Slashdot Mirror
An Alternate Reality 2005
Via GameSetWatch, the year 2005 in Alternate Reality Gaming on ARGN. From the article: "As the world became more familiar with ARG through hit games The Art of the Heist, Perplex City, Jamie Kane and Last Call Poker, the community was also treated to many interesting and in-depth grassroots projects like Omnifam and Seen Steve. Overall, the year was very good for the genre, and the community is thriving and growing very day."
Alternate Reality Gaming is a slightly different kind of online gaming. You interact with characters in the story as though they were real. If you need more info, try the "What is an ARG?" and "How do I get started?" buttons at the top of the article. A good explanation is also available at Unfiction.
Needless to say, this is an article about such games that took place in the past year.
I'd also like to point out that, as a junior PM on the grassroots game Omnifam, this is the first time a project of mine has been mentioned on Slashdot. Woot!
-You can call me Toe
A strain of paranoid prevention can be worse than the disease, whate'er the intention.
No idea what this was all about...
Im the kind of guy that reads slashdot everyday and generally keeps up on my tech news, yet i have/had (After reading the articial) NO idea wtf they were talking about.... yet they call this some kind of evolving thing.... Its not even started yet.
Peh im trolling so ill stfu.
- http://www.milkme.co.uk
"As the world became more familiar with ARG through hit games The Art of the Heist, Perplex City, Jamie Kane and Last Call Poker..."
I knew about ilovebees.com and a couple of others, but I've never heard of any of these ARGs. Good acronym though, it sounds exactly like the way they make you groan with confusion.
Not to dis what I think in some ways (but not all ways) is one of the most creative genre of modern games, but I think ARGs (Alternate Reality Games) have been around for a long time. A long time. If you think about it any type of prank that sets up a persistent alternative reality is actually an ARG. If you call your friends house and convincingly pretend to be a police detective or whatever for say 10 minutes while your friend is either fooled or not fooled but playing along then you are participating in an ARG.
Of course with todays technology is much easier to create and orchestrate an ARG of a very massive scale. A scale where the immersion is beyond an evenings fun and fright from a Murder Mystery Party and becomes an ongoing, time-consuming, activity spanning several months and requiring the assistance of hundreds of strangers to solve numerous puzzles and ultimately reveal not just a one night mystery but a grand overarching conspiracy.
On my first FUN date at college (back in 1997), my date and I dressed up as spies (there was a matching outfit couples' dance later that evening). Wearing all black, we hurried around that small college town in the cold of winter to catch incoming calls to scattered payphones where my dorm-mate would give the next clue in his faux-British accent. I thought it was fun. I think my date thought it was fun. The only problem is that I had to PRETEND that I was surprised even though I set up the entire schedule and all of the clues.
I only wish that more people would be open to ARGs - games that can be frightening reaslistic and yet purport to NOT BE A GAME.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_Reality_Gam e
Jamie Kane had something to do with viral marketing, wikipedia and the bbc. Somebody created a message on wikipedia claiming that a top-40 singer had mysteriously vanished, in a tie in with some wierd bbc online game.