unforum

[eranmane]

Cloverfield vs. Iris

Cloverfield: An ARG-a-like that has been around for 100 days, still no sign of a story line and appears to be just total randomness in the name of advertising.
Iris: Total randomness in the name of advertising.

Characters

Iris: Iris is based around AdjutantReflexCompoundIntelligence, an AI that we were hoping to learn about later on in the campaign but did not. Other characters include a mysterious missing person who lead to the 04 unlock and an unusual company called Flood Containment Control.

Cloverfield: In Cloverfield, you have your unusual company, your mysterious missing person (Teddy) and a bunch of people you hope to hear about later on in the campaign, but probably won't.

Unexplained Elements

Iris: Oh, how Iris loved these. AdjutantReflex (oddly shortening to AR), Flood Containment Control, Thomas Santos, The Castaway Theory (when you ask Jonas Volman "What is the Castaway Theory?" he replies "It's the title of my book")...

Cloverfield: Teddy Hassnen, the Myspace pages (do they even do anything?), ParaFUN, Bold Futura (and why is it registered as a real company?), Yoshida Medical Research... Hell even the popularity of Slusho.

[dtweedokay]

[eranmane]

[gypsy songman]

Definitly a marketing campaign, but it's still fun to dig things up.

[pegassissy]

What if I was a puppet master, or even JJ Abrhams himself. Im telling you this is not an ARG. Really, would this make a difference to anyone?

[Euchre]

[Status]

Re: [META] Is this an ARG? I'm getting pretty concerned...

[Melampus]

They've got to be timing the release of information, and therefore our 'progress' through the story, b/c we have to be right where they want us when the movie is released.

So, our progress through this pre-movie story has to be pretty tightly controlled. That's why, IMO, it can't be an ARG, but just an ARE. Once the movie comes out, though, all bets are off - then, there could be a bona fide ARG.

I think the most they can do at this point is leave some site(s) for us to actually discover on our own, and if we don't find them by a certain date, then they feed us the link(s). The only trouble with this is that it seems all of the stuff we've found hadn't existed for very long at all, before we found it. So far, then, it doesn't look like they've even been doing that much (by way of ARG).

My 2 cents.

[rose]

My vote is that this is a marketing promotion designed to deliver and maintain buzz - not to try to tell a story that matters as a part of the movie. Maybe the people making this don't even know what happens in the movie.

Whether or not people like it, want to label it a certain way, keep "playing" or not - that is strictly an individual choice. As usual, YMMV...your mileage may very.

I'm following along because I like the community. I like the new players constantly joining, though I see most of them drop out eventually. Personally, I have nothing much good to say about the actual promotion itself, its design or its respect for the players. That doesn't mean other people shouldn't enjoy it ! I don't want to discourage any players who are having fun with it. If you enjoy this, stick with it.

But, I'm sticking around because I find the community a fascinating and enjoyable place to hang out. I know I'm a moderator, but I volunteered for that job, no one "makes" a moderator do anything here at unfiction. So I chose to be here and I'm happy to stay to the end.

Anyone interested in seeing a more immersive and complex story made as a promo for a movie should stick around for the Dark Knight promotion for Batman 2 (or whatever it is) Based on the rumors floating around, it should be a good one.

[dr_worm]

[Kraker]

I consider this an ARG for the sole reason that it would not work if we didn't crack certain hints given to us. If it was just viral it wouldn't be like that.