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konamouse

Best (and worst) ARG Starts

**Posted:** Sat Jul 26, 2008 1:18 am

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'squeek'
r u a Sammeeeee? I am Forever!

October

I haven't been playing long enough to have seen many launches personally, but I have a general opinion...

I love games that launch with a little bit of sneak. They don't announce that they're there - they just sort of leave little clues around. Like the Metacortechs PMs casually leaving a link in a Matrix forum, or The Beast launching with an ambiguous title and name in the trailer and movie posters.

I do like clever launches in packages to unFiction and ARGN - bottles of honey and vinyl letters, or boxes of rosepetals - but the sneaky launches are fun.

I'd love to see a launch at a convention - comicon, or even one of our local cons - where someone just leaves some interesting looking postcards out on the swag table, something you might not notice unless you took a closer look, that leads you into another world.

**Posted:** Sat Jul 26, 2008 11:45 am

Euchre · uF Game Warden Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 3342

**Posted:** Sat Jul 26, 2008 3:45 pm

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Any sufficiently plausible fiction is indistinguishable from reality.
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�Euchre 2007

RobMagus

The rabbithole for Urban Hunt/Dreadhouse was actually a casting call on reality TV show websites that led to a site for Urban Hunt. You could email them to sign up for an audition - and the email contained a hidden message from a webmaster suspicious of his company.

It was pretty brilliant.

**Posted:** Sat Jul 26, 2008 5:15 pm

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konamouse

I thought the bananahammock man was clever and very different (and we kept talking about it for days).

But now it's sort of fizzling. Just a website with a countdown, posting pictures of our eyes? And recording our incantation. Where's it gonna go. Is this an ARG or just an art installation?

But it was pretty funny and unexpected (the trailhead).

**Posted:** Sat Jul 26, 2008 9:14 pm

_________________
'squeek'
r u a Sammeeeee? I am Forever!

Nighthawk

I admit I don't know many of them, but I am particularly fond of Rachel Blake starting The Lost Experience by lambasting the panel at ComicCon.

Sneaky launches are difficult, especially for me because I'm impatient and want my game running so I can have some fun myself. It drives me crazy to leave something out there waiting for people to find it and get started... and they don't. Or simply don't give it the attention it deserves.

(Don't go crazy people: the above is not a hint. There's nothing out there to find... yet...)

**Posted:** Sat Jul 26, 2008 10:02 pm

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pancito

Oh, like I'm gonna believe you...

I haven't been around all that long, and I know I'm a bit cumpulsive on the subject, but the best start I've experienced so far consisted entirely of a signup page.... And a bunch of snackfood crazed players. Maybe it was the sugar buzz factor. Or maybe the hive mind at its worst. Or maybe that it all happened spontaneously and creatively. (If you can call it that.) You can't buy that kind of pregame involvment. I mean, eyeballs or deep-fried twinkie on a stick? No contest.

**Posted:** Sat Jul 26, 2008 11:55 pm

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krystyn

**Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 2:50 am

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Rekidk

**Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 1:39 pm

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vpisteve

It worked too well, actually. I was just testing the ad, had it up for like 30 seconds, and someone saw it and posted on a Matrix forum about it. Luckily, the site was live with a countdown at that point (mmmm, countdowns!).

**Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 1:59 pm

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krystyn

Oh, yes! But we never went onto a Matrix forum and posted a direct link. That's why I was confused!

Poor Steve. "Crap! I was only TESTING!!!11"

That was a fun moment. Where fun = fun + terrifying, that is.

**Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 3:54 pm

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Alternate Currency
Stories and dreams, crossing my palm like silver.

xbl gamertag: krystyn

October

**Posted:** Mon Jul 28, 2008 10:12 am

October

**Posted:** Mon Jul 28, 2008 10:13 am

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