[arg_discuss] Open Source ARGs

[Mark Heggen]

Wendy, you bring up some excellent points out about the value of even brief
exposure; when thought of as on-line advertising, ARGs aren't bad: they get
hits more efficiently than many banner ad campaigns, largely because they
(for now) bring when them free buzz and viral distribution.

However, when considering ARGs as works of art, games, or narrative
experiences these brief glimpses of attention from potential audience
members can't possibly count for much. If someone glances at the cover of
your book but never reads it, it is hard to count that as a victory, and if
someone downloads your Facebook game but then deletes it after 2 minutes you
probably wouldn't feel really great about that.

As for the fact that many puppet-masters were never really players, I would
say that it is quite a different situation than we find in other forms of
mediation. In ARGs, we have situations where people are generating these
things having NEVER actually played one fully. Never ever. Even the
overworked author who complains of not being able to find time to read HAS
in fact read a great deal over their lives. Imagine if your friend decided
that they were going to start writing romance novels professionally, but the
closest they had even come to experiencing other romance novels was browsing
their covers in Borders. Imagine buying a board game, and then later
learning that the designer of that game had really never played a full game
of ANY board game in their entire life. Imagine writing a graphic novel, but
not being interested enough in other graphic novels to have ever read one
all the way through. Many of the grassroots games being put out today are
frighteningly similar to the above scenarios, which to me is a troubling
fact. This isn't proof of glorious independence or beautiful DIY innovation,
but more likely proof of dangerous amounts of johnny-come-lately flash and
hype without a solid base of craft, consideration, or aesthetic depth. Of
course anyone who wants to try their hand at puppet mastery should give it a
go, but it seems strange that so few people are concerned that they never
did their homework.

Ah, I see Brian's responses now. Will reply later. Thanks everyone for the
great discussion.








On Fri, Aug 1, 2008 at 12:10 PM, wendy <wendeth at wendydespain.com> wrote:


> On Fri, 1 Aug 2008, Mark Heggen wrote:

>

>  It is a troublesome fact that most of the people who will MAKE an ARG in

>> the

>> next year never really played OR lurked on any numbers of seminal ARGs, or

>> possibly any at all.

>>

>

> Hmm, I agree with you Mark that getting good metrics is a real problem for

> the genre, but it's most difficult if you think of ARGs in isolation. If you

> think of it in comparison to a 30-second spot (be it a public service

> announcement or movie trailer... I'm talking about form, not content here)

> when they do surveys to find out how effective those 30-second spots are,

> they count it a success if the respondents know what the product/message is

> - they don't only count those people who can repeat lines from the spot or

> tell them in detail what the content consisted of.

>

> So I don't think we should completely disregard those people who just

> follow a few links in an ARG. They're aware of what's going on, and to me

> that's a win, albeit a small one.

>

> As to your concern that the people making ARGs have never played one... (or

> haven't played one recently) all I can do is point to other entertainment

> art forms. You may be appalled to find out how few television creators watch

> (or even like) televsion. Book authors are always struggeling to find time

> to read books.

>

> This isn't an unusual conundrum for creators of any medium. We do our best

> to keep up with what our peers are doing, but creative endeavors often

> consume our lives.

>

> Just defending the lurkers, I guess.

>

> Wendy Despain

> quantumcontent.com

>

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