unforum

[Phaedra]

Re: How Entertainers Convince Advertisers to be Entertaining

[FLmutant]

Re: How Entertainers Convince Advertisers to be Entertaining

[FLmutant]

Ten Reasons ARGs Can be Good Marketing

[Marrec]

Love that list of why ARGs can be good marketing. I'd like to rewind a post though and ask a question about 'Lurkers' and 'Players'. It seems to me, from the ARGs that I've played, that the storyline/puzzles/interactive aspects of any given ARG is really geared towards the core community. The 'players' if you will. (As you illustrated in point 5 of your list) This is the nature of the game I suppose. Really, the only reason the lurkers are able to follow the storyline of an ARG is because the core community usually creates great resources for newbies. If it wasn't for the Wiki's, I probably would have been too intimidated to get into the ARGs. Press coverage and word of mouth make people interested, but few interested people make that jump into lurkers without some kind of easily traversable conduit, made by the core community. Which brings me to my first question...

If it weren't for the rabid dedication to resources that sites like UnFiction engender, do you think ARGs would still be as successful? (This question is based purely on speculation of course, so shoot it down if it's wrong.)

One more question, we've discussed the 'tip of the iceburg' theory in the past. There are perhaps (and I'm just throwing out a number that sounds reasonable here) 30-40 dedicated players here on Unf. Probably more than that, but I like to underestimate. These 30-40 people get that whole 'brand recognition' thing in spades. Hell, with my new job, in a couple months I'll be able to buy a new car. And of course, I've been thinking about buying a new Audi. Simply because of my experience with AotH. Okay, that's a lie, I've always wanted an Audi, but you get the idea.

Are the lurkers that important to the advertisers or are they mainly concered with the core players.

Also, how do the companies feel about building games that are mainly going to be played by the same 30-40 people, with a few added on or subtraced here and there? (When I say played, I'm of course talking about us hardcore folks there at the blistering peeks of the iceburg.)

In closing, I realize that every ARG grows the community a bit more. The Beast and ILB are the two most dramatic examples of this. You can't swing a dead cat around this place without hitting someone who joined the community during ILB and now plays other ARGs actively. I even know a few who joined in for AotH. Do you think the growth in the community is ever going to match the demand for growth from advertisers? Is there even a demand for growth from advertisers?

Okay, that's all my questions sorry.

Edit: Of course, many of these questions come from reading the list and trying to expand a bit on the ideas presented there.

[Nightmare Tony]

Quick and curious question. I would definitely call alternate reality gaming as a creative art form. A guerilla artistic effort that keeps fresh at this point by constantly adding new tricks to the genre.

Back when you had the sucessful Blair Witch campaign going, there were many trying to join in on the subject matter bandwagon. Were there also amny who attempted to jump in on the marketing campaign trail blazed by you guys?

And back to the artistic effort, if more and more companies jump on the badnwagon, would there come a day where ARGs for marketing become so common to be predictable to players and non players alike? Might be a sort of oxymoron, but by taking the special and saturating the market, it becomes common place.

[FLmutant]

[HaxanMike]

What do ya know -- I crawl out of bead having finally kicked this nasty little cold and Brian has gone and answered everything, (and done a damn fine job of it, too)!

For me, one of the most difficult challenges as a PM is keeping things interesting for the regular players and friendly to newbies at the same time. The community formed by the hardcore players often seems impenetrable to newbies, who not only have to get caught up on story but often with the concepts behind an ARG as well. Of course that is something Unfiction deals with on a regular basis -- how do you grow as a community yet still encourage interested newbies to join in?

[Ehsan]

[HaxanMike]

Speaking of ARG's and marketing/advertising...

Art of the Heist just won Creativity Magazine's Campaign of the Year. Creativity is an advertising industry publication, from the publishers of Ad Age.

As marketing ARG's garner more acclaim and attention, we can expect to see more of them (and better funded as well)!

I've attached a jpg of the article here -- note the credits in these things are always screwed up and while this one does a better job than most it still doesn't reflect the entire collaborative team.

[rowan]

[MageSteff]

[Varin]

[Phaedra]

Seeing as the discussion on the questions already asked has died down a bit, I'll throw out another one, related to the discussion of player numbers above.

Is there a certain "critical mass" that you plan on as far as the size of the player base when you design a game? Is there a minimum necessary number of players required for the game to work that you factor in?

And another, sort of unrelated question -- how much did learning that what you were doing with Sacred Urns was "ARGish" and that there was a preexisting ARG community affect how you designed AotH? Did the fact that there was already an organized core community out there become a selling point at all?

[FLmutant]

[FLmutant]