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[Brave777]

ARG endings / synopses

[Brave777]

I know there are a lot of ARGs that just die, but there have to have been some that have finished nicely!! Lol.

[notgordian]

Probably my two favorite ARG endings.

The Lost Ring
Short story synopsis: Multiverse athletes wanna go home
The Ending: A bunch of the characters gathered at the Olympic Opening Ceremonies to perform a ritual that transported the multiverse athletes back to their dimensions. Players worldwide engage in a synchronous "Lost Game" competition to find out who will be the International Champions.

Chain Factor
Short story synopsis: Online flash game subverts economy
The Ending: In the Numb3rs episode that lead to the game, players learn that one of the Chain Factor developers is dead and the other one is in prison. However, by playing different variations on the game, players can decide whether to let the game crash worldwide financial markets through clever statistical mumbo jumbo or to stop it. So yes -- the financial crisis was our fault.

[vpisteve]

It's all about story. Just as a novel, film, etc. should have a satisfying ending (generally), so should an ARG. This doesn't mean every loose end must get tied in a nice tidy bow, but think about your main story arc.

Coupling this narrative ending with some sort of finale-like mechanic (blast phone calls, sites going back in time, whatever) is also a nice way to go. This can be a nice way to put a button on things.

Good luck!

ETA: Also, if in this event, players can feel like they're directly deciding/affecting the outcome of the ARG, that's a great thing to pull of as well...

[natas]

I've never launched a game ... yet, but I can tell you the beauty of the game I'm planning, is that the ending is totally up to how good I'll be able to weave a story while relying on players reactions.

Kinda like driving blindfolded with someone else telling you what is going on in the lane ahead. Gotta stay on your toes.

I don't think the exact ending is important as long as it fits with your overall story and there is a definite ending. Please, please don't leave your players hanging, and hoping.

I'm sorry if this doesn't answer your question, but hey. I tried.

[Brave777]

Great replies all! Thank you!

notgordian: How did the games end? How did players get to decide who the International Champions were? How did player sway the economy in Chain Factor? (Thanks for the economic 'crises' btw). Was that the flash game?

vpisteve: I know an ARG is really just huge multi-platform, multi-reality interactive story, but I'm lacking good options for an ending; a finale. Hearing about past games may spark an idea, as well let me know what type of things are out there. I don't want to copy anything that's been done before. The phone blast idea is interesting.

The idea my crew and I have for an ARG so far, should push the boundaries a bit, put a few new spins on a few old tricks and hopefully help the genre to grow a little. There will be heavy emphasis on player interactions. It's not just "lets see if plays can uncover a story line online".

natas: I hear ya. I think that you can have some pivotal plot points that HAVE to happen, then some that don't absolutely affect the outcome. That way its well rounded fun, but if players don't get everything, you'll still be okay.


So, anyone else? How did some games you've played or heard about end? What was the outcome? What happened in the game?

[notgordian]

For the Lost Ring, the teams videotaped their labyrinth runs and timed it with stopwatches -- I would assume the results were emailed in, but I don't recall the submission mechanism. Lost Ring ended with a video of the multiverse characters returning to their respective worlds, and player-based "Lost Games". Technically, it ended with a survey evaluating the game experience and some bonus content about the development process.

For Chain Factor (and yes, that was the flash game) there were two game modes -- Power and Survival mode, reflecting the mentalities of the two developers. It was a race to see which game mode would score the most points before the countdown ended. After it ran out, a new website opened up to wrap up a few more details.

And Brave777: Just to clarify, a lot of grassroots games (some to a lesser extent, some to a greater extent) capitalize on the ability for character interaction to carry and shape the story. Chain Factor had an either-or "binary ending" because it was targeting a much larger audience, and because the game mechanic relied on passive interaction (where "everything was already there", and it was up to the players to decide what to do with it).

[thebruce]

(it's gotta be mentioned)
For I Love Bees, the gameplay revolved around piecing together an audio drama - approx 20 minute segments that were recorded 'eavesdropping' on characters' personal communication devices in the future. Each week consisted of surveilling a number of plot arcs in 20 minute (+/-) 'Acts'.

Near the end, a major event was broadcast (relatively) "live", wherein ALL characters shared the same full length audio chapter. That was a significant event that really ushered in the denouement to the story...

At the very end, when everything was given closure, the primary, most dear-to-our-hearts character left a single recording hidden in the website, a heart-felt, emotional, sincere farewell and thanks to her "crew". So sincere in fact that the actress (Kristen Rutherford) was speaking from her own heart, even though she was reading a script. You could sense the reality of the sentiments, and it reflected the feel of the game and community so accurately that the moment, as I'm sure any player of ilb will say, is etched permanently in their ARGer hearts =)

But that's also an example of how the unexpected nature of playing out an ARG can have a lasting impact - not just on the players, but on the puppetmasters and actors as well.

[konamouse]

Sammeeeees and Sammeeeees II had climactic storyline endings with gradual psychological release of players & characters through interaction emails and videos (see the archived threads for details).

[Brave777]

Great! I've been playing Lif3 that just ended! So I got to not only see but be a part of an ARG from start to finish.

Contestants on a 'Big Brother' type of show loose contact with the producers and experience supernatural/poltergeist type activity in their mansion. On person escapes only to find out that there is no one in London, its abandoned, except for one person. Full of pictures of empty London and podcasts, the story ends up mixing in a previously unfinished ARG called Weirdnesscity. It turns out the contestants were stuck in a Matrix like virtual reality "game" that was glitching, crossing into the real world and the company Apace Mindset killed a character for interfering. In the end players had to manually shut down Apace Mindset by going to their website, finding a secret log-in link, deciphering riddles, then plugging them in as shut down commands.

It was fun!

I felt that the ending wasn't to par with the rest of the game, but it fit and wrapped things up!

Any of you have anymore ideas of how an ARG could end?

[Leyton Stone]

Ooh Ooh! I feel privledged to have gotten a mention (As the PM of "Lif3" lol)

I'm going to chime in here b/c in all honesty I think I've only ever been a player in one game (Right to the end @ least) that has finished and that was "Project Ophiuchus"

The basic ending to that was that several of us had to create our own puzzles (like riddle pictures) where the other players in the ARG had to guess the answer(s) but you could only answer each one, once and 10 people had to answer each one and there were LOADS of them haha - But we were fortunate enough to put our answers here at uF for others to answer lol.

Once that was done it 'shut down' the Project Ophiuchus website but left an "open ending" to suggest there would be 'new participants' of the Project and names of those who answered the puzzles (mine included) were also on the page. -- We're now awaiting the second 'epsiode' to begin.

Someone else could explain the concept better than me I think but yeah that was the basic ending haha.

[Brave777]

Thanks Leyton! Whats what I wanted. That one sounds unique.

Hey! Lif3 really was great. I had a lot of fun! My friend Atropanocturna and I obsessed over it and absolutely HAD to figure everything out, lol. I didn't want to sleep, all I could do is refresh my page and hunt and think, lol. Thanks again! Hope you start up another before too long

[konamouse]

[Brave777]