One problem with ARGs

I like ARGs. Or at least, I like the idea of them. I had fun with Perplex City's lovely puzzle cards. I had an irritated moment with Crysis' viral promo. I liked seeing parts of the Lost Experience in magazine ads; it felt very 'real'.

ARGs are hard to describe. I was asked today whether I thought there would be a backlash against ARGs, or whether they were overhyped. "Depends how you define an ARG", I said: if we're taking multi-technological interactive entertainment (or interactive education), the goalposts are nice and far apart. But if we're talking short, buzz-focused stunt-based stuff designed to promote a car sale, or a movie launch, then I think there'll inevitably be a backlash of some sort, because there seems to be a lot of repetitive behaviour going on at the moment.

Take this as an example: there's a mini-ARG of sorts out to promote the new Batman movie. ARGnet reports:

...on December 4th, after a long trail of tasks, websites and information spawning from a Halloween countdown from late October, fans of Batman and players of the marketing campaign were treated to a day-long, frenzied scavenger hunt set up by "the Joker".

The scavenger hunt required a player to turn up at one of 22 real-world US locations (reducing the potential players from perhaps tens of thousands to maybe a few hundred) to investigate. The locations were bakeries, in which there were some cakes with phone numbers on. If you - bought? asked for? - one of these cakes, and called the number, the cake would ring. The phone was baked inside:

Players found that after digging furiously into the cake, there was an evidence bag filled with goodies: a cell phone and charger, a Joker playing card, and a note which instructed the person to call a different phone number.

And on it goes. Eventually the few could help the many: the site eventually updated with details of free IMAX preview screenings, apparently once all the phone numbers had been called, although I suspect that the screenings would have gone ahead even if all the numbers hadn't been called. And herein lies the problem:

• 22 happy live players
• ... but hundreds of disappointed live players?
• ... maybe thousands of frustrated potential live players?
• ... at least a handful of harrassed bakeries who had nothing to do with the promotion?

It's a tricky conundrum: ARGmeisters are often swift to compare ARGing to live theatre rather than, say, broadcast, or puppeteering rather than storytelling. Which is fine, except the treasure-hunt-using-mobile-phones technique of live theatre seems to be super overused already, and to what return on investment for the marketers, I don't know.

I have high hopes for ARGs, but these sorts of stunts just don't do it for me...

Read the full story here.

Comments

[Pete]

The problem with ARGs has always seemed, to me, that they seem to require so much EFFORT. So often you have to FIND the game before you can even play it. All very intruiging to watch unfold, but being arsed jumping in yourself? I think you've got to be a special kind of person to be honest. I don't mean that derisively, I just genuinely think they'll remain niche novelties while they continue to strive towards quirkiness. It only makes it harder to explain the appeal for those who do enjoy them.

[rose]

You don't see the idea of delivering information through a phone put into a cake as novel?

[Lovek]

The problem with [the Internet|movies|TV|books] has always seemed, to me, that they seems to require so much EFFORT. So often you have to FIND the [site|film|show|book] before you can even visit it. All very intruiging to watch unfold, but being arsed jumping in yourself? I think you've got to be a special kind of person to be honest. I don't mean that derisively, I just genuinely think it'll remain a niche novelties while they continue to strive towards quirkiness. It only makes it harder to explain the appeal for those who do enjoy them.

[Brian Clark]

Alice, I think this is a really important topic, one that is going to ruffle feathers but is still important to think about and a valid avenue of critique. In the experience design, there are a bunch of different kinds of experiences happening.

That said, cakes with phones in them are pretty cool. Players with phones from the Joker that he might use in a future device could be very cool. If you think of ways to get a telephone to a player from the Joker, baked inside cakes is a pretty nifty idea.

I get the nuance of the criticism though: it would be sad if ARGs were viewed just as a form of stunt marketing. Some of the coverage of the DK event would use "game" and "hoax sites" as synonyms. I'd hate for the general public to view ARG as a subset of marketing instead of entertainment.

[BASSsic]

The only ARG I ever really got was TINP. It kept things pretty much to a website, and was based on complex logic puzzles, often based on history or litrature. It didn't really go other the top with the real world egg hunts and viral stuff. I can't even remember how I found it. I remember how SCARY the website was, when first browsing it and unlocking it's first few secrets. It had this creepy and oppressive tone, with just a few simple images and sound files. I was always worried something would creep out from the source code or hidden images like something from The Ring. Mainly though I liked the people that were involved. Hmmm, I miss those people. I wonder if I could get a TINP Forum Reunion, going.

Anyway, other than that, I don't like ARGs. It'll always turn out to be be advertising now.