[arg_discuss] [pm] Mini ARGs

[Jennifer Nicole Chiment]

Interesting!

> As for the multiple media. We set the mysteries up so they are entwined
> withthe venue and the staff. So we leave packets of information scattered
> throughout the venue and in websites.
<snip>
> We also use the staff of the venue to offer clues

This reminds me of the "dinner and a mystery" style weekend events we have
around here during tourist season.  Groups of people moving throughout a
"staged" environment (generally the main building and grounds of a
winery).  Although these are not strictly "multimedia", they often involve
using information about wine making given earlier in the weekend combined
with the "clues" provided by staff and actors (an "overheard"
conversation, a missing book in the library, a TV "stuck" on a single
program, etc)...the final goal being to solve the mystery of the missing
wine or something like that so that the final dinner can take place
(similar to your drinks reward!)

> 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.
>

There was something along these lines in Boston a few years ago...this was
after I'd left the city so I didn't get to experience it myself, but
several friends enjoyed the event.  I'm not sure if anyone on this list
was involved, but if so please share further!  Basically for a month a
warehouse in Boston was converted into an "Indiana Jones" style
archaeological adventure.  Teams of players would enter the warehouse to
solve physical boobie traps and mental riddles in order to advance through
the experience.  Most teams washed out quickly after "failing" to solve a
puzzle quickly enough.  Challenge paths changed so that multiple teams
could enter the experience at the same time but not run into each other
(and repeat players wouldn't necessarily have an advantage).  The "game"
couldn't be solved by a single person, and the grafting of game media into
the real world context was (according to my friends at least) fairly
convincing.  I don't remember what the "winning team" got, but it sounds
similar to a mini-ARG as you've described it...collaborative, with a rapid
plot and compressed play time, blending medias but requiring a larger
suspension of disbelief than a full length ARG.

I wonder if a mini-ARG could be done while maintaining the standards of a
traditional ARG?  I guess what I mean by a traditional ARG is one in which
the "It is not a game" element is maintained...the training workshop ARG
and the mystery weekend/warehouse challenge seem to require more
staging/leading of players, as well as a greater suspension of disbelief
on the part of those players than you might expect in a traditional ARG. 
But I'm not sure how you'd avoid that given the short time frame.

Hmmmm...perhaps when participants check in at the hotel/conference center
they are given the wrong room key (access to a staged room), or are
directed to the wrong conference room (again providing a staged setting)? 
Their welcome package has a "strange message" in it...perhaps one that
makes sense only in the context of what they see in the wrong room.  At
this point "players" may not know that they're in a game (they return the
key to the front desk, they toss out the "message").  Only later, when the
seminar leader brings up certain items (or a powerpoint slide has a repeat
of the message and a "gee don't know how that got there" from the
leader)do they remember what they saw and start pooling info?  I don't
know where that would go however, and I can think of a couple huge legal
problems...I think I need more coffee!

Clay


-- 
"In complete stillness, a stone girl is dancing"