Games in reality, part two

Games in reality, part one

With the help of ARG, not only games and films are advertised, but also for some time – operating systems. Vanishing Point-the highest-budgeted arg studio-was created for advertising Windows Vista and is known thanks to two things: firstly, the encryption spread very spectacularly, including through fireworks over Seattle and video processing on the fountain in the center of Las Vegas; Secondly, the players were promised rich prizes-among other things, a ticket to near-Earth orbit was played out (with a return, of course).

► It is one thing to watch video on YouTube, completely different – on the fountain.

One of the last games 42 Entertainment advertised the chewing gum Wrigley’s 5 Gum. Now it can be found at the checkout of almost any store, but in 2011 the new brand needed promotion. The use of alternative reality made it possible to make advertising with a sort of second bottom. Famous actors – Terry O’Kuinn, who played Locke to “survived”, and Summer Glau from Svetlyachka and the series “Terminator: Battle for the Future”, starred in television videos. The advertisements were given prompts, but it was equally important to buy chewing gum – the codes necessary for promotion in the plot were printed on the packages.

It looks like a cheap trick? Tell this to those who hooked the opportunity “to collect a story that goes beyond space, time and human perception” and who wanted to “strengthen all five feelings to save the spirit of mankind”. More than nine million who wanted.

► Summer Glau invites you to join the Human Preservation Project initiative. A lot of chewing gum 5 gum has to cheat!

Growth problems

The concept of games in alternative reality may seem delightful and exciting, but the fact that in the end everything comes down to advertising is in fact pleasing to anyone. Just how to earn at such games? They are not sold in boxes and generally often deliberately deny their playing entity. After all, the point is that it was easy for the player to imagine that everything is actually happening.

Electronic Arts tested the same scheme that a hundred years before was described in the “Stunning Adventures of Major Brown”: players pay for the subscription, and the “agency” surrounds them with exciting stories. In the summer of 2001 (almost simultaneously with The Beast), the Majestic game developed in EA began. Unlike The Beast and most modern Arg, it was paid and almost a single -user. Subscription cost ten dollars a month.

Having made the first contribution and leaving his contact details, the client began to receive mysterious messages by all channels, including ordinary and e -mail, phone and even fax (do not laugh, we are talking about 2001; maybe the pipelines were no longer relevant, but the faxes and pagers – how). Collecting information, the player gradually entered the role of a secret agent who fights a world conspiracy and performs tasks of an equally mysterious “alliance”. To communicate with other players, not news groups and chats that had to be content with the players in The Beast, but the Majestic Alliance Application. However, none of this helped Majestic to gain popularity.

► Majestic – Electronic Arts attempt to make a signature Arg. Alas, unsuccessful.

Whether potential players scared the price of subscription? Were there any automated messages insufficiently exciting? Partly – both. But the main problem can be considered a single -user essence of Majestic. Everyone was walking in the plot himself, the players did not need to cooperate to solve riddles. As it turned out, the social component is the key to success.

All this does not mean that you can not make an self -sufficient ARG that does not advertise a chewing gum or a new film. One of the possibilities is to directly raise money through Kickstarter. Similar attempts are made, even though the NV output has not yet turned out to be a single popular Arg. Another option is at a certain stage to offer players to buy an application for a phone or tablet necessary for further participation. So did the authors of the recent game Junko Junsui (about it a little below).

But do all these methods have an obvious drawback? No matter what puppeteers choose – advertising, subscriptions or crowdfunding, they will have to reveal themselves in one way or another. It turns out that people will definitely know that the game is in front of them and who is behind it. Does this contradict the spirit of Arg? Maybe it’s better to complete secrecy, so that the players not only imagine the struggle with secret organizations, but for some time they really believed that everything is actually?

In such issues, it is especially important to know the measure. The general place of ARG is conspiracies, and excessive realism and dense interweaving with reality can play a cruel joke and scare both players and strangers – instead of captivating them. You don't have to go far for examples. The main reason for the closure of Majestic was a small number of players, but the events of September 11 also contributed: they suddenly began to talk about conspiracies so much, and the Electronic Arts managers certainly did not want someone to confuse the game with the actions of real terror.

► Junko Junsui heroine – archetypal princess in imprisonment. And instead of a Bauser or Ganon there is Chechen militants.

