Return to Unfiction unforum
 a.r.g.b.b 
FAQ FAQ   Search Search 
 
Welcome!
New users, PLEASE read these forum guidelines. New posters, SEARCH before posting and read these rules before posting your killer new campaign. New players may also wish to peruse the ARG Player Tutorial.

All users must abide by the Terms of Service.
Website Restoration Project
This archiving project is a collaboration between Unfiction and Sean Stacey (SpaceBass), Brian Enigma (BrianEnigma), and Laura E. Hall (lehall) with
the Center for Immersive Arts.
Announcements
This is a static snapshot of the
Unfiction forums, as of
July 23, 2017.
This site is intended as an archive to chronicle the history of Alternate Reality Games.
  

The time now is Mon Nov 11, 2024 9:59 pm
All times are UTC - 4 (DST in action)		 View posts in this forum since last visit
View unanswered posts in this forum
Calendar
 Forum index » Meta » Puppetmaster Help
Corporate Training ARG...need ideas
Moderators: imbri
View previous topicView next topic
Page 1 of 1 [5 Posts]  
Author Message
lpilker
Boot


Joined: 18 Jan 2006
Posts: 35

 		Corporate Training ARG...need ideas
Hi! I have heard a few people talk about using ARG's as a corporate training/teambuilding exercise. I have done a bit of web searching, but can't seem to find anything in this genre to explore. Has anyone here ever made one or played one, so that you could give me an idea of how this would work, or could someone possibly point me in the direction of some links to old games that are out there on the net that I could look over?

Thanks very much!
-LP

PostPosted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 10:52 am
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
GuyP
Unfettered


Joined: 15 Sep 2004
Posts: 584
Location: London, UK

 		Hey LP: we actually have our very own pet corporate ARG PM in the divine form of Imbri. She's at the Game Developer's Conference this week but I'm sure she'll have something to say on this topic when she gets back! I believe Virtuquest might work in this field too, but I don't know much about them.

There aren't, as far as I know, many examples you can directly access on the web - probably for copyright reasons, and so development PMs can reuse content for different clients, and so on. On the other hand, there are some tangentially related companies which make "games" for companies, even if they aren't totally ARG. The Go Game is a good example.

As I'm totally unqualified to comment on how such things actually work (although it's easy to speculate how they would)... cue imbri! Or other people!

PostPosted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 3:06 pm
 View user's profile Visit poster's website AIM Address MSN Messenger
 Back to top 
MageSteff
Pretty talky there aintcha, Talky?


Joined: 06 Jun 2003
Posts: 2716
Location: State of Denial

 		Re: Corporate Training ARG...need ideas
lpilker wrote:
Hi! I have heard a few people talk about using ARG's as a corporate training/team building exercise. I have done a bit of web searching, but can't seem to find anything in this genre to explore. Has anyone here ever made one or played one, so that you could give me an idea of how this would work, or could someone possibly point me in the direction of some links to old games that are out there on the net that I could look over?

Thanks very much!
-LP


Puzzle trails that have no surrounding story (or a minimal one) might work best. It depends on what you want to accomplish with your corporate ARG. If you are looking for team building then maybe a puzzle trail/treasure hunt style thing would work for what you have in mind. The workers would have to work together to solve various puzzles to lead them to the physical location (perhaps a restaurant where the company would buy them lunch, or something with a gift certificate for each person good at a local mall). Something that would show some of the various workers areas of interest that don't normally come up in work conversation.

A few examples of puzzle trails:Jaded Media eXperience (JMX), Soogees are good examples of the types of puzzles that take many types of knowledge to solve. The point being that some of the puzzles require many people to work on them to solve them and that everyone kicking around ideas may jog someone's memory of a bit of information they forgot they knew at one time.

Riddle Planet was another example, but it looks like they have let the domain registration lapse and it has a squatter on it now. Sin Vraal and Strifey777 won the contest and developed the second contest for this group.

If you look in the Timewasters section of this forum you can also browse and find a number of short trails that others have put together.

Now these examples are not "corporate team building" exercises, but examples of puzzle trails, the type that might work best as a team building exercise since it does not require a lot of personal interaction with the players from the person (or people) monitoring the progress. If there is a corporate retreat or some such, it could be combined with an interactive "mystery party" that is only intended to last a couple of days.

Just my two cents worth.
_________________
Magesteff
A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead


PostPosted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 9:16 pm
 View user's profile Visit poster's website AIM Address Yahoo Messenger MSN Messenger
 Back to top 
imbriModerator
Entrenched


Joined: 21 Sep 2002
Posts: 1182
Location: wonderland

 		Re: Corporate Training ARG...need ideas
MageSteff wrote:

Puzzle trails that have no surrounding story (or a minimal one) might work best. It depends on what you want to accomplish with your corporate ARG. If you are looking for team building then maybe a puzzle trail/treasure hunt style thing would work for what you have in mind. The workers would have to work together to solve various puzzles to lead them to the physical location (perhaps a restaurant where the company would buy them lunch, or something with a gift certificate for each person good at a local mall). Something that would show some of the various workers areas of interest that don't normally come up in work conversation.


I'd agree that your design decisions will be impacted by the needs of the game. However, it has been my experience (certainly not exhaustive) that the vast majority of corporate training games and, especially, the team building variations, succeed with a greater emphasis on story than on puzzle. In fact, I don't believe that we've ever incorporated a puzzle trail, let alone an entire game that is nothing but a puzzle trail. That's not to say that we don't include puzzle nor that it can't be done and, perhaps, you've had success on that front, it's just not been in my experience.

My focus is on team building, communication skills (such as managing information overload), and turnover. While people come together over a common puzzle task, once they have achieved the solution the communication slows. However, if the communication revolves around a story goal whether or not it is in conjunction with a puzzle, it will continue beyond the task and allow for a more meaningful relationship to be formed. While long term turnover rates and such are generally dependent upon factors such as management and salary, increasing relationship ties has a positive effect on most of our measurables (keep in mind that I am merely the game designer and my knowledge on the actual training issues is minimal at best and has really only been absorbed through discussions with our trainer).

As for games and studies available online... I don't really know of any ARGs. If it helps in your search for corporate training games on a whole, you might want to try searching for "serious games." I've a few resources that I can direct you to when I return home if you're still struggling to find things.

- brooke

PostPosted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:34 pm
 View user's profile Visit poster's website AIM Address
 Back to top 
edge0fmadness
Greenhorn

Joined: 27 Jun 2006
Posts: 9

 		Thanks for the information Imbri (yet again - lol)

Though I'm tied up at the moment, this has given me a few ideas for my workplace - the one that pays for my arg PM'ing habbit lol

PostPosted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 8:03 am
 View user's profile Visit poster's website
 Back to top 
Display posts from previous:   Sort by:   
Page 1 of 1 [5 Posts]  
View previous topicView next topic
 Forum index » Meta » Puppetmaster Help
Jump to:  


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum
You cannot post calendar events in this forum



Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group