unforum

[Lovek]

I didn't get to see the episode, but from the sound of it, someone obviously did their homework. And if they did their homework, then they were here at unfiction at some point.

I wonder if whomever-they-are might now speak up in this thread? I'm sure many an ARGer would love to chat with them!

[mexicocity]

still don't really get it, sorry

[rowan]

Re: still don't really get it, sorry

[notgordian]

If the aspect from the episode you were interested in was traipsing around the world solving puzzles and placing your trinkets in boxes (albiet not for money), that's Geocaching. The puzzle trails are generally not as long or involved as what they used in the show, though.

In part, I think the episode was trying to show what might result out of ARGs. When I watched the episode, I assumed the writers drew their inspiration from Perplex City (a UK-based ARG that culminated in aforementioned $200,000 treasure hunt, using geocaching skills as the mechanism for play.

A big thing of what ARGs are (at least from my perception, beyond the storytelling), is media literacy. In the time I've been following ARGs I've come across puzzles using Skype, terrestrial mail, more ciphers than I can count, social networking sites, deaddrops (where an item is left in a real-world location), audio/video editing, photo challenges (like you'd find at www.rorysdeathwish.com), and the rather (in)famous payphones. As you work with each medium, you get more familiar with how it works and what resources are out there.

So as you're playing something, there's always the chance the story will switch over to a form of communication you didn't expect. Eldritch Errors is a case in point for that--some players just got back from a horror-themed camp excursion.

A big thing that hasn't been mentioned here is that--for the most part--ARGs are about collaboration: the idea that one person, or even a small group, can't tackle these challenges on their own. There have been "competitive" ARGs, but not many.

[mexicocity]

no idea

[konamouse]

Another big difference in the tv show version. It was really a MMORPG (Primacy) which is sort of like WoW (World of Warcraft). The ARG element was taking these "alliances" out into the real world to find clues and keys to this prize.

What we have found to be ARG is more about story and collaboration, not competition. But many companies are using the puzzle trails in real life and cross media to advertise & provide competition for prizes in order to keep the audience involved and thus saturate the mindset of the players with their product (i.e. a recent Guiness campaign or Sara Jessica Parker's perfume).

For the original ARG, may I suggest checking out the grandfather of the genre, "The Beast". Follow that with a visit through the archives of unFiction. A recently completed game, called "Sammeeeees" (and the sequel "Sammeeeees2") both have "Story So Far" threads that walk you through the narrative of the story and the puzzles and the websites (see the Sammeeeees links in my signature for direct links).

Welcome to this glorious world!

[mexicocity]

makes sense

[Jas0n]

I saw this thread and had to go back to cbs.com and watch it online...

They used Alternate Reality Game as a term, but to me it didn't seem like they really made the "ARG" an ARG... it was a puzzle based treasure hunt where players would get clues through an MMORPG. It wasn't anything that created a seperate reality for the players... in the situation they used I would have definitely approached it differently.

The ARG would have involved much more out of the game interactions. Mail, videos, etc that comprised a story from which the players would have been able to pull clues to find out where those geocaches were.

I do like their approach with some of the aspects - the barcode graphic on the other roof and the hidden symbols, but their approach to showing people what an ARG is was a bit off (imo). I assumed upon initially hearing that Numb3rs was doing an ARG episode that it would be more someone killed a person as part of an ARG and the clues led to the killer and their motive. Here the person killed to win a prize and there wasn't a story buildup involved with the ARG part of the game... again just a treasure hunt connected to an MMORPG.

I'm a little disappointed, but I'm with others in this thread in welcoming those of you who saw that show and gained interest in the genre. While the show may have confused you some, we hope the real thing is welcoming and generates enough interest to keep you good folk around for some time

With the writer's strike - maybe we should write our own episode revolving around an ARG for a show like K-Ville or one of those other cop shows. I could just see a cajun acting Anthony Anderson running around trying to find out who done it in an ARG.

[thebruce]

Yeah I don't think anyone here was saying that their portrayal of ARGs was wholly accurate, but rather that they did a good job of showing a significant aspect of ARGs, and that it was to date the closest and most endearing representation of the genre on tv.

The media is slowly getting there

[imbri]

You know, I don't know that they did do a good job of showing a "significant aspect of ARGs."

I might just be sitting on my porch shaking my cane, but I didn't see an ARG in that episode. What I did see was a competitive puzzle based geocaching event associated with an MMORPG where you had to beat other players and steal clues from them in order to win. How is that even remotely an ARG? It has more in common with ubiquitous games or street games or treasure hunts (speaking of which, since when are university puzzle hunts ARGs?). All those things are very cool. I enjoy participating in them and I love making them. But you know what they aren't and what it wasn't - Alternate Reality Gaming.

At least not as we've struggled to define it over the past however many years. In all of our debates, just about the only thing that we've been able to agree on was that without a story, there is no ARG. Guess what? There was no story.

Perhaps the term is a victim of its own success. Instead of defining what it was, it is now an umbrella term for "game that moves off of the computer screen" when, funny enough, a vast number of things we've called ARGs never do move off of the computer screen - instead they touch the real world in the way they interact with the players on the computer.

All that said, I thought it was a great episode and I was very pleased with the way they portrayed games and gamers - HUGE props to the writers for that.

[Jas0n]

[thebruce]

yeah my 'significant aspect' was the puzzle-solving portion... not a plot/story based game, no community, just the and game breaking into reality. In our struggles to define 'ARG', we'e gone through the whole range of games from treasure hunts to grassroots plot-heavy args (this is inluding all the debatable examples as well).
Thus why space came up with CF. What we might be asking rater is where the Primacy 'ARG' fits in the sphere of CF...
I think we've already come to the point of realizing the the term "ARG" is all over the place, miunderstood, misquoted, misdefined... but then, to the public, that now is what an ARG is. The mass market has already adopted the Alternate Reality Gaming term and is running off on their own with it lofting it at any non-stndard commercial advertising system that gets people involved in real life.

So based on that, was it an ARG? Yeah. Is it what we want to define an ARG as? Nope. But we've had examples of similar games come and go within our sphere of 'ARGlike' games, which we now place at various locations in the sphere of chaotic fiction.

So my original point was simply that they captured an aspect (granted I said significant, but that's more a subjective point) of ARGs in theirgeneral sense - a hunt carried out in the real world with actual media. That's by no means a complete or thorough definition of what an ARG is or entails, but it's a good start considering it was on a primetime tv show on a major network...

[krystyn]

I totally love the part right at the end where Spectre was all YOU CHEEEEAAATEDDDDDDD and got all rageful and surprised.

It's totally because the FBI brute-forced him.

[aliendial]

NOB RUTEF ORCING

[Rogi Ocnorb]

href=