[arg_discuss] [pm] Mini ARGs

[Christy]

I thought I'd get someone considering if a mini ARG is really an ARG! I
think these questions are good, as they help clarify what an ARG is, or at
least what many want to agree on that it is.

Setting up the believability within a short period of time in a work
environment takes a bit of work. We don't try and make it entirely
believable (there really is a person dead!), but make as much effort as we
can so the participants are willing to go along with it. We do try, however,
to make the transition from industry workshop to in-game experience as
smooth as possible. We've tried a few different approaches:
1) Giving a narrative introduction about the folklore about the venue they
are in. Then motivating them to proceed to uncover the mystery;
2) Pretending that the workshop is a front for an attempt by someone stuck
in time, in the venue somewhere, to save them;
3) Pretending that the workshop is about using media devices and using
investigating tools, but then being pulled into a "real-life" crisis.

An example of how we "pretend": in game version (2) before the workshop
began, we sent all of the participants an SMS with a plea for help and a
call to assist, secretly, at the workshop, with a particular code. The
workshop trainer then, "unwittingly", activated the sleeper agents!

As for the multiple media. We set the mysteries up so they are entwined with
the venue and the staff. So we leave packets of information scattered
throughout the venue and in websites. An old encoded message may be found in
a library book, after viewing pretend footage in the security room. A mobile
phone number is embedded in the picture frame. Information about the case is
embedded in the online archives of the venue and so on. So, by multiple
media, we mean new media devices and paper, TVs, whatever technology we can
use plausibly as part of the story. We also use the staff of the venue to
offer clues (friends of the person captured for instance). 

We try and setup an urgency to the situation, as to why they need to act
now. We try and set it up so that the crisis is suddenly on their laps and
someone will die or something terrible will happen if they don't act.

And yes, we do guide them to each component of the work. This is an
important part of our design guidelines: strong CTAs (calls-to-action).
Every component refers the participant to the next, be it a website, person,
phone number, whatever. Everything is linked and non-stop for the whole
time. The reason behind the distributed of clues is usually setup as
necessary because some corporation or person is trying to track them down.

Because the groups are 30+ in numbers we get them to go off into teams
(in-game: not enough time to do it individually) and then come back together
at the end for a collaborative finale. The culmination cannot happen without
the information that each team has. We've used an actor before and that
didn't work too well. Drinks, a personal reward of some kind, is also
something we're finding successful! There needs to be a collective reward
that is the finalisation of the experience but also a personal reward for
everyone to acknowledge individual effort. 

We're now playing with having the teams go through different paths of clues
that are renditions of the same theme. So a bit of information, a dramatic
plot point, is experienced by all the teams via a different media or
location. The same essence but a different actualisation. This is a nice
experiment in multi-level design (as in, addressing different audience
hardware & entertainment preferences).

There is a whole lot more I could say about it, but I'll leave it there for
now. I should say that we don't claim this is an ARG to the participants. We
say, afterwards, that it is a mini-verison of an ARG and explain the
long-form version. But the experience is highly successful for our aims: to
inform them of the range of media available, the ways in which real-life
media can be used for storytelling, the range of arts types available, the
experience and an entwined story & game, the design of CTAs etc.

Despite the short time, I don't see these mini ARGs as locative arts because
of the strong story element. I'm interested in responses to this idea and
what I've spoken about. 

Christy

-----Original Message-----
From: arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org [mailto:arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org] On
Behalf Of Adrian Hon
Sent: Friday, 20 January 2006 10:21
To: Discussion list of the IGDA ARG SIG
Subject: Re: [arg_discuss] [pm] Mini ARGs

On 19 Jan 2006, at 23:03, despain at quantumcontent.com wrote:

> The idea of a mini ARG is one I hadn't really thought of previously.
> Maybe I'm the only one, but I'd be very interested if you could tell
> us more about how you do this - maybe describe an example of how you
> pack multiple media experiences into 1.5 hours. Are you guiding them?
> Letting them roam for themselves?
>
> I guess my concept of ARG is hung up on the idea of the players
> absorbing it into their everday life, rather than having a preset time
> for a complete experience. (Does that make sense?)
>
> Heh, I think one of the things ARGs could benefit from is a
> standardized vocabulary. IT would make communicating the backside of
> things easier.

I have to admit that I'm not sure what's meant by a Mini ARG either.  
I can imagine parallels to murder mystery games or RPGs, but creating  
an immersive and at least somewhat believeable cross media experience  
must be quite difficult in 1.5 hours.

Having said that, I've heard of some very ARG-like theatrical  
experiences where you can roam amongst actors and talk to them while  
the story is going on around you.

Adrian

--
Adrian Hon - mssv.net
Executive Producer and Director of Play, Mind Candy
mindcandydesign.com - newmars.com - ibiblio.org/astrobiology

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