[arg_discuss] is ARG just a marketing technique to the press?

[Mark Heggen]

(a great discussion all around, nice kick-off Brian)


It seems a little strange to me that we would be upset that someone is
spreading the notion that ARGs primarily advertise cars and movies, when in
fact ARGs are (by a staggering margin) being used to advertise cars and
movies. If one takes a step back and really looks at the numbers of how many
people are actually playing these things, the games that aren't promoting
products become a tiny little slice of the pie.

Looking at Christy Dena's numbers (
http://www.christydena.com/online-essays/arg-stats/) (thanks yet again for
compiling those!) it become apparent that the big games are big while the
small games are very very small:


Art of the Heist had 2 million visitors and 500,000 story participants
The Beast had 2.5 million players

vs.

MeiGeist had something like 16,000 total visitors to the main site
World Without Oil had 1,850 players


And it should be noted that MeiGeist and WWO were pretty big for small
games. The total number of people who actually played other games like The
Human Pet or Deus City (just for example) are very very very small. The "car
and movie" games are measuring in the millions while most grassroots games
are measuring in the hundreds. This is no trivial difference. In the end,
when looking at the total amount of people who have played an ARG, most of
the smaller games become almost statistically insignificant.

Now of course this is not meant to be a knock on small grassroots games! I
repeat; I'm not saying that small games are without merit or somehow not
worth discussion. I am absolutely interested in looking at all kinds of
games at all different sizes (http://markheggen.com/heggen_noncasual_ARG.pdf)
and for me there is something particularly interesting and exciting (noble
even) about people investing great deals of time and energy in the crafting
of experiences for a very small audience. However, I am saying that we
should not be upset or surprised when mainstream writers talking to
mainstream audiences focus on those aspects of ARGs that are statistically
dominant. A large majority of all the experience with ARGs on the planet
have had something to do with selling a car or promoting a product, and that
is a fact.

_mark heggen