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[SeanB]

An "ARG council" to promote the genre

[Dorkmaster]

I have to say that in theory, I like the idea. However, I'd have to see what you're talking about in terms of "campaign" to see what you'd envision for this...

The problem, as I'm sure you know, is that any outright advertising/promotion tends to detract from the immersive nature of the gaming itself. I mean, sure, any seasoned ARGer is going to feel comfortable forgetting how they signed-up and getting into the game as long as once they're in, they're in... but at the same time, if we're trying to "promote the concept" so to speak, well, we should probably have some sort of unified front. Not to mention, this can be very confusing for altogether new players who may feel that the promotion invites tearing away the curtain when they "need to" or something.

Not to mention, in terms of being a meta outlet to the world, the ARGN is doing a fine job. If it's simply advertising the medium, then I'm all for it, but I just don't know how you do it. It's not as if the film industry is airing commercials saying "Come to the movies! It's Fun!" Instead they advertise the actual films themselves.

I know I'm getting long-winded on a small, easy to understand point, but it's a very important one, and I think if there were some sort of "ARG Council", it would have to have a plan of action that would somehow promote the industry, but leave the "excitement" of finding the game trailheads, etc. intact. It's a fine line, and IMHO, the discovery of a game is almost parallel in excitement as playing, in most instances. But I feel with email notices and postings saying "Play my game! Sign up here!" that there's a little bit lost. So I just want to make sure we're not heading down that road.

Ok, enough ranting and overclarifying... I'm all for the idea, but have no clue how to properly execute it!

[SeanB]

Hi Dorkmaster,

Thank you for your words and certainly for taking the time to comment on this idea.

To make it clearer, the idea of the ARG Council would be to promote the genre, not the actual games, thus keeping the immersion effect as the only thing being promoted is the ARG genre and creating awareness if the mainstreams minds.

No connections to rabbitholes or games that are coming up or being played. The only game info that would/could be found on the coucils site could be past games perhaps, with guides, tools etc explaining to interested individuals more on the gaming entertainment value and what they would be getting themselves involved in.

The campaigns could either be and educational, teasers (ie. an ad having a pic of a day schedule, listing normal mundane tasks then inbetween it has "secret agent meeting" or "with the presidents office" etc. emphasising on the "double life", or another concept which can look at normal things in a paranoid fashion "pic of a pen and text asking, pen or microphone?") or straight awareness with asking an action for those interested to visit a designated website for more info. Better ideas can be come up with if spent a little longer on a campaign concept and when I've had more sleep lol

So when you say, "to advertise the medium", you are 100% correct. It won't expose any upcoming games or any current gaming that is going on. It's purpose it just to get the mainstream to notice ARG and to let it grow. If we are wanting ARG to get bigger, more financed and sustainable then this is the way to go, atleast one of the ways for now.

Great that you like the idea!

[colin]

[MageSteff]

Re: An "ARG council" to promote the genre

[miss_seph]

I'll add my $0.2c

I joined UF from I Love Bees. One of my friends saw the trailer at the movies and rang me (as we are avid halo nuts) and we joined the hunt. A quick Google Search for more info on ILB brought me to UF, and I actively tried as hard as I could to participate in the game until it started relying on people taking photos of people doing stuff etc - so I dropped off and lurked instead.

Since then I've been actively involved in other puzzles and games, still striving to finish an ARG from scratch (most that I have joined have either died or I've become too busy for them)- but I think that I am like most of the new comers this year. It's a bit like a restaurant with hot bar staff - Come for the hot guys, stay for the food

One thing I would benefit from if someone decided to advertise the genre - I wouldn't have to continually explain what I'm doing to my partner and flatmates

[jamesi]

[SeanB]

I'm glad to see this spurred such a response from others and their thoughts towards an "ARG promotion council".
They have good points and bad points and one or two confuse me totally on their responses.

I agree at the moment word of mouth advertising is doing a great job, it certainly is and it is the best way to advertise any product/event in the world! As to the comment on sounding like a corporate wage slave, I interested in getting more brains and people into the medium so there are more players, more ideas and more activity, when I speak about mass markets, I don't mean it in a capitalistic way, if you take it as that, then so be it. Many things we use now days wouldn't have gotten to where they are now with out a little nudge from people. Perhaps people those that have responded on this topic weren't thinking broadly about the medium I was refering to. Promotion is a very big area and word of mouth is part of it, there wouldn't be any use in trying to fix something that doesn't need fixing, so the promotion that would happen would spur on word of mouth about the genre, don't shoot down something yet that is still a seed. It obviously needs some reviewing before execution but I'm just giving rough sketches here, I know we are a community and that's why I'm not posting a business proposal with financial breakdowns here.

As for the point about ARGN and Co., those are who I was naturally taking as being involved, one way or another. A council embodies many representatives, I'm not talking about inventing new people to promote the genre.

How ever at the moment I believe ARG is sitting in a gray patch, name/status wise, not many people know about it (thousands compared to tens of millions) and as miss_seph mentioned, it would be nice to explain it easily what the genre is. At the moment there doesn't seem to be direction, that is mainly though due to the fact that it is still "new" (however old to those who have been in from the beginning) to the majority.

As for 4orty2wo achieving sustainability without what I proposed, I think what I proposed would actually help 4orty2wo even greater as then clients would run to them as an established house to market their brands, instead of them having to spend money in educating potential clients what this new medium is. I don't feel right though commenting on 4orty2wo as it is a young company in a new medium with a fantastic future ahead of itself along with great people behind the wheels - however I don't want to step on any toes by bringing it up in this posting to defend the current topic. I do think though that commentating on how a certain project went, so early in a new mediums life is short-sighted and long-term plans should be put in to stop this being a simple fad.

In response to the story and advertising, of course story counts more than the product, I wouldn't ever sacrofice the story for a product or that would be suicide for the whole campaign/game. I'm beginning to think though that this is another topic to discuss and not related to what the core topic of this initial posting was about.

Bringing it down to the point is the following, I'm passionate about ARG, I see the opportunities on both sides and I would like to promote it to the masses to show them how fun and exciting this medium is and if I wanted to put my own £'s into the pot to do it, I'm willing to do so (just a note: I wasn't suggesting any players donations, if you have a look back to the initial posting, you'll see I didn't mention funding).

I look forward to hearing from those with open minds with an interest in promoting ARG and moving it forward to the next level of gaming status.

After rereading this posting of mine, I sum this up with the following:
Remember the hoola-hoop? Save the ARG.

[krystyn]

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

[SeanB]

Depends what the objective was, if it was to just get the horse to the water - then you've succeeded

[Kali]