This Is Not A Game
... Or is it?
Reported and produced by Sean Bueter
It's a kind of whodunit for the digital age. Someone finds a clue -- say, a flash drive in a bathroom, or a defaced playing card in a comic book shop.Most people might not think too much of the items. But for those with keen eyes and a little curiosity, they signaled the beginning of deeply immersive gaming experiences called alternate reality games (ARG).
While they're not video games, ARGs effectively blur the line between fantasy and reality by using the real world and the Internet to tell a tale.
Fantasy and Reality
The people running the games do their best to adhere to the cardinal rule of ARG: "This is not a game." That is, every ARG strives to make itself pervasive and real, never acknowledging it's just for entertainment.
Playing an ARG is often a communal experience: players advance the story together by pooling their resources to solve puzzles that tie into the fabric of the narrative.
That team mentality is a powerful tool. Something the people at 42 Entertainment -- a company that runs ARGs - call the "hive mind."
"Once you've put that global community together, they really have unlimited resources," 42 Entertainment President Susan Bonds said. "It's amazing to watch it work, and we have a tremendous amount of respect for the audience."
And it's a big audience. According to 42, millions of players worldwide are active participants in these games, which are usually free to play.
The reason is the games' immersive nature. ARGs don't live only in the world of online puzzles, but also in the real world. In many games, like the most recent viral ARG tied into the Warner Brothers' film "The Dark Knight," players actually interact with fictional characters from the game's world. Phone calls, scavenger hunts that spilled from the web onto real world streets, and clues and game artifacts sent through snail-mail help companies push the games into the lives of their players.
And 42's Chief Creative Officer Alex Lieu says the real-world interaction can have an interesting effect on people, especially when the company uses direct mail.
"It's interesting how everyone turns into a 9-year-old when they get a package in the mail that actually is something fun and cool and unexpected versus your usual spam or bills," Lieu said.
Built Around Brands
Despite the extensive and dedicated fan base ARGs have garnered over the past few years, the fact is they're often fully sponsored or built around brands -- so far, they've been used primarily as marketing tools that just happen to tell interesting stories. Companies like Microsoft, Toyota, Disney and Warner Brothers have all hired 42 to design game experiences for them. The ARG 42 created for The Dark Knight, though more than a year long and rich in story, was still built directly around the narrative and image of the movie and funded by the studio.
While the marketing aspect is an important part of 42's business right now, Bonds and Lieu say they ultimately consider themselves storytellers. And not all the company's projects were meant as viral marketing. In fact, Trent Reznor, the front man for the band Nine Inch Nails, approached 42 to help him build a game as a companion piece to NIN's newest album, "Year Zero." As far as Reznor was concerned, it was simply gaming as an extension of his art, and while it did stir up interest in the music, it was meant first as a piece of the story he was trying to tell.
Marketing or otherwise, ARGs have gained a lot of attention for their unique brand of storytelling, use of mixed media and the intensity of the fans they spur. Plus -- at least if you ask Susan Bonds or Alex Lieu -- they think they're up to something pretty cool.
"We definitely think as an art form, we're on to something," Lieu said. "Ultimately this is a way people will look at blurring the lines not only between products and marketing, but blurring the lines between different mediums of storytelling."
Production assistance from Carina Giamerese.
