unforum

[Delusional]

The future of ARGs

[SpaceBass]

I think you're not alone, and that you should have been at ARGFest for this panel (first part of 3, check the index on the right for the other two parts).

[rose]

For me a beautiful story is important. But so to is the shared experience. I am enjoying working through the origami shadows writing for example- but I enjoy it even more because I know other people are working on it as well.

By the way, I think that we have had several games that would qualify as artistic experiences.

[Jas0n]

I agree that ARGs are a wonderful venue for artistic expression. To me there is no better way to express yourself as an artist of any sort than through the development of an ARG. ARGs will continually evolve as various new methods for interacting with communities also evolve.

I think that it is definitely a huge mistake to limit your concepts of what an ARG is or should be. As a developer it's a bigger mistake to limit yourself to what has been done and to not try to expand the genre or the concept of what the genre should do or be.

As a player I love the feeling of being able to associate and interact with the characters within the game, but sometimes I feel as though individuals within the community define the game based on the puzzles the game supplies. I think the community should define the game based on how well the game moves our emotions out of our own existence and into an "alternate reality" whether it's through various puzzles, or it is through the way that players can impact the game through their interactions.

As a developer I've stated it time and time again, but there is no other medium that gives you such an interaction with your target audience as an ARG does. Video producers don't get to watch the movie with their audience and change pieces of the movie to better fit the desires of the audience. A novelist will seldomly ever be there as you read your book and then have a chat with you afterwards to find out what you liked/didn't like so he/she can make changes next time around. ARGs allow you to use your graphic art skills, your video creation skills, your music, writing, acting, crafting... basically every artform mixed into one.


In the future I'd imagine that there will be corporate games which are less used as marketing tools, but more as a financial device of its own.

Grassroots games will continue to dominate the landscape overall, but many of them will continue to grow in quality.

I'd hate to see games shunned for not being true ARGs... and I just get a twinge in my stomach when everyone focuses on what a game is advertising when they launch.... yeah sometimes that's the fun - but that's also a turnoff to several people that could be ARG players... I've seen several potential players that were timid about being involved in a "Viral Marketing" campaign.

I'm with you on the mind is thinking about more than I can put into words here on the post. I don't think we can solve the limitations with just a post - as each individual has their own limitations they place on a game, but it is definitely a start - combined with ionarg and just chatting out loud about it.

[Delusional]

[konamouse]

What is a "Timewaster" anyway

[EarlyWyrm]

Re: What is a "Timewaster" anyway

[jamesi]

Re: What is a "Timewaster" anyway

[bwochinski]

Re: What is a "Timewaster" anyway

[rose]

Just a quick question about forums in general - does creating another sub-forum end up making the board more expensive to run ? Do all the existing forums add up to create more drain on the system so that it requires a server upgrade? I think that adding more little boxes on the forum is great in principle but I want to understand what cost is involved.

[catherwood]

Re: What is a "Timewaster" anyway

[SpaceBass]

Part of the beauty of ARGs (and CF, for that matter) is that the audience doesn't get rules up front. Instead, they are taught through the meta-communication of the game to the community as it goes along, and they may be unique to each campaign.

We have a collective experience and history which is beginning to be rich enough to offer us guidance in how to be more efficient about discerning those rules quickly but I think that if you separate that bit from the equation, you might as well just go buy a puzzle book or novel or DVD instead.

ETA: Additionally, there is no one good answer to the question, "How do *I* play this game?" The way I may play any given campaign is unique to my subjective interest and has absolutely nothing to do with how anyone else ought to play. It should be up to everyone to decide for themselves how (and whether) they wish to proceed.

[imbri]

My frustration on this topic is that if everything is an ARG, than nothing really is. It suddenly becomes the catch-all term for anything that's an interactive story type thing online and that leads to frustrations and people throwing around terms like ARGish, ARGlight, ARGlike.

That's a definition issue.

As far as the "future of ARGs" - I really think that we're going to see more and more experimentation with chaotic fiction and we'll see loads of ARG-like elements popping up all over the place. Many of which will be amazing enjoyable experiences and many of which will be annoying or just downright suck. And, in my opinion, very few of them will be ARGs. Though, that's just my opinion.

[Delusional]

Imbri, I see your point and agree that it could get confusing for some if the definition of ARG is left wide open. So mabey it is time to strictly define the term ARG and move on to more wide spread use of the Idea of chaotic fiction that spassbass introduced.

See my concerns are not with how to label everything.
But with how people will react to something that doesn't fit a the precise definition but is obviously akin in some way.
My fear is these things will be immediately dismissed as not relevant since it's not an "ARG" before their really even looked at. (like origamishadows).
This I think does a disservice to the community as a whole while stunting the growth of an otherwise burgeoning genre.

So yes, as I think about it more, it may be time to put the label of ARG on the sidelines where it can be used when needed, and more widely adopt the use of the chaotic fiction moniker.

[BrianEnigma]

I have to agree--now that Space has coined this new(-ish) term, we should really start pushing to use it, so as not to "dilute" the term ARG with all of these non-ARG experiences. If the term is going to be used by the ARG community at large and expand out to the media and others, we need to start setting the example by actively using the new term instead of saying that everything is an ARG, ARGish, ARGlike, etc.