[arg_discuss] TOW: almost 8 years after the Beast, which is your favourite ARG and why?

[Andrea A. Phillips]

Well! This has certainly turned into an interesting discussion. I  
thought about this definitions problem, again, and last night had a  
manic session making Venn diagrams to show myself why exactly we can't  
seem to agree on what exactly an ARG is, which I then turned into kind  
of an epic blog post:

http://www.deusexmachinatio.com/deus_ex_machinatio/2009/01/wtf-is-an-arg-2009-edition.html

Basically I come down on the side of "many of us intuitively feel ARGs  
are a subset of some other thing, but we don't have a name for that  
thing so we use 'ARG' anyway."

But to get back to the actual topic of the week... my most favorite  
ARGs. Obviously Perplex City is my most, most favorite. But that has  
little to do with the game itself, and a lot to do with the incredible  
lovefest collaboration process that brought it to life. I wish  
everybody could have a creative experience like that one day.

I also find it hard to play games, post-Beast. I observe them, and  
I've tried to play several, but it just isn't there for me anymore.  
I've gone over to the other side, and for me at least, there's no  
going back. And even if I were a heavy player, it's difficult for me  
to pick favorites of anything. I love *all* of them, why do I have to  
love one *more*?!

But there are tons of games/experiences/projects/cool-stuff-on-the- 
internet that I've learned from, and that heavily inform my  
sensibilities. The most ARG-like of those would be, in no particular  
order: Art of the Heist; Year Zero; Cathy's Book; True Blood;  
Cloverfield; Eagle Eye Freefall; We Tell Stories; Young Bond; The Dark  
Knight; World Without Oil.

Some of these arguably aren't ARGs, and all of them are professional.  
That's not to say there haven't been some fantastic grassroots games  
-- I know for a fact there have been. They just haven't entered the  
scope of stuff-that-heavily-influences-my-thinking, for whatever reason.

--
Andrea Phillips
http://www.deusexmachinatio.com
Words * Culture * Interaction