scrawny
One Mojito, two Gin and Tonics, Three Bacardi Lime Sodas, and a couple of pints of Stella please.
posted
My last assignment in my oh-so-exciting old job was piecing together a distinctly laborious article about video games, and the opportunities for brand integration therein. I didn't post anything about it on this board at the time to avoid accusations of clipboard wielding, but I did lurk a bit on games threads to see if I could glean any information about gaming as a whole. See, I know nothing about computer games, and I think my editor realised very early on that entrusting me with this assignment was like asking a man with no legs to explain what it feels like to waterski. Anyhoo. during the course of my research, I signed up to a whole loada things - games forums, press sites, mailing lists, online gamers anonymous (thanks for the tipoff Ben-Wah), you name it, I'm on it. Then, a month after I handed the bastard thing in, this turns up.
quote:My name is Sente, and I am the Master of the Perplex City Academy.
On January 16th 2004, an object of immeasurable value was stolen from our city. You kindly answered my plea to assist in its recovery. Over many, many months, we at the Academy have been assembling information to help you in this task.
Today, we break our silence. There is still so much to share with you, but for now this fragment must suffice.
I think (and I could be wrong, this might just be some elaborate spam and shortly I will be overwhelmed by the urge to buy Viagra/get a fake doctorate/invest in a scheme to overthrow the goverment in a small African nation) that this mail has come from a website on which I signed up to an ARG - an alternate reality game. The idea of these games (in case anyone hasn't figured it out) is that the clues to solving the mystery are planted in everyday life, and any number of other players might be around me looking for them and racing me to the game's conclusion.
After all the time I spent researching a multi-billion dollar industry in which the key attributes of a great participant are simply manual dexterity and a load of free time (insert gamer contradictions here), I think this looks exciting. I've always loved a good mystery, me, and the cloak and dagger/keep your eyes open and wait for a sign/the red cow is flying over Moscow element of these games seems pretty cool and dangerous. I'm a little wary - I've seen The Game, I know how this shit pans out - but actually quite keen to get involved. Although the idea of giving over my real life to a pastime that claims many souls from the minimalism of a computer screen is frankly fucking terrifying.
So, forum, here are my questions:
Have you ever taken part in one of these ARGs? Are they any good, or are they just a bit tragic and should I get out more?
If you haven't, would you? Or are you not remotely tragic and have a perfectly well adjusted social life thankyou very much?
Do you think I'm right to be wary of getting involved?
Are you, in fact, playing this particular game right now? Can you help me?
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scrawny
One Mojito, two Gin and Tonics, Three Bacardi Lime Sodas, and a couple of pints of Stella please.
posted
Is this not interesting?
Ho hum. I shall await tomorrow's onslaught.
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quote:Originally posted by scrawny: Is this not interesting?
Stop whining oh sulky one I can help you a little in this.
quote:Have you ever taken part in one of these ARGs? Are they any good, or are they just a bit tragic and should I get out more?
Get yourself a cup of tea Scrawns, I might run over on this one.
I don't think they are tragic, sometimes they are positively brilliant to be a part of, but I mean computer games and role-play separately. All ARG looks like on the outside is a combination of graphical range that larger pc's and better connection speeds have provided a virtual role-play stomping ground.
There is a game called Ultima Online that was considered to be an alternate reality game. In truth it was nothing more than a fantasy roleplaying game, but the interation between characters, role-playing out their parts to each other via a chat function meant that people could aspire to be whatever they wanted in the realm. If you wanted to be the bog-standard barbarian, you could go out, kill bad guys and collect gold. If you were interested in alchemy, you could make your own potions and open a shop. If you were really boring you could be a woodsman, and cut logs all day. Ultima wasn't the greatest game, but everybody found something they wanted to do. It was kind of ruined for some when you would ask 'forsooth, pretty maid, thine looketh lovely this twighlight eve' to have them reply 'LOL SPAZFACE, IM A DOOD, GAYE!!!!!11'
The thing I've learnt about online gaming is, it's personal preference. I for one would get engaged in a game called Diablo II. I don't know where to start with this puppy Scrawny so just skip this whole part if it gets boring, and I promise it's not interesting to type now that I think about it. I just want to isolate my own experience for you so that you can garner what it is that attracts people to ARGs.
