[arg_discuss] [pm] Mini ARGs

[despain at quantumcontent.com]

GDC seems like the perfect place for something like this.
Or E3 if the goal is to raise the profile of ARGs.

Wendy Despain
quantumcontent.com

> 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"
>
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