unforum

[notgordian]

BrandWeek Article on McDonalds Marketing Strategy

[Nighthawk]

[notgordian]

Admittedly it's a debatable point as almost every alternate reality game has a global audience for the internet portions.

HOWEVER, I figure they're warranted in making that claim due to the multilingual playerbase, deaddrops on each continent, and ability to provide non internet-based content on a global scale.

So which games could viably debate that claim (assuming "global" refers to more than just access to online portions)?
Vanishing Point -- Probably the best game to use in order to make the argument (although I've heard some claim this wasn't an ARG), the contest and related "clues" were released at international locations, and Microsoft went through the trouble of clearing a large number of countries for participation in the contest portion.

The Dark Knight -- Recent events took place in the US, Canada, UK, France, and maybe a few more countries. However, the truly "global" parts of this campaign occurred after Find the Lost Ring launched.

Trinstod -- I didn't follow this game so I could be completely off-base, but I seem to recall multiple languages and packages in a variety of European countries.

Others I'm not considering but could make decent arguments:
Perplex City - Held international events and sold the cards at a global level through Firebox, although this was restricted to US/UK and the game was highly UK centric.

The Beast - If you are making the argument that global access is all it takes, look no further than the first ARG.

Cloverfield - Again, didn't really follow this game but I got the sense that the "ARG" was largely internet based with a few noticable exceptions like the manga.

There are gaping holes in my memory and I don't know very much about the ARGs-in-foreign-languages (quite a few in Germany, France, and South American countries) , so I'm sure there's quite a few I've left out -- however, I think there's enough ambiguity that McD's, Jane, and AKQA can make the claim.

[Rogi Ocnorb]

No. Sadly, that's the state of the corporate world, today.
Filled with executives that have no clue how their business runs, no desire to learn that and willing to tell great, heaping, self-serving lies knowing that unless there is a group like PITA or Greenpeace with major passion on tap to call their hand on their claims, that 85% of the sheep that don't know any better will believe their claims and it's an overall win for them.

By the way...
I invented the internet and second-hand smoke is more dangerous than first-hand smoke.

[vpisteve]

[notgordian]

Good examples there, vpisteve. Point conceded.

Given both of the games you mentioned are games Jane worked on, I wonder if they ran that claim by her first.

[krystyn]

Metacortechs had a pretty significant Japanese playerbase, yar. We couldn't even effectively see how they were doing, except maybe Steve a little bit.

I mean, if we're gonna get into firsts, I was the first person to shill a grassroots game in an existing ARG community! HOW 'BOUT THEM APPLES? HOW YOU LIKE ME NOW?

[Mikeyj]

[notgordian]

Mikeyj: As I said, Perplex City could make a darn good argument: my intent with the list was to attempt to explain how FtLR could at least attempt to stake a claim of "first global ARG". The focus on two countries was literally the only sticking point I could find for PXC.

And yeah...I'd love to see the numbers if/when they come out as well.