Diablo II is a 3D-ish hack and slash game where you roam random generated areas and kill monsters, complete quests and collect gold and treasure. The treasure, is also as randomly generated as a computer can make something random. So, as you progress the first thing your character will do is kit themselves out with a duff suit of armour. As your character progresses, your skill level will increase making it easier to twat bad guys but you find yourself still being hammered by those slightly peskier bigger monsters that come at you. 'I need some better armour you say' (which will become the catchphrase typed out to your friends online as you sack villages and purge dungeons in a desperate search for 'Iron Boots That Stomp Guts+2'. So, Blizzard, the creators of Diablo II placed a feature to trade items with each other. Also, they had an idea to limit the amount of rare items, you know, so that no-one would walk around tooled up all the time.
So. Some time later a group of sneaky people organised in a clan, decided to go around and 'hoover' up the rarest item in the game. They would trade anything no matter how high it's worth, so that they could monopolise on this one item. It was called the Stone Ring of Jordan, fact fans. Now once this plan had been played out, there was absoloutely no stone rings. None at all, so the guys had an idea to sell them on e-bay. Lets's see what we'll get for it, for a laugh I suppose was the sentiment.
They must of sold it, because items were cropping up all over the place. People would risk twenty quid for an item they had search a whole year for and once the dealer had lots of recomendations from other buyers. Job done. There is a point to this I promise, I'm showing you some links in a bit. Stop fidgeting.
I spent hours on it. Sometimes whole days if I had them spare. We would read carefully calculated charts to work out which Boss 'dropped' the best items. We would work in teams to collect gems that would increase magic item finding properties and prepare endless 'milka runs' for experience. The feeling was that over time, out of all the effort you could turn around and say 'level 97' what do you think of that? 'Awesome' would be the reply. 'I know, took me four days of Milka runs but it was worth it' Looking back I scare myself.
Sorry, onto the ARG. I've only really seen Ultima, but I imagine the premise to be the same. Apparently there are no monetary structures but there must be some system to govern certain things in the game. (I have since learned this not to be true, it depends on what world you choose to 'live' in) I suppose there must be certain scenarios that differ. Now apparently there are a lot out there to choose from at the moment. Here is one called Second Life if you fancy a seven day trial. There seem to a varied amount from realistic sims to sword and sorcery.
It really seems to be marketing itself as a new phenomenon, but it's really just a case of having a very sophisticated open plan world, the graphical content and as much realism as you into your role-playing. I use to role-play when I was younger but I never find the time for it these days, it has always seemed a bit geeky to me. But it gave you the chance to not be yourself even for a couple of hours in the evening once a week. To be a winner, even if you took a few setbacks in game.
It's really hard to work out which ARG you may want to try but I think you should either pick one at random, or look for the one that's getting the most press on Google. Now I want to come back to the commentry regarding Diablo II. It seems that there have been some tales of ARG items actually showing up on ebay. Just a quick look has showed me that someone is selling these domain names under the idea that they would be perfect for....god only knows what? Setting up a virtual business perhaps? They are at $165.00 so far. Someone here is selling 10,000 linden dollars at $54.00 so someone is actually using their own finaces to help themselves online in the game to estabalish what they want, so I suppose: $50-60 gets you a brand new virtual car. I can see the excitement of paying a relatively small fee for something you may not be able to enjoy in real life.
So that's my experience, on computer games and role play. I'm really jumping all over the place here, so sorry.
quote:If you haven't, would you? Or are you not remotely tragic and have a perfectly well adjusted social life thankyou very much?
If you want to have a go Scrawn, tell me where you want to join up and I'll have a go as well, if you like
quote:Do you think I'm right to be wary of getting involved?
It's not crack, it's a computer game. I don't think you'd have enough time to spare by getting involved too heavily to be honest.
Well, I've tried to help you out with as little as I know about it. If you wanna, I'll join Second Life for seven days with ya. For a laugh riot.
However, just to put you off, I'll leave you with this plausible story:
quote:...a short story called Anda's Game that Salon published last year -- it's about kids working in sweatshops playing Massively Multiplayer Online RPGs, grinding through repetitive tasks to earn gold for sleazy operators who sell the product of their labor on eBay. The inspiration came from a real-world account of that sort of sweatshops, which has hit the news again today, in a story about the courtroom shenanigans stemming from video games:
A multiplayer online game is sued for allowing its players to dress up like comic book heroes. An upstart company winds up in court for creating a Tijuana sweatshop to manufacture digital weaponry.
A funny thing is happening in these sprawling online multiplayer arenas. The ultimate in digital escapism, virtual worlds keep ending up in the ultimate in depressing reality: the courts. Link
Did I do any good?
Also, forgot to add: Recent rise in ARG's has caused this perhaps?
[ 23.02.2005, 15:24: Message edited by: New Way Of Decay ]
scrawny
One Mojito, two Gin and Tonics, Three Bacardi Lime Sodas, and a couple of pints of Stella please.
posted
Cheers Mikee!
I'm a bit confused though - the things you seem to be describing are online games which still have a certain amount of game play invoving watching characters doing things on a computer screen. The one I seem to be getting involved in (watch the clip, it's pretty odd - although I did buy the Times yesterday and find what I was looking for) is a real life game in which the internet only features as a place where clue indicators can be left.
How does this kind of thing work? Is it ridiculous to suggest that as the game goes on and more and more players drop out, I will receive personal messages from a man in a black suit who will be waiting for me when i get to work in the morning? The clues have been left in newspapers that will be issued on dates spreading over quite a long period of time, too - and that's just the intro. Will I be playing this game for the rest of my life?
Will it turn into, like, an online community of players who i will eventually end up meeting in an All Bar One in Cambridge Circus? Will i wind up cohabiting with the talllest boy there? Hang on, the doorbell's just rung...could be the man in black...
....
....No, it was Bobby gillespie after some teabags.
[ 24.02.2005, 04:49: Message edited by: scrawny ]
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American peeps, would you mind if I asked you to check out the personal columns of the American newspapers for bits of the clues? I've missed the 17th of February - USA Today, and the 22nd of February - New York Sun. I also need someone to do the Sydney Daily Telegraph on the 28th, the Toronto Globe and Mail on the 5th of March, the LA Times on the 8th of March, and I can do the Guardian on the 21st.
I found it in the Times yesterday in the personals under Lost/Found, with a little bit of a clue under it. c'mon international peeps...get involved...
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posted
Online gaming = ARG = long hours spent roaming the world, getting further and further entwined into a real life plot that may lead anywhere. *frightening*
You will find your next clue in the left breast pocket of the jacket that is being worn by the corpse of the porter in basement of the west stairwell in Trellick Tower by Portabello market, Kensington, West London, England
posted
I've played a wide range of online games, but I think that the one that is closest to what scrawny is talking about is one that was run by nokia. (www.nokiagame.com). You would be sent clues as to what was going on, sometimes on your mobile, sometimes on e-mail, and these clues would be things such as "find the next clue in the telegraph", or "find the next clue in the advertising break in coronation street". It was quite entertaining to start with, but then I realised that I was just buying newspapers I didn't want to buy and watching tv programmes I didn't want to watch in the attempt to win a shit mobile phone that I had no interest in.
So, an interesting idea, but not quite as good as that film. Can't remember it's name, the one where Michael Douglas is playing the game, and Sean Penn is involved in the game as well, and in the game there is just stuff happening that looks like it's real life but is actually part of the game. I think it was called "Mixing reality with imagination".
However, if you want to talk about online games, I can wax lyrical about them for ages. The simple beauty of text based ones is where I feel most at home, and the fact that I have been on and off playing one MUD for the last 7 years, which has cost me the grand total of £15 (which was a voluntary donation for a new server), you're looking at incredible value for money there compared to a console game.
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