Interestingly, it was such a story that happened with the authors of Junko Junsui, moreover, partly on their own initiative. Instead of the traditional fantastic, they chose a more realistic environment. The main character Junko was detained in custody somewhere in Chechnya and turned to players through videos. They, as well as many documents (sometimes even with fake originals in Russian), could be found in the Alfa-Urkiv app for iPad. The player who downloaded him was reported that he gained access to secret documents and could help the investigation if he tries to understand them.

Although the application did not look particularly realistic, the search for related information on the Internet invariably brought to the sites of military organizations, the pages of freedom fighters and activists involved in history, and now they looked quite believable.

At some point, the game simply got out of control: information about fictional characters could be found on Wikipedia, the documents related to the game came across WikiLeaks, and the heroine named Oksana Kareeva accidentally fell into the list of real terrorists. What is an accident of this, and what is the initiative of individual enthusiasts who decided to help puppeteers, now no longer recognize.

► at least the authors of Junko Junsui and the Americans, Russian documents from Alfa-Urkiv do not look like a clear cranberries.

Needless to say that, stumbled upon such evidence, the players began to fear that people in uniform at any moment could come to them at any time and accuse them of ties with forbidden organizations? It is unlikely that the creators of the game themselves liked this situation.

They were especially “lucky” to predict a real terrorist act: on August 17, 2009 in Nazran, the capital of Ingushetia, the suicide bomber crashed into the police post on a filled explosive car, and twenty people killed the explosion. Just an hour before, players in Junko Junsui received a message about preparing for a terrorist attack from one of the characters.

However, Junko Junsui is still a game, even if it became known about this far from immediately. Perhaps someone managed to get scared, but all the coincidences with reality eventually turned out to be random. Meanwhile, there are things that look like ARG on the Internet, but there is no evidence of their game origin. So, a group of hackers, calling itself Cicada 3301, seems to use ARG methods to recruit.

► CICADA 3301 hacker is looking for new members with the help of the most complicated Arg.

Like games in alternative reality, a chain of tasks "Cicadas" consists of encryptions and riddles. “Players” require knowledge in languages, mathematics, history, philosophy, music and other disciplines. Puzzles that CICADA 3301 members come up with are sometimes seriously superior in terms of the complexity of creation 42 Entertainment. There is no plot here, but it seems that no one bothers anyone.

There https://twinky-win-casino.co.uk/ are rumors that those who have reached the end of the path offer to join a certain organization. Alas, none of the finalists never publicized their achievement, so there is no additional information. Behind the "cicada" can stand both harmless gamer and recruiters of special services or terrorists. And, I must admit, this mystery is even more intertwined by the eternal human desire to get to the bottom of the truth.

Important terms

Rabbit Hole (Rabbit Hole) , or The beginning of the path (Trailhead) – Message, web page or a certain hint with which the game begins.

Trail (trail) – A series of sites and puzzles that consists of a game.

PuppetMaster) – Author or presenter who remains unknown during the game.

Curtain – An imaginary barrier between puppeteers and players.

Collective Detective – A team of players who solves puzzles and passes the game.

Guide, Guide (Guide) – linear recording of the game that allows you to familiarize yourself with the disclosed facts and the resolved puzzles.

Arg in Russia

Are there any arg in our country? It seems that around us is enough strange and frightening, so as not to invent anything additionally. But such related genres as field role -playing games, urban orientation and newfangled indoor quests feel excellent, which means that there is a chance for Russians Arg. Moreover, attempts to conduct them are made and, according to the assurances of the authors, have some success.

The list of any well-known Russian Arg so far consists of two positions: “Moment of Truth” and Strange Coma. They have one developer – the creative agency Most Creative Club. The game “The Moment of Truth” was held as part of the advertising of the first detachment, Strange Coma – by order of “Beeline”.

► "Moment of Truth" – one of the few Russian Arg.

As expected by modern ARG, both games combined fabricated materials on the Internet with events and objects in the real world. And we are talking not only about traditional records on telephone auto-tower, but also about more original elements: for example, players in Strange Coma at some point were invited to track the Moscow metro people who read magazines with black covers (the cover contained a hint ).

Both games ended in 2011, so there is no need to talk about the Russian ARG Russian ARG. So far, it remains to be content with reading foreign forums or look for those ARG that do not need to be in the USA. But life is full of surprises, so the probability of once to stumble upon an alternative reality in your yard should not exclude.