unforum

[ChaosCon]

Research Facility ARG

[TheIllustratedMan]

Oooh! Here's an idea! Why don't you make the story be that there's an imminent viral threat, and in order to combat said threat, a new research facility is needed. Each player would contribute a small section, work together building it, and in between work on combating the infection. You wouldn't even need the money, it would be built at the culmination!

...

Or... uh... something else would be cool too...

In the column marked "serious": What exactly are you hoping to gain from the ARG? Just awareness? What does that get you (ie. is there a student vote? does the more popular campus win? how does this whole process work?)
Really, any story could work well, but it depends on your main goal whether or not it will even do you any good. Let's say you're tremendously successful, and 1000 students actively play the game. What will those 1000 students do to further your cause? What's the next step?
I think the idea of having an ARG needs to be fleshed out before the question of what the ARG is about is answered. That part, for your purposes, is incidental.

[ChaosCon]

Mmmm...you make very good points, and you're totally right! I guess at first I would say we went with the de facto "we want to get people involved!" but after reading your reply, I realize we need more of a foundation. Much more. I guess now I'd say we want to get students involved for two reasons: to bring some level of the project to everybody, not just to the particle physicists, and to do it in a unique way that really grabs the Department of Energy's attention (our benefactor)

I'll bring this up to the group, and see what they say too - thanks for making me think! ^_^

~Con

P.S. There would be prizes as motivators

[Euchre]

I'd like to point out that one of science fiction's greatest appeals is that many of the things in it are very plausible and bear some relationship to the factual world - much like ARGs do. The neat thing about sci-fi is that many of the things you see in it become reality. I'm sure there are things done in particle physics that sound fictional now that could become a reality later, which could be the basis of a great speculative ARG.

Consider some past sci-fi items like the classic Star Trek series' communicator and "Tricorder". Nearly everyone in the modern world carries a cell phone much smaller than the old flip top communicator and a Blackberry or iPhone is today as much or more of a computer than the Tricorder ever was - it only lacks passive and probing sensors. What in particle physics could become a reality some time in the future on a relative scale to that in sci-fi? How about time travel, particle beam based transportation, matter to energy and energy to matter conversions (for purposes other than transport), and even purely particle based weapons? All of those have either been achieved on a small scale or had serious attempts with promising results. Could be interesting to have an ARG to point to as the portent of a new technology.

[TheIllustratedMan]

Excellent idea Euchre.

I'd like to point out that if your goal is simply awareness and exciting the student body, consider these things:

1) You know your audience. You are targeting a select group (students at your school) who have tastes that, while diverse, are known to you. You may need to do a bit of research, but you can generally find out what kinds of activities and subjects interest people at your school. For instance, if a comedian came by last month and half the student body turned out for the show, perhaps you can work in something that relates to that act.

2) Everyone in your audience knows and has access to the same locations (for the most part). Live events can easily be scheduled to be accessible to everyone, or have multiple events happening all the time (more work, but less crowd). You don't need to worry about whether or not anyone can show up, because everyone will have the same opportunity to.

3) You (most likely) already have an infrastructure in place. If the school has its own network where you can store files and everyone has access to it, you don't need to worry about webhosting. Also, if there is a way to send messages to everyone on campus simultaneously, you don't need to worry about sending out a handful of emails and hoping word spreads. If you can't access those resources, there's probably public posting areas throughout campus. Use them. Common areas can be used to either post notices or stage events.

Honestly, taking the above into consideration, I would lean toward doing most of the game live-action. Figure out what people are in to. Maybe they don't like puzzles and codes, but sports are huge. Find a way to use that. Stage an event at a home football game, for instance. In fact, I would go so far as to get different people in on different stages. Maybe get the football team to each wear a letter on their jerseys for a game, and when put in order by their numbers it spells out a message. I don't know, run with it. I keep saying it, but use what you know is popular. Get people interested. Keep them interested. Throw a party.

[Deadfish]

I don't know what the story could be but part of it for some reason could have players send in videos about particle physics. Then you could possibly take all the videos and put them together to make some kind of presentation for the Department of Energy.

[FacianeA]

TIME TRAVEL

You could tear the roof off the sucka with a game somehow played backwards! Players could be required to make puzzles that have already been solved! It could be like, the coolest thing ever, as far as dead drops and stuff of that nature are concerned! Seriously, if this thing is still something that might happen, let me know. I would totally be excited to work on an outline or something!