unforum

[imbri]

How real is too real?

[Nola]

My opinion is that such attention to detail greatly enhances the experience... however, an ARG should never have an in-game character openly denying it's an ARG. If PM's get into the habit of denyal as a means of enhancing the "This is not a game" experience, then ARG players could become nothing more than a bunch of spammers to legitimate, albeit weird and mysterious, sites. I think ARG etiquette should frown upon an in game character's straight forward denial, and encourage the use of more "diplomatic" way of dodging the question.

[-~~~~]

Steorn -- ARG or ???

[pneumatik]

I think it's completely reasonable for the goal of an ARG to be as much realism and believability as possible. ARGs as an artform are really young. So far, the biggest ones have had a significant, "Great merciful crap! I can't believe they did that," feel to them. That's what gets them noticed, and press, and exposure. If the ARG is part of a martketing campaign, you need that attention for the campaign to work. If I were doing the next big commercial ARG, I'd try to have even more, "Holy crap!" aspects to it.

One way to do that is to make the ARG completely believable. I'm hoping that's what Steorn is. I want to never know if it's real or not. I want to be out solving puzzles for what might be something real. I don't care if it's a game or not if it has interesting plot and interesting puzzles.

[Phaedra]

I really think "realism" is overrated. Internal consistency is important, but having a visible game framework allows people to feel safe in playing the game.

If I get a bizarre phone call from some weirdo in an ARG, I'm probably going to enjoy it. If I get a bizarre phone call from some weirdo and don't know that it's part of an ARG, I'm going to call the police.

I've quoted it before, but I really love this analogy from Jane McGonigal's paper A Real Little Game:

[addlepated]

[Ehsan]

Too real is if I can't tell it's a game. If I can't tell it's a game, I'm not going to 'play' it.

[PhiloticVoid]

[Phaedra]

[Giskard]

[addlepated]

At least one past game that attempted to blur the lines was not well received by some of the community elders. There were quite a few people who really enjoyed it, as well, but the issue of an "is it or isn't it?" game proved to be fairly divisive.

[imbri]

You know, when I started writing the post above, I mentioned ARGtalk. I took it out because, I think, there are different circumstances surrounding it. When the site was first out there and people were under the assumption that it was a site to critically discuss the genre, there were many critics. Once it came out as an ARG, there was backlash. However, much of that backlash was because people felt as if they were being mocked and insulted by the characters. Nobody likes to be a fool but even fewer like to be insulted. Had the characters not had so many negative overtones and the genre and the people within the genre been presented under a more realistic or positive light, I think that much of the criticism would have been avoided.

And while you say that it was "not well received by some of the community elders", I think that's a misrepresentation. Some of the less active and newer members of the community were also turned off, however many of the newest members to the community hadn't been around enough to know, understand, or be attached to some of the history that was being denigrated. So, of course, they were not going to be as offended by the content.

Yes, the issue of whether or not it was a game was discussed but that was overshadowed by the subject matter.

[addlepated]

Well, not to derail the original thread, but actually coverage in ARGTalk was balanced - for each negative article, there was a positive one, etc. However, it's human nature to remember the negative, ya know?

Anyway, nobody set out to fingerpoint or denigrate anyone... it was a buzz generator, and in that respect, it got a fair bit of attention, negative or otherwise.

Now back to your regularly-scheduled realism conversation!

[imbri]

[rowan]