[arg_discuss] Loose fish project

[Adrian Hon]

On 13 Nov 2007, at 15:23, Andrea Phillips wrote:


> I'm starting to think (and I can't claim this thought is original)

> that when people say 'ARG' the meaning they're trying to fumble

> towards is something like 'natively cross-media content.'



I don't think it's even as focused as that; I've seen people calling  
games that exist only on one medium an ARG.

I've never been particularly interested in debating the 'correct'  
definition of an ARG, mainly because I feel that the genie's out of  
the bottle now and people are appropriating it for all sorts of uses.  
It's one thing to talk about it here or in Unfiction, but you should  
see how people use the term in the advertising, broadcasting, casual  
gaming and entertaining industries... it would drive you mad! :)

I wrote something about this on my blog, saying that the term 'ARG',  
in common use, no longer provides much useful information as to what  
sort of game you might be talking about: http://mssv.net/2007/11/02/a-game-by-any-other-name/

Instead, it's become a catch-all term for non-traditional gaming. Look  
at the Chain Factor game for Numb3rs - notwithstanding the tie-in with  
the TV show, I don't think it's used any cross-media stuff (e.g. phone  
calls, real life events) and I don't think it will do in the future.  
And yet it certainly *feels* like an ARG.

Then there's Goodcaptain - little to no interaction, so you could  
hardly call it a normal game, but like Andrea says, it feels like an  
ARG.

Adrian

--
Adrian Hon - mssv.net
Chief Creative at Six to Start - www.sixtostart.com
Founder of Let's Change the Game - www.letschangethegame.org