knows how to use /. to the fullest. Ask a question that they are too lazy to search for themselves while bitching and moaning how society sucks. Grow up, and gimme my 2 bucks.

I'd recommand this. It contains files the Sleeping Princess didn't leave on the humptydumpty. Like Herzog.

It's actually kind of cool. Bungie is basically releasing an audio book piece by piece as part of the ilovebees game. I'm not playing the game, I'm just listening along to the audio clips people have compiled. Listen to it here.

ilovebees and other ARGs come to mind. Maybe not the type of interactive storytelling meant in the article but they are are certainly relevant. Any story that has me and my friends driving around town finding payphones at designated GPS coordinates just to unlock more pieces of the plot is definately interactive. This is not to mention the puzzles, and the latest development, actually interacting with characters via phone conversations.

Does the whole ARG movement seem too scary to anybody else? When suspension of disbelief in trade for deep alternate realities gets crossed with careful plot and planning by media marketing departments, I can't help but think of it as mind control at it's finest.

How far do these things have to go before your "game" calls you at night and players are no longer able to stop playing? As if Evercrack wan't bad enough. People lost jobs and friends over "The Beast" http://www.seanstewart.org/beast/intro/ and it's ilk. The whole idea is fascinating to any escapist mind (a large demographic on this site I'm sure), yet it is deeply troubling. I get a creepy "Total Recall" feeling when I think about actually stepping into one of these games. How easy would it be to hide criminal intent behind the thick veil of these "games"?

When we open our minds to these things we are leaving room for any corporation who cares to set them up (Microsoft having the most notable track record!) to lead us down whatever paths they choose, and we'll believe it because it's invaded our information flow. We'll get emails, faxes, phone calls; all exist only in the game world.

Anyway, there's some more interesting reading about these ideas in this paper. I hope I never see these mind traps on my news sites again, frankly.

I saw the ilovebees site mentioned as an alternate reality game a few days ago at the cloudmakers Yahoo! group. Also see ARGN.

ARGN has news of TerraQuest failing due to a lack of userbase. In the BMW films game, ~200 players made it to the finale.

Compare that with a sales figure of 400,000 for a modestly selling console title. I have to ask: how much mindshare are these Alternate Reality games managing to attract?

It's pretty clear they're not going to become mainstream anytime soon. As the game is scaled up it becomes far more difficult (expensive & complicated) to provide a personalised touch to the gameplay - a factor that seems to be the key appeal to ARG's.

And then there's the whole other problem of one person being able to "solve" a problem and pass it on to everyone else....