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Alternate Reality Games Examined
The Guardian's gamesblog has an interview up with Matt Adams, one of the members of the company Blast Theory. Blast theory was given the "Maverick Award" at GDC 2005 for their Alternate Reality Game Uncle Roy All Around You, which uses mobile technology to insert players into a virtual landscape while traversing real London streets. From the interview: "Games are an expression of the ways in which the virtual interpenetrates our lives in ever more complex ways. Desert Rain took the Gulf War of 1991 as a critical moment in this process: when it became widely understood that the killing itself was 'off screen' and the imagery of war was taking over. Soldiers themselves are taught in increasingly computer generated spaces and have less direct contact with their enemy. And many of them are avid games players. America's Army is a game funded by the US Army to bring in new recruits."
OTOH, I think ARGs are young enough that we're going to see a lot of evolution in types of ARG.
The name itself seems broad enough that it could encompass a lot of subtypes/genres from the ones closer to LARPing, to the ones emphasising group-based internet collaboration and puzzle-solving like the "traditional" ARGs.
I mean, just look at that huge spate of IM-based ARGs that played out a few months back!
Um, yeah, well sort of correct. The teaser episode will start before the end of the month. This is a great chance for new ARG players to get involved from a top quality game from the start. I encourgae you to sign up and give it a try!
You can find the site by simply clicking the URL near my name on this post. It is free, and the game is brought to you by a multitude of sponsors. This is great since you will get a few advertisements as product placements, but not get the feeling like you are getting corporate agenda setting for hours while you play. Currently more than 1000 players are already registered, and the more players the more fun for all!