unforum

[IndependentPsycho]

What is this?

[mapmaker]

I'll bite.

Let's do the definition-test. Is it a game? Sure! So we're halfway there.

What's the other half again? AR...oh yes, alternate reality. Uh...not really, y'know? There's a guy on an MP3. That doth not make an ARG. And sure, people are "interacting" with "media", but that's not an alternate reality. That's just group exercise.

Sure, there was a "character" (the German tourist). But that doesn't count. I'm sorry, one guy telling people where the next place is is not story-telling. It's just a walking, talking piece of paper saying "go here".

Does the Improv Everywhere MP3 experiment look like fun? Hell yeah, as most of their things do. But is it an ARG? Well, without a coherent story, more than one medium, or any player-driven story changes, I don't think it's an ARG.

[Euchre]

Shouldn't this have been posted (and ought it be moved to) News & Rumors?
From there it might have been, or might yet be put in Various & Sundry as it's not all that much of a fiction, just a lot of chaos (and fun apparently, not to sound negative about it).

[Mikeyj]

I'll second a vote for various and sundry and also ask whether any other unforumers are heading to the San Francisco one on 10/4/08 (details not available quite yet, but here's the details for the New York one)? Would be nice to meet up and say hi.

[IndependentPsycho]

Well, I'm glad that I'm not the only one who was confused where to place this thread.

mapmaker, I'm talking about the entire experiment not just the interaction caused by the mp3. Personally I see this as alternate reality but not a game.

I mean a number of people independently download an mp3; Travel to a new location; Interact with each in a way that breaks the norms of conventional reality, to the bewilderment of onlookers. If you'll notice the 'players' were even able to modify the experiment since they didn't press play at the exact same time.

I mean this could almost be considered a step beyond the grass roots ARG. Or maybe it is a offshoot of corporate ARGs, where all of the way points are essentially mapped, but without any product to sell.

[teh_lisa]

Improv Everywhere has been around for a while. I would not call this a game, per se, but more of an experience. It is taking street performance to another level if anything.

[IndependentPsycho]

[faeryqueen21]

I'm sorry, but where is the "alternate" reality here? This seems to be based solely in our reality, in New York. I suppose there are a couple of characters, but that doesn't make it alternate reality. People show up at a specified location and do some synchronized activity. If I tell 100 people to show up somewhere and play Red Light-Green Light with me that's not an alternate reality. This is much the same except that the players only found out the rules while playing the game/experience.

That being said, the whole thing is awesome and I hope they bring it closer to L.A. soon.

[IndependentPsycho]

If reality is the rules by which a society lives life, any significant break from that reality constitutes an alternate reality.

Perhaps a better example is the no pants missions. I think everyone would agree that normal people in New York wear pants while on the subway. If you saw one person riding in only their underwear that person would be an anomaly and you would still comfortably within the bounds of your own reality. But if there are hundreds of passengers without pants the onlookers start questioning their reality. They experience cognitive dissonance as they know people should wear pants yet for some reason they aren't following that rule.

The players begin to propagate an alternate reality, a new of rules, within the confines of the conventional reality.