[arg_discuss] Greetings and a Question

[Tony Walsh]

Incidentally, David, many of your suggestions and observations are also 
applicable to Live Action Role Playing (LARPing).  There's a lot 
ARG-makers can learn from the LARP genre (hands-on learning 
recommended).  If I recall correctly, there were a handful of actors 
involved in bringing TorGame to life--in some ways, the game crept into 
LARP territory (a good thing, I thought).

--
Tony Walsh
email tony at secretlair.com
mobile/sms +1 416 894 0894
home http://www.secretlair.com
blog http://www.clickableculture.com



fono at dgp.toronto.edu wrote:

> Hi Alex,

>

> It's about a month overdue, but I've got a few suggestions as well, beyond

> the excellent ones that Christy already contributed. My experience in this

> area comes from working on TorGame, which was a large ARG situated in

> Toronto. Hopefully this is still of some use!

>

> CONTEXT-SPECIFIC GAMEPLAY

>

> It's really easy to create puzzles and challenges that simply exist within

> the environment. This is the natural way of doing things, since most games

> are completely constructed. A standard puzzle brings together elements

> that are strictly of the designers' choosing; any limitations are

> self-imposed. If you take a puzzle like that, and put it in the sort of

> situated ARG you want to do, that's a puzzle that "simply exists with the

> environment" -- it's independent from the particular physical context of

> your game, and could just as easily be transposed to another locale.

> Conversely, you could create puzzles and challenges that depend highly on

> the unique features of your environment. Here's another way to look at it:

> when solving a puzzle, are players looking closely at a piece of paper, or

> the world around them? I don't think there's anything inherently wrong

> with the former, but the latter is undeniably cooler. Being forced to

> engage thoroughly with the physical world has a couple of payoffs: One, it

> heightens the sense of being involved in an actual event -- something that

> is truly happening, as opposed to a story that someone is merely telling.

> Two, it can be genuinely powerful when some sort of concrete artifact is

> implicated in whatever context-specific plot you develop. Imagine being

> able to suspend your disbelief enough to feel that a 50-year old sculpture

> was built specifically to act as a key for some sort of cipher. It can do

> huge things for immersion.

>

> Of course, the space between environment-independent challenges and

> environment-specific challenges is a continuum. It's a relatively simple

> matter to take a standard template and replace the specifics, such as

> generating a trail or crossword with clues from your surroundings. At the

> other end of the spectrum are challenges that couldn't be even conceived

> outside of the given context. Coming up with those sorts of ideas can be

> hugely taxing, mind you. My general approach has been to work backwards --

> start by exploring the environment in which the game will take place, and

> see what piques your interest. If you're trying to make puzzles, look for

> coherent patterns of information that can be used to build some sort of

> code.

>

> PHYSICAL GAMEPLAY

>

> In my experience, people are looking for a different sort of experience

> when they play a situated ARG vs. an online ARG. A big part of the

> former's appeal is the get-off-your-butt-and-onto-the-streets angle. This

> is the same angle that "big" games tap, like urban capture-the-flag or

> C2BK. This is the "it's fun to run around" angle.

>

> Physical activity releases the endorphins and provides a tactile

> experience that strictly celebral online games just can't match. I'm not

> talking about playing touch football or anything. I'm talking about

> walking around, exploring. I'm talking about climbing a tree to find a

> clue. Although some sort of high energy intelude might not be a bad idea

> either. In TorGame, one of the 13 game days was dedicated to a 1-hour game

> of modified Payphone Warriors. The great outdoors is one of the great

> things a game like this has going for it, and it's important to play to

> your advantages. On that note --

>

> SOCIAL GAMEPLAY

>

> Unless you're building this game to be a strictly solitary experience,

> which would not be a good idea for so many reasons, you're going to want

> to build in opportunities for collaboration. This happens almost

> automatically in online ARGs because of the nature of the online space. It

> will also happen automatically in a situated ARG, because people like to

> play games with their friends, and they will invite their friends to join

> in -- regardless of whether you specifically build in mechanisms to

> exploit or support this behaviour. However, including such mechanisms can

> improve the experience.

>

> You can, for instance, create challenges that specifically require

> collaboration. One fun thing to do -- which is generally impractical in

> online ARGs but quite feasible in situated ARGs due to the limited player

> base -- is to give each player one piece of a particularly important

> puzzle. But more specifically, you should try to cater to the actual

> *process* of collaborative play. This is as much a usability issue as it

> is one of game design. I once played a game where puzzles were distributed

> on paper -- and despite the fact that players were all in groups of about

> 8, each group only got a single copy of each puzzle. This made playing

> together immensely frustrating. To me, this game said "screw you and your

> buddies." Your game should say, "go ahead, hang out, play together." Your

> game should say, "It's a sunny day, why not find a nearby picnic table,

> lay everything out, and spend some time figuring it out?"

>

> Cheers,

> David